The National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) on Monday described the introduction of e-passport as a solution to human trafficking.
Mr Joseph Famakin, the Commander in charge of Lagos Zone told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that before the advent of e-passport the traffickers disguised as victims’ benefactors.
He identified human trafficking as the third most profitable business in the world after arms dealing and drug trafficking.
“Human trafficking is the third most profitable business in the whole world; it comes immediately after drug and arms trafficking. But of the three, human trafficking is the easiest.
“Why is it the easiest? Because what they carry is human cargo; you can work on the psyche of human cargo.
“Before government’s introduction of e-passport, you could tell a girl, say, `get a passport in the name of Mr Famakin, if you are asked at the airport, claim that you are my wife’.
“Because she believes that I am taking her there to assist her, she will tell the immigration officer exactly what I have told her. So, it becomes difficult for them to detect that this is a victim.
“Whereas in the case of drugs and arms, there are machines at each departure centre at the airport that will detect that you are carrying drugs if you pass through it with drugs.
“The same thing as arms, but there is no machine that can detect a human cargo and say this a victim of trafficking when you pass it.
“However, the government is doing a lot. Introduction of e-passport that makes it impossible for people to have two passports or more is one of the measures.
“The aspect where women can no longer emboss the names of their children on their passport is a measure to curb trafficking because previously, a woman can put the name of any child and say, is my child, embossed on your passport.
“Now, that child has to have her or his own passport. So, we have to go after the traffickers.
“Having identified that this business as a multi-billion naira business, if we allow traffickers to go scot free, then NAPTIP would not have done anything.“
Famakin said that since its establishment, the agency’s Investigations and Prosecutions Department had prosecuted 276 Nigerians for human trafficking-related charges.
The commander urged members of the public to adhere to the Child’s Rights Act to protect children from exploitation and abuse.
“Internal trafficking is the trafficking within Nigeria, the movement of a person from one point to the other for the purpose of exploitation.“
“Once a person is moved from here to another place and is exploited, it’s human trafficking. And so, the internal trafficking mostly is for labour exploitation.
“Our children are moved from different parts of Nigeria to the urban area for what we call ‘house-help’.
“The Child Rights Act states clearly that a child is only permitted to live within his immediate family environment and the only type of work he is allowed to do is the job that is agricultural in nature, the job that is not detrimental to the well-being and development of that child.
“Furthermore, it must be a job that will not stop that child from going to school and so, when you see children that are brought from different parts of Nigeria to Lagos for instance, and they are in the house of the privileged Nigerians as house help, it is an act of man’s inhumanity to man.’’
According to Famakin, children under the age of 12 years old are prohibited from working while work engagement for children aged 13 and above must be properly documented in conformity with international labour standards. (NAN)
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