By a Special Aviation Correspondent/Analyst
The speedy intervention of officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS at the Lagos International Airport, has saved 150 Nigerians from being trafficked for dehumanizing activities outside the country.
The suspected victims who were intercepted and denied departure by officers of the NIS in the last four months could not explain their purpose of traveling on getting to their destinations.
.
In a chat with newsmen in Lagos, Comptroller Immigration, Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command, Lagos, Abdullahi Usman said the victims mainly males were between the age range of 16-40 years, adding that many of them where propelled to embark on the journey because of greed and ignorance.
“Recently we have stepped up our tracking on anti- human trafficking measures by denying boarding to 150 persons, who were refused departure because they failed to meet the requirements of border control posts. These passengers do not know the reasons for
their intent to travel and where they were traveling to.“ Usman said.
According to him, on discovering that these were victims of human trafficking, officers of the NIS in the Human Trafficking Unit swung into action to educate them on the dangers of embarking on a suicide mission.
He went on: “They were taken to the place where returnees are kept. When they saw them, they realized it was not worthy it to continue the journey, They appreciated the counseling they had received and decided to go back home. We are making efforts to track down the traffickers.”
On the Visa On Arrival policy introduced to facilitate tourism and investment the Lagos Airport NIS boss said that from January 2019 till date, the Service had been able to process over
58,000 Visa On Arrival passengers.
Usman noted that, it had also strengthened its border control with the introduction of the Migrant Information Data Analysis System, MIDAS, as it had stopped the collection of cash payment for processing of all Visa On Arrival applications.
To assist the Service, one of the commercial bank in the country, Access Bank made donation of office materials to the Command.
