Lebanon must release 10 Nigerian girls in prison –NAPTIP

 The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, on Tuesday raised the alarm that 10 Nigerian girls, who were victims of human trafficking, had put distress calls through to the agency from Lebanese prisons.

The agency demanded that the Lebanese government release them immediately because the girls were supposed to have been brought to Nigeria with the “evacuation of 69 Nigerians done last week” from the Middle East country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had said last Monday that 69 Nigerians, who were evacuated from Lebanon, had arrived in the country.

But the NAPTIP Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli, said on Tuesday at a press conference that apart from the 50 reported Nigerian girls, 10 others had reached out to the agency for help, because they were prevented “from boarding at the last minute.”

“For the necessity of setting the records straight, and presenting the ugly picture of the plight of our young women, usually aged 25 to 35, we say that they are trapped in domestic servitude in Lebanon and many other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“I appeal to the Lebanese government to release 10 of the victims of trafficking, who were de-boarded at the last minute and could not return with their compatriots on May 24.”