The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has expressed concern about the proliferation of illegal orphanages in the Southeast that sell children to the highest bidder.
Angela Agbayekhai, NAPTIP’s Director of Counseling and Rehabilitation, lamented the growing number of illegal orphanages at the Victims Assistance/Medical Outreach Support for Victims of Human Trafficking event held in Enugu with support from the International Center For Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
Agbayekhai, who spoke on behalf of NAPTIP Director General Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, stated that illegal orphanages pretend to provide services while selling babies to the highest bidders, adding that female children are sold for between 500,000 and 1 million naira while male children are sold for higher prices.
She, on the other hand, expressed joy that they have had tremendous success in breaking up the syndicate, adding that they are working hard to combat the dreadful development.
She explained that the medical outreach was organized to ascertain the medical challenges that victims of human trafficking faced in order to provide solutions to them, and that after treatment, the victims would be reintegrated into society.
She further disclosed that it was the intention of NAPTIP and ICMPD to solve the medical challenges of the victims and explained that they decided to bring doctors to the doorsteps so that the medical challenges of the victims will be ascertained and solved.
Speaking on behalf of ICMPD, Adeniyi Bakre explained that the programme was funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Bakre, on behalf of the Regional Head of ICMPD, West Africa, Mojisola Sodeinda congratulated NAPTIP for taking the bold step to institute a formal cooporation on issues relating to trafficking human beings.