The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has revealed that 1.6million Nigerians live in modern slavery.

The agency also said a recent report indicates that 50 million people globally live in modern slavery.

To tackle the trend, the Director General of NAPTIP, Prof. Fatima Wazir-Azi said there is an urgent need to protect the rights of victims, control trafficking and build a safer and inclusive society.

She disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at a press conference to commemorate the 20 anniversary of NAPTIP.

Speaking on the slavery index, she said: “Recently, the 2023 Global Slavery Index opine that globally, it is estimated that 50 million people are living in modern slavery on any day in 2021, an increase of 10 million people since 2016.

“What this narrative indicates is the urgent need for a more strategic and deliberate global response to these problems.

“It is a report that is usually released periodically by Work for Free organisation and they come up with this report in collaboration with IOM and ILO. The last report in 2016 stated that 40 million people were living in slavery on any given day.

“The 2023 report states that 50 million people are living in modern slavery every given day as of 2021 and this report states that in Nigeria, we have 1.6million people”.

She also said it was difficult to track the number of Nigerians who leave the country due to the existence of over 1000 illegal land borders.

On the number of Nigerians that leave the country every day, she said: “We don’t have that figure because we don’t stay at the borders.

“Even the Nigeria Immigration Service cannot tell you the number of people that leave the shores every day because the Ministry of Interior states that Nigeria has 84 legal land borders and over 1,490 illegal land borders and you can imagine the number of Nigerians that leave through the illegal land borders every day. “

Prof. Wazir-Azi also condemned the spate of child labour.

She said: “Child labour is widespread across the country and our Acts criminalises the use of children for any form of labour that is hazardous to their wellbeing.

“Just recently, we dismantled a ring around the Nyanya Axis of the FCT where women rent out their 7 to 8 months old babies every day for N3000 to other people to use them for arms begging; this is a societal problem.

“Parents also give out their children as young as 7 years to go work as domestic help. These are issues and we are not tackling them at the federal level alone, we are tackling them at the state and community level in partnership with CSOs, faith-based organisations, and traditional rulers.”

On efforts made to address trafficking, Wazir-Azi said: “Human trafficking or migrant smuggling is not a NAPTIP problem neither is it a Nigerian problem, it is a societal problem.

“Record shows that most of the infractions that we see in our work happen at the state level which is why since 2019, NAPTIP started establishing State Task Forces in the states, and as of today, we have established 22 STFs across the country.”

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo said 14,813 cases have been reported to the agency in the last 20 years.

Sani-Gwarzo who was represented by the Director, Humanitarian Affairs Department of the Ministry, Alhaji Grema Ali highlighted some of the achievements of the agency.

He said: “14,813 cases reported, 10,005 suspected traffickers arrested, 623 convictions (80 convictions in 2022 and 47 in 2023 for now, including the recent extradition of high-profile human trafficker to Italy to serve her 13 years jail term.

“We also have 260 ongoing cases in various courts across the country and we have rescued close to 22,000 victims of human trafficking.” (The Nation)

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