By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says suspected human traffickers now apply and obtain the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Travel Certificate (ETC) as a travel document to move their victims to ECOWAS Member States.
The Service also said suspected traffickers use the document as a conduit to evade stringent checks and possible arrest at the airport.
“The Bayelsa State Command headed by Comptroller James Sunday, in a proactive and improved investigative strategy has uncovered the newly adopted ways used by human traffickers to evade security checks and avoid suspicion by using the ECOWAS Travel Certificate (ETC) as a travel document to transport their victims to any of the ECOWAS Member States to evade stringent checks at the airport and lower the level of suspicion in view of the limitation of countries the document is valid for travel”, PRO of Bayelsa State command of the Service, Ibiemo Cookey said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the command, the Comptroller-General of the Immigration Service, Isa Jere Idris, has ensured a water-tight border control and management following the rescue of a trafficking victim by the name of Miss Maureen Ekpe.
The Command says it noticed a sudden increase in the rate at which young people patronised the ECOWAS Travel Certificate and carried out a risk analysis and a checklist of the age group that goes for it.
“It was on this ground that the unit directly responsible for the issuance, ECOWAS Unit, was tasked to add an additional security document to the requirement, call the Suspicious Travel Interrogation Form which would zero down to any suspected case and it has yielded results, so far,” the command stated further.
The service says the recent strategy has helped in rescuing two victims by denying them the facility and denying several others without genuine reasons after due diligent interrogation.
“In one of the cases the trafficker who is at large after the victim was stopped prompted our alert system and gave the Command the idea behind the increasing demand for the document against the conventional passport,” it said.
Cookey continued, “The Bayelsa Command will not rest on its oars until the syndicates are exposed and the only well justified, authentic trips without any link to Trafficking in Persons(TIPs) or Smuggling of Migrants(SOM) is established through the use of our interrogative process and vital intelligence tools to fight the menace.
“The Command, therefore, call on parents and guardians to desist from releasing their wards/children to people with hidden identities or motives, by verifying the kind of work they are to be employed for and report any suspicious movement to take their children outside the country for unconfirmed work with mouth-watering plans.
“The fight must be collective, to safeguard the lives and destinies of these young people. All cases being investigated will be concluded before New Year for an onward report to the Service Headquarters, Abuja, while the command steps up its strategies. Officers and men are warned to avoid being accomplices in any way.”
