NAPTIP, US partner on cyber technology

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP), has partnered with the United States (US) National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to help tackle online recruitment, trafficking and exploitation of victims.

Director-General, NAPTIP, Dr. Fatima Waziri–Azi, disclosed this at the weekend, in Abuja, while speaking on the Agency’s counter-trafficking strategic approach aimed at ensuring the protection of Nigerians from human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, online and offline.

Waziri-Azi, in a communiqué, said the partnership would grant the agency unrestricted access to information around the world that would help in the fight against online recruitment, trafficking and exploitation of victims.

She said: “The arrest and prosecution of high-profile human traffickers operating both within and outside Nigeria, remain one of my strategic priorities. This will serve as a deterrent to others, reduce the level of impunity and ensure satisfactory justice delivery to victims of human trafficking.

“Investigation revealed that apart from millions of vulnerable and unaccompanied children that are being trafficked across the West African corridors and migration routes, many victims are held and blackmailed by traffickers in various destinations with the use of technology to shield their identities and also ensure firm and effective control measure on their victims.”

“The US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is the custodian of the cybertipline, which is a centralised reporting mechanism for crimes related to the sexual exploitation of children. ”

“The cybertipline provides an online mechanism for the public and electronic service providers to report cases of suspected child sexual exploitation.”

“It works closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the US Secret Service, the Military Criminal Investigative Organisations, the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforces, the US Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity and other state and local Law Enforcement Agencies across the World.

“Under this partnership, NAPTIP will have access to real-time information on child sex trafficking, sex tourism involving children, child sexual molestation by non-family members and online enticement of children for sexual acts, among others.”

The agency, therefore, warned that hard times awaited traffickers, prospective traffickers and other organised criminal gangs operating with the aid of cyber-technology.