NAPTIP Appeals to EU, Others to Investigate Victims of Human Trafficking before Deportation

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has called on the European Union and other partner to ensure proper profiling of victims of human trafficking before they are returned to Nigeria.

Okah-Donli stated that such profiling would assist in ascertaining the status of the victims as well as determine the type of rehabilitation and reintegration to be accorded them.

According to a statement signed by Adekoye Vincent on behalf of Head, Press and Public Relations Unit of
NAPTIP, the director-general made this position known while receiving a delegation of the European Union and Operation Division-Return support Unit of the FRONTEX who paid her a courtesy visit in her office in Abuja.

FRONTEX is a European Border and Coast Guard agency that is presently coordinating the process of the voluntary return of migrants from European countries.

The statement disclosed that NAPTIP, as an organisation, is interested in a well – formulated pre-return activities that will expose some of the traffickers, give victims choice of alternative livelihood and also prevent them from being re- trafficked.

It added that the director-general who was represented by the Director, Legal and Prosecution Department, Abdurahim Opotu Shuaibu, lauded the international community for the interest shown on issues of human trafficking and illegal migration as well as the operations of the agency and called for a comprehensive approach towards the process of returning some of the illegal migrants.

“Like I have been saying previously, there is the need to always ensure proper profiling of the returnees in order to ascertain their true status. It may interest you to note that among those that are being processed for return, there are traffickers as well as other people with diverse crimes.

“We must change the way we handle them so that we will get good result. We need to ensure that they are not only returned, but make sure that the entire package is such that they will not be re-trafficked and that it is in line with the standard protocol on voluntary returnees,” the director-general was quoted as saying in the statement.

While Adekeye noted that the DG called for the inclusion of NAPTIP operatives in the entire programme, he added that the delegation was in the office to identify how best to handle the issue of migrants who volunteered to return home.

“The leader of the Frontex delegation who is also a migration expert, Robert Reifschneider, disclosed that the visit was to identify the best way to achieve proper return of voluntary migrant through identification and coordination.

“The visit was a prelude to the implementation of the voluntary return project of the European Union which entails reintegration of 3800 migrants,” he said.