NAPTIP warns against sponsorship of female children on irregular migration, prostitution

Edo State Zonal Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nduka Nwanene, yesterday, warned parents against pressurising their female children into embarking on irregular migration.

He said NAPTIP would be arresting parents who pressurise their female children to embark on irregular migration.

Nduka gave the warning in Benin during an event to mark 2022 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, with the theme: “Use and abuse of technology”.

He lamented that girls are being trafficked for sexual exploitation, while the men are trafficked for organ harvesting.

“A lot of parents are mounting pressure on their female children to go out there and make money to take care of the rest of the family.

“There are victims  who left their homes because their parents insist that they must travel abroad to make money for the family, otherwise, they will no longer have  them as their children.

“We went to a school in Benin City recently for sensitisation and we met a female student whom both her mother and father insisted she must travel abroad, but she doesn’t want to go and she had to leave home.

“ She is sponsoring herself in school and NAPTIP is planning to take over her sponsorship.

“So, parents should stop mounting pressure on their wards to go abroad and make money. They are using them for prostitution.”

Nduka explained that human trafficking is the most lucrative illegal business in the world after drugs, adding that human trafficking  is a $150 billion  business yearly, hence traffickers use all means to succeed.

He noted that if not sensitisation, using technology and other means, human trafficking would have assumed an epidemic proportion in the country.