22/04/2022
The European A-TIPSOM project, led by FIIAPP, facilitates cooperation between institutions, which has made it possible to save 15 minors treated in Mali.
The European A-TIPSOM project, led by FIIAPP, facilitates cooperation between institutions, which has made it possible to save 15 minors treated in Mali.
Nigeria is the main country of origin of trafficked women. With the aim of combating criminal networks that traffic women and girls, many of whom are trafficked to Europe for exploitation, the FIIAPP is leading the A-TIPSOM program. This European project, which has a National Police Inspector in charge of the project in the field mobilized through the FIIAPP, facilitates cooperation between institutions, which is key to combating a crime that by its very nature involves several countries. Thanks to this joint work, 15 trafficked girls have been rescued in Mali.
Speaking at the arrival of the girls at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the Director General of the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Fatima Waziri-Azi, said that the return of the girls was possible thanks to the collaboration and support of the European Union and FIIAPP: “Bringing them back was possible because we gathered and shared the information we had,” said Waziri-Azi.
Angela Agbayekhai, head of NAPTIP’s Intelligent and International Corporation Unit, explained that the rescue process was initiated thanks to information received by the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labor (NACTAL), a network of civil societies in Nigeria. However, despite this rescue, he stressed that there is still much to be done: “You will agree with me that it is not only in Mali where the victims are, therefore, we have the hope and the plan to rescue many more girls”.
The whole process of liberation has been possible thanks to the partnership we have with civil society organizations (CSOs) in the 16 West African countries, said Abdulganiyu Abubakar, president of the NACTAL network: “This is a good start, but we will continue to work with the ministries involved to bring back as many as possible”.
From A-TIPSOM, Ugo Ogbunude, the program’s technical advisor, noted that the return of the girls is one of the results of regional cooperation within the framework of the West African Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (WACTIPSOM). WACTIPSOM is a regional platform created last year as part of the support to NACTAL, within the framework of the A-TIPSOM project.
The minors, one of whom has a three-year-old child and another is pregnant, were released thanks to NAPTIP’s work with the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labor (NACTAL), the A-TIPSOM program, the Nigerian Embassy in Mali and the NGOs War Against Human Trafficking (WAHT) and ENDA Mali.
