About 5,000 Nigerians are stranded in Lebanon, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) confirmed to Channels Television on Saturday.
The agency’s Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli said this while confirming a viral video of stranded Nigerian ladies in Lebanon calling out to the government and eminent Nigerians to help evacuate them from the Middle-East country.
Lebanon is mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, with the downturn sparking soaring inflation and plunging almost half the country’s population into poverty.
However many Nigerians are being trafficked into the country with the promise of good, well-paid jobs.
“About 150 of them have been captured, including the girls in the video, for evacuation,” Okah-Donli said.
But the cost of chartering a flight amid coronavirus-induced lock-downs across the world “is not cheap,” the NAPTIP chief added.
“When these ones are airlifted, another batch will cry for help,” she said. “The Federal Government can not fund this alone.”
Okah-Donli said she will meet with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq on Monday and work with State Governments to help facilitate the evacuation of the ladies.
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