The United Nations on Monday criticised Nigeria for failing to tackle human trafficking, after a human rights mission looked at efforts to stamp out the organised trade in people.
“What is being done is not enough,” the world body’s special rapporteur on the subject, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, told reporters at the end of an eight-day visit.
Some 18,000 Nigerians arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean Sea from north Africa in 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The number of arrivals in Europe fell sharply in the first six months of this year but Giammarinaro said there was “no indication of a decrease in the trafficking trend”.
“Some are already recruited by their traffickers in the country of origin, others may start their migration journey voluntarily,” she told a news conference in Abuja.