About 80,000 Nigerians are currently held as sex slaves and in forced labour in different parts of the world, a House of Representatives member, Tolu Akande-Sadipe has revealed.
She laid the blame for the worrisome development on the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Labour and Employment.
Decrying that young Nigerian girls had become victims of modern-day slavery, sexual exploitation and organ harvesting, among others, Akande-Sadipe, regretted that the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the pretext of diplomacy, was currently working to free a Lebanese trafficker apprehended by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Speaking at plenary recently, she stated that “records show that the Lebanese was complicit in the trafficking of 16 girls, 10 of whom have been repatriated back to Nigeria, while the others remain stranded in Lebanon.
“He is currently in custody in Ilorin, Kwara State, awaiting trial for trafficking, but it appears that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the guise of diplomacy, is working for the release of the said trafficker without any regard for our citizens’ losses, their repatriation back home and compensation,” she said.
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Akande-Sadipe, who is the Chairman, Reps Committee on Diaspora Affairs, listed Lebanon, Mali and nations in the Middle East as places where the practice is rife.
The Reps member also decried reports on increasing cases of abuse and dehumanisation being meted out to Nigerians abroad, chiefly in countries with a long history of cordial relationship with Nigeria.
She equally said that some Nigerian students in Turkey, were currently stuck and going through untold hardship because they could not afford the cost of the flight to return home.
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