The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has commenced efforts to rescue about 20,000 Nigerian girls trapped in Mali after they were trafficked there for prostitution.

This is according to a statement issued by Vincent Adekoye, NAPTIP’s Spokesman, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.

Adekoye said that representatives of the agency’s management would pay a working visit to Mali in March, to map out modalities to rescue the victims.

“In its determination to protect victims of human trafficking anywhere in the world, NAPTIP would embark on a working visit to Mali in March. The visit will be led by Director-General, Ms Julie Okah-Donli and Mr Godwin Morka, the Director of Research and Programme Development”.

“It is to map out ways of rescuing more than 20,000 Nigerian girls trapped their in forced prostitution,” he said.

The NAPTIP Spokesman said that the team would meet and discuss with the Nigerian embassy in Bamako, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Malian government officials and other stakeholders.

“They are to plan with all relevant stakeholders on how to identify and rescue the victims and profile them in preparation for evacuation,” he said.

NAPTIP Director General had in December 2018 revealed that no fewer than 20,000 Nigerian girls were trafficked to different part of Mali for prostitution.

She told NAN that the trafficked victims were discovered after NAPTIP sent a fact-finding mission to Mali following some security reports.

”We sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last month and the mission came with a report that, about 20,000 Nigerian girls had been trafficked to different parts of Mali,” she said. (NAN)