The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) is on the trail of suspected traffickers who facilitated the travel of many Nigerian girls who are stranded in Lebanon.
Daily Trust reports that 94 of the girls arrived Nigeria via the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Wednesday, with two more flights being expected, according to the Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who received them at the airport.
The video of some of the girls begging for evacuation has also gone viral.
The Lagos Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Daniel Atoko, who spoke on the sidelines of the reception, said the agency would go after the suspected traffickers of the girls.
Atoko said, “By profiling the returnees, we know how they are trafficked and the people that trafficked them. By profiling, we know the people we would go after.”
He said NAPTIP would not rest on its oars until it hunted down and prosecuted all trafficking agents to serve as a deterrent to others.
Dabiri-Erewa advised young girls to stop irregular migration to Lebanon or other countries where they could be abused; saying about 300 girls in Lebanon would be repatriated in the special flights approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She also urged those stranded to take advantage of the flights, as Lebanon had abolished work visas, coupled with the fact that it was also coping with economic challenges worsened by a recent explosion in Beirut.
