1.6 million Nigerians live in modern slavery – NAPTIP

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1.6 million Nigerians live in modern slavery – NAPTIP

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, on Tuesday, said about 1.6 million Nigerians are living in modern slavery daily.

The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja on the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of NAPTIP.

She stated, “Only recently did the 2023 Global Slavery Index opine that globally, it is estimated that 50 million people were 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.”

Waziri-Azi also said, “As of May 2023, 1.6 million people are living in modern slavery in Nigeria, according to the Global Slavery Index.”

Also speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said, “Other milestones of the agency include 14,813 cases (of trafficking in persons) reported; 10,005 suspected traffickers arrested; 623 convictions (80 convictions in 2022 and 47 in 2023 for now, including the recent extradition of a high-profile human trafficker to Italy to serve her 13 years jail term).

“Others include 260 ongoing cases in various courts across the country; the rescue of close to 22,000 victims of human trafficking.”

He stated that knowing that issues of human trafficking happened mostly at the sub-national level, NAPTIP had inaugurated the task force against human trafficking in 22 states.