Adekoye Vincent, the spokesperson for the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in Nigeria, refused to comment when journalists showed that traffickers used 13-year-old Nigerian girls as sex workers in Ivory Coast.
The above was revealed in a Monday report by the Guardian UK detailing how agents trafficked and exploited thousands of Nigerian girls to Ivory Coast.
Many teenage Nigerian girls trafficked to Ivory Coast under the guise of better-paid jobs are currently trapped in the country’s sex industry. This is despite Ivory Coast’s law — though barely enforced — criminalising trafficking.
READ ALSO: From Nigeria to Burkina Faso: Undercover as a Trafficked Person
Agents take advantage of Nigeria’s high unemployment rate to promise the women and girls better-paying jobs. However, as this recent publication reveals, they end up as exploited persons in Ivory Coast’s sex industry.
“Due to its stable economy and prostitution being legal, although soliciting sex is not, Ivory Coast has become an attractive destination for sex work. Some victims go on to become madams who source other girls, to recoup money they spent and to regain their own freedom,” the report stated.
“They coach the recruits to tell immigration officials, who are sometimes aware of what is happening or simply don’t care enough to carry out proper scrutiny, that they are crossing the border to go to the nearby market in Cotonou, an auxiliary port for Nigeria.”
One of the trafficked girls said that she left her junior secondary school class in Port Harcourt to travel to Ivory Coast.
READ ALSO: A Survivor’s Account: In Benin Republic, Trafficked Nigerians Are Forced to ‘Bring 2 More Victims to Make Money’
To recruit Nigerians, the recruiting agents either visit rural communities or make posts on Facebook groups for job seekers.
In addition to luring women and girls with vague promises of lucrative opportunities, they share photographs of those they have recruited in the past.
NAPTIP is supposed to be “Nigeria’s response to addressing the scourge of trafficking in persons”. The country continues to struggle in its fight to prevent and curb trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
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