The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Wednesday disagreed over the issuance of licenses to third party recruitment agencies to employ workers in other countries.
While the Director of Employment and Wages in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, John Enemali told the House Committee on Diaspora that the Ministry has never stopped the issuance of licenses to employment agencies, the Director, Investigation and Monitoring at NAPTIP, Greg Esele said the issuance of licenses was halted in December 2017.
The Committee which is investigating issues of human trafficking, particularly with regard to the case of Temitope Olamide had sought to know if the Ministry stopped the issuance of labour licenses to employment agents, but Enemali answered in the negative.
However, Esele countered that at an inter-agency meeting chaired by a Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the representative of the Ministry of Labour had informed them that the issuance of licenses was stopped since December 2017 and will only be lifted when certain conditions are put in place, including an employment treaty with other countries.
The NAPTIP official also contradicted the Labour official when he disclosing that one of the companies currently having issues with the agency was licensed in January 2020, while the letter from the Ministry of Labour and Employment informed NAPTIP that the company (name not disclosed) was licensed in May 2020.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment could however not provide concrete answers as to why a company involved in oil services was licensed as an employment agent by the Ministry as the Director simply told the Committee that “they requested for a license and we gave them”.
On the other hand, the Chairman of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabire-Erewa told the Committee that the issue of human trafficking in the country must be handled from the root as most of those involved in trafficking often leave the country with legitimate travel document only to end up in the hands of slave masters.
She said: “For example, Temitope’s case has nothing to do with trafficking because she left the country legally with a visa issued from Lebanon. There are many of them like that. She was exploited and now wants to leave. But her master is refusing her from leaving.
“We must find out who these agents are that are selling Nigerians into slave labour in Lebanon and other countries. We have been working on this and presently, the Lebanese government has stopped the issuance of work visas and are now going to register employment agencies in that country bringing in other nationales.
“When that is done, the list will be made available to all embassies in that country, including the Nigerian embassy there. With that, we hope to be able to track those employing Nigerians in that country”.
Dabire-Erewa disclosed that Temitope who is currently undergoing trial for alleged theft and attempted murder has been granted bail and released to the Nigerian Mission in Lebanon.
The Director, International Cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, Anthoinete Oche-Obe told the Committee that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation would have been informed about the ordeal of Temitope for his intervention.
“I am just hearing about this development.The AGF would have been briefed about this because he has ways of intervening in matters like this. This has been done before and we were able to secure the release of those Nigerians. We are just hearing that the IOM got a lawyer for her”, Oche-Obe said.
The Committee discovered that only 14 out of the 21 companies supplied to the company as those licensed, were registered with the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), an agency of the Ministry of Labour
The Committee therefore directed NAPTIP to liase with the Ministry of Justice and other relevant agencies to ensure that Temitope returned to Nigerian without harm.
It also directed the Ministry of Labour and Employment to furnish them with the details of all companies licensed as employment agents by the Ministry including their certificate of incorporation as well as the list of their directors.
