NAPTIP partners immigration against human trafficking

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) are to scale up intelligence sharing and joint border operations to prevent human trafficking in the country.

Director-General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli made this known when she paid a working visit to the Comptroller General of the NIS, Muhammed Babandede.

She ýcalled for better coordination of rescue operation to protect the interest of the victims, saying, “We have always relied on the NIS to rescue victims and arrest traffickers at those entry points and transfer to us to deal further.

“However, we will appreciate it if these activities could be improved upon. There have been cases where only victims were transferred to us without the suspects and in some cases, the information we get is that the suspects were also arrested but released.

“This does not only anger the rescued victims, whom the suspects may have defrauded in one way or the other, it does not help our operations neither does it help the criminal justice system in Nigeria. In this situation, we end up spending our very lean resources on the victims without a case to pursue. I plead that the service helps us to ensure that suspect accompany rescued victims each time a transfer of cases is being made”.

Babandede in his response said the two organisations must work together to raise the stake in the fight against human trafficking and smuggling of migrants in Nigeria.

He pointed out that the era of rivalry amongst agencies of government for the purpose of gaining popularity was over, adding that there was the need to work together and promote better service delivery in the country.