Ten Nigerian children who were being smuggled out of the country to Russia have been rescued, the anti-trafficking agency revealed Tuesday.
The traffickers were attempting to exploit relaxed entry rules into Russia ahead of the 2018 World Cup, according to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Nine young girls and one boy were rescued and each child was in possession of a FIFA Fan ID, to take advantage of the fact that Russia is allowing travelers to enter the country with only a FIFA pass before and during the World Cup, NAPTIP said.
The children were intercepted Saturday as they tried to board a Moscow-bound flight in Lagos.
Five suspects, including a police sergeant, have been arrested for allegedly facilitating their travel, the agency said.
The children are now in a shelter for victims of trafficking run by the agency.
Director General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah Donli urged parents to be vigilant warned that human traffickers were luring youths abroad with false promises of sports scholarships and recruitment for sports activities.
"Our intelligence indicated that these mindless and wicked individuals... have now diversified their nefarious activities to include fabricating fake stories of providing educational supports in forms of scholarship, recruitment for sporting activities and the most frightening being organ harvesting," she said.
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Human trafficking in Nigeria is becoming a syndicate that is eluding authorities. It refreshing to read that the authorities caught these ones, but we have no idea of those that were successful. Two weeks ago a friend spotted bunch of young girls between the ages of 16- 20 at Frankfurt, they were from Nigeria. He was so heartbroken and to learn that they passed through same airport where various levels of check are conducted made him so angry.
Nigerian government and the agency in charge must up their games in catching these heartless and wicked syndicate.
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