The Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, says there is more internal trafficking than external trafficking.
Waziri-Azi disclosed this on Thursday in Benin at a meeting she held with stakeholders and partners of the agency in Edo.
She explained that this was because 83% of trafficking in Nigeria happened within States, within communities, and across State lines, adding that only 12% accounts for trans-border trafficking.
Waziri-Azi sued for more sensitisation of the public against human trafficking, noting that there was huge ignorance of the public on issues relating to human trafficking. She urged the participants to focus on sensitisation.
Gone are the days when we think human trafficking is offline, its now online. So we have an increase in fake jobs advertorials and fake scholarships.
These are the modern trends human traffickers use in luring their victims, with Dubai, India and Cyprus the trending destinations”, she added.
The Director-General, who described human trafficking as a 150-billion-dollar criminal enterprise and the second trans-national organised crime after drug trafficking, said that human trafficking was an enterprise for professional criminals.
She disclosed that the flip side of human trafficking was recruiters who actively target vulnerable communities to recruit their victims.
Waziri-Azi, however, said that some Nigerians fell prey to the human traffickers because of misinformation and disinformation, and called for a robust continued synergy among all stakeholders to stem the tide of human trafficking.
