Senate moves to ameliorate plight of Nigerians trafficked to Libya, others

By Haruna Salami

The Senate, at its plenary on Tuesday has urged the Federal Government, through NAPTIP, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and relevant state governments, to establish a comprehensive reintegration and protection programme for Nigerian returnees from Libya, including psychosocial support, vocational training, and enterprise start-up assistance.
The red chamber called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intensify diplomatic engagement with Libyan authorities and mobilize collective regional and international action through the AU, ECOWAS, and the UN to secure the safety of Nigerians in Libyan detention camps and ensure accountability for human rights violations.
It also mandated the Committees on Diaspora, Judiciary, Human Rights, and Foreign Affairs to investigate the activities of traffickers and unlicensed travel agents, and recommend legislative or policy measures for stronger deterrence.
This was sequel to a motion on “Urgent need to Protect Nigerians from Trafficking, Slavery, and Human Rights Abuses in Libya” sponsored by Senator Bassey Aneikan (Akwa Ibom North East).
He noted that irregular migration through Libya has become a notorious route, exposing thousands of Nigerians to grave dangers — including trafficking, slavery, ransom extortion, and widespread human rights violations.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year alone, nearly 1,000 Nigerians were repatriated from Libya, with survivors recounting harrowing experiences of false detention, torture, sexual abuse, organized exploitation, and other acts of modern-day slavery.
Senator Aniekan gave the case of a Nigerian woman, Mercy Olugbenga, who narrated how she sold her family’s property and dropped out of university to travel to Libya, only to be held captive for over a year while her blood was repeatedly drained against her will — an incident that underscores the brutality of the crisis.