FG plans rescue of Nigerian domestic workers in Iraq

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FG plans rescue of Nigerian domestic workers in Iraq

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has said it would partner with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist Nigerian women in Iraq.

The spokesperson for NAPTIP, Zacks Dauda, disclosed this to our correspondent on Monday.

The PUNCH reports that the NAPTIP had on Wednesday last week raised the alarm over the plight of Nigerian young women working as domestic workers in Iraq.

The Director-General of NAPTIP, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, disclosed that the agency was investigating several rogue labour recruiters who had been reported to be big players in the massive recruitment of Nigerians to Iraq for domestic servitude.

Waziri-Ari alleged that most of the Nigerian young women working there were exploited in diverse ways on a daily basis and now requesting assistance to return home.

She said “We are inundated with pleas for rescue and repatriation from female victims trafficked to Iraq, especially to the cities of Baghdad and Basra, where they are distributed to homes by their recruiters to a hard life of domestic servitude.

“Available information shows that many of these victims have been admitted to hospital many times due to long work hours under harsh conditions they are forced to undergo.”

Giving an updates on the situation on Monday, NAPTIP spokesman, Dauda, explained “We do not have the number of Nigerian women in Iraq going through this terrible situation but we are trying to find out where these cases are happening and we are trying to work with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to see if we can establish contacts and evacuate anyone we can find.”