Dr. Fatima Wazifi-Ari, the Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has revealed that internal trafficking is more prevalent than external trafficking in the country .
This was disclosed on Thursday in Benin at a meeting of stakeholders and partners of the agency in Edo.
She explained that this was because 83 per cent of trafficking in Nigeria happened within states, within communities, and across state lines, adding that only 12 per cent accounts for trans-border trafficking.
“Simply because the media spotlight on people in Italy and all that, we think we have more of trans-border trafficking.
“No. Internal trafficking is happening before our eyes. Domestic servitude is a crisis in Nigeria, and forced labour too.
“Human trafficking is, therefore, a national crisis. Every state is affected, though each state has its own peculiarity”, she said.
She called for more sensitisation of the public against human trafficking, even as she added that there was huge ignorance of the public on issues relating to human trafficking.
Waziri-Azi urged the participants to focus on sensitisation.
“Gone are the days when we think human trafficking is offline, it’s 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 said.
