The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has raised the alarm over the exploitation of Nigerian women who work as domestic workers in Iraq.
Fatima Waziri-Azi, the director-general of the agency, revealed in a statement released on Wednesday by Vincent Adekoye, the NAPTIP spokesperson that most of the women are requesting assistance to return home.
Waziri-Azi said that the women were trafficked to Iraq under the guise of better opportunities, adding that most of them were young.
She added that NAPTIP is currently investigating the rogue labor recruiters who have been reported to be big players in the recruitment of Nigerians to Iraq for domestic servitude.
“Because of the proactive activities and collaborative efforts of NAPTIP and its partners in raising awareness around issues of human trafficking to some of the known destination countries, traffickers have now shifted attention to Iraq,” the statement reads.
The statement further noted that the agency has received numerous pleas for rescue and repatriation from female victims trafficked to Iraq, particularly to the cities of Baghdad and Basra where they are distributed to various homes by their recruitment agents to a hard life of domestic servitude.
“Available information shows that many of these victims have been admitted to the hospital many times due to long work hours under harsh conditions they are forced to undergo.
“Most of them have complained of deteriorating health resulting from the weight of work. They are constantly under threat of being harmed either by their direct employers or the Iraqi agents, each time they complained of unbearable workload,” the statement read.
NAPTIP DG said women are reportedly constantly sexually harassed, and many have no access to their phones because their phones are seized immediately after they are paired with an employer.
They are never allowed out of the premises where they are serving, and even when communication is established with them for rescue, they cannot give details of their location because they don’t know where they are.
Waziri-Azi cautioned Nigerians to critically vet work opportunities before accepting offers. She further warned that if a sponsor facilitates their travel, they will be forced to do any job to pay off their sponsor before earning money for themselves.
The Nigerian government has been working with various international agencies and other organizations to combat the problem of human trafficking. However, it is evident that more needs to be done to protect vulnerable Nigerian women from being exploited and trafficked to other countries for forced labor.
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