Immigration Parades Victims Of Human Trafficking

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on Thursday paraded 18 suspected victims of human trafficking arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Parading the suspects, the Comptroller General of NIS, Mrs. Rose Uzoma said the 17 young girls and one male were arrested on their way to Cairo.

Uzoma said they were stopped from travelling on the suspicion that they were suspected of being trafficked.

She said although most of the suspects claimed they were going for some legitimate businesses, immigration officers believed they were in danger of being trafficked.

Uzoma, while addressing the suspects, enlightened them on the dangers ahead of if they allowed themselves to be trafficked abroad on the promise of getting jobs.

“Nigeria is blessed with a fine weather, if you don’t have clothes, you will not catch cold in Nigeria because there is no winter.

“If you don’t have food, you cannot starve because a neighbour or relative can give you something to eat, but in foreign countries, you are on your own,’’ Uzoma told the suspects.

She said the “countries you are going (to) do not need you, and would not assist you if you are in trouble.

“There you are at the mercy of the traffickers who used you and dumped you. It is better to be alive and well than to have money and die,’’ she advised the suspects.

Uzoma said the people behind the trafficking racket had yet to be identified and added that that the Service was facing a lot of challenges in securing the country’s borders.