Following global attention on migrant routes from Africa to Europe, traffickers have turned to oil-rich Saudi Arabia as the new destination for trafficked Nigerian girls who work as domestic servants, waitresses and sex objects in most cases.

Despite efforts by NAPTIP, Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency, the syndicate has continued to beat security networks in the country and is constantly shipping innocent Nigerian girls into the Saudi slave camp. Initial projection was that Nigerian Embassy staff in Saudi Arabia aid the syndicates but investigations have shown that the runners of the recruitment ring are acting alone.

They deploy social media as well as direct marketing to reach their clients most of whom are girls in the prime of their lives. These girls are promised lucrative jobs with immediate accommodation but they end up in Saudi homes as house helps and in some cases as sex toys for their masters.

Worried by the influx of these undocumented girls into their country, Saudi authorities have instituted manhunt on the perpetrators of the act. They have arrested hundreds of Nigerian girls in recent raids.

Already, a total of 1,000 housemaids were deported to Nigeria. About 120 of these women were said to have been freed by Nigerian embassy officials  while Saudi Arabian security agents arrested 780 and handed them over to the embassy for onward movement back to Nigeria.

Nigerian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Justice Isa Dodo, has confirmed the incident and he also refuted media report that he connived with human traffickers to recruit ladies as domestic workers in the kingdom.

Dodo made the clarification in a telephone interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.

According to him, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ambassador and the Nigerian Embassy in Riyad have no hand in recruiting Nigerians to work in Saudi Arabia.

He said “I learnt that some Nigerian agents recruit domestic workers from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia.

“The process is done without the knowledge of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.”

The ambassador, who said he was in Saudi Arabia only seven months ago, said: “the issue of connivance does not even arise

“I learnt that recruitment of Nigerians to Saudi Arabia had been on for over three years.”

Dodo said that since he assumed duty as ambassador, he noticed an increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving Saudi Arabia to work as maids and decided to intervene.

He said that home based officers working under him received different consular issues such as Social Follow Up Office, Women Deportation Centre, prison and various polices and officers treat the cases with dispatch .

He emphasised that the Mission had also been inundated with different adverse reports on consular issues, ranging from simple to complex many of whom were victims of false promises and deception by local agents in Nigeria.

The ambassador, therefore, called on the media to always crosscheck their facts before publishing and advised reporters to confirm their stories from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigerian Embassy and the two agents mentioned in the write up to get the truth on all issues.

“I assure you that the agents involved would tell you that they do not know who the  Nigerian Ambassador is, let alone conniving with them.

He advised the reporters “to fear God in all their dealings instead of damaging the reputation of innocent people.”