The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has alerted Nigerians to new trends in human trafficking by owners of orphanages and football agents.
This revelation followed the rescue of 75 children, who were trafficked from an orphanage in Abuja, seven years ago.
The agency’s Director, Public Enlightenment, Josiah Emerole, disclosed this while presenting a paper on Emerging trends, routes and tricks in human trafficking, yesterday, at an ongoing training for journalists in Asaba, Delta State capital.
He explained that orphanage trafficking involved recruiting children to attract donations from the rich, who visited the homes to celebrate their birthdays.
He said some orphanage operators sometimes approached vulnerable parents with the pretence to sponsor their children’s education, only to end up either giving the children out for child labour or selling them.
He also revealed that another new trend was football trafficking, where traffickers posed as football agents to exploit local footballers seeking to be enlisted into football clubs abroad.
He said: “ Orphanage trafficking is one of the new trends in human trafficking.
“There was a case that involved somebody who took children in the name of trying to help. But when the parents were looking for the children, they could not be seen anymore. The number of children involved was over 140, So far, in that particular case, we have been able to rescue no fewer than 75 of them from different states, with some of them sold. The case is in court.”
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