The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Fatima Waziri-Azi has expressed worry over the new method of trafficking in human organs because of their high cost in international circle.
Fatima Waziri-Azi said that because of its newness, the growing trend in organ trafficking would required a lot of enlightenment to disabuse the minds of individuals engaging in them.
Speaking to newsmen today, May 12, at the special briefings coordinated by the Presidential Media Team on Thursday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the NAPTIP boss said: “there is a report that was released by one of these UN agencies in the black market (that) a kidney goes for over 250,000 US dollars. So it is a thriving business. And there is an entire value chain that has to do with organ trafficking.
“This is basically because there is a global shortage of human organs to be used for methical transplants. We’re talking about demand and supply. And that is what has driven that whole underground enterprise when it comes to organ trafficking.
“So you have recruiters and you have brokers. Recruiters are the ones that target vulnerable communities. So you go to probably a rural area, and you target four people, then you have brokers, then you have medical personnel, you have medical institutions. So it’s an entire value chain. So that’s one part of it.
“Then, the other part of it are people who get fished out to donate organs. People targeted for organ trafficking are mostly adults, because of course, your organs are fully formed. So children don’t, children are not being targeted. Then you have cases of people willingly agreeing to donate a kidney or donate a liver or donate part of your lung for a fee. And it thrives because of misinformation and disinformation.
“So you have traffickers who come up to you and tell you, ‘why are you suffering, you know, come and donate your kidney. After all, as an adult, you only need one kidney to survive.’ And it’s not true.
They don’t tell you that if you have pre-existing conditions, there is a possibility that if you donate one kidney the other kidney will not even last.
“And they also tell you that there’s a possibility that your kidney will regenerate and that it would grow back; there is no scientific backing to that.
“So there’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation driving organ trafficking. So we need to keep churning out information about it because if an adult really wants to go donate his kidney, we can’t stop that person.
“But we can only give that person the kind of information that if that person has it, definitely he won’t board a plane to go donate their organs. So this is an area that we’re still researching.”
Fatima Waziri-Azi also said that over 20,000 Nigerian women and girls are currently stranded in Mali, with majority of them being exploited sexually and made to live under unimaginable conditions.
She said that out of the 20,000 women and girls, only 16 have been successfully repatriated back to Nigeria, adding that unscrupulous persons engaging in human trafficking have made it a cartel, such that it has assumed a multi-billion dollar dimension.
According to her, globally about 40.3 million persons are victims of trafficking, majority of them stranded and facing excruciating conditions of living and having no means of escaping their traffickers because of stringent conditions.
She said that globally, an estimated 17,272 victims have been rescued over the years, with 4,000 being males and over 13,000 females.
The NAPTIP boss said that there is a surge in internal trafficking more than the external one, but that external trafficking are being highlighted mostly.
“But I know, the data we had in NAPTIP say the percentage was 75% across the states where human trafficking is going on. Then 23% within the states, then 2% across the borders, but of course, these are moving data each year, you get something new.
“The truth is, when you talk about migration, it is part of Africa. And because of the economic situation, people tend to move. So there are socio economic situations that NAPTIP does not have control over. And that has to do with issues of poverty, lack of educational opportunities, job opportunities, and also greed. You know, people saying, oh, I want to go look for greener pastures, forgetting that the grass is only as green as you water it.
“So these are factors that we don’t have control over. And these are root causes of trafficking in persons as well as smuggling of migrants.”
