Lagos, (Nigeria), 20 June 2022
This month, Lagos High Court convicted a migrant smuggler and sentenced him to imprisonment for trying to smuggle a three months old baby into Spain. The Court also ordered his international passport forfeited to the Nigerian Immigration and his European Union passport forfeited to the authorities of Spain.
The investigators and prosecutors in charge of this case work for the Lagos office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and have been mentored by UNODC under the STARSOM project. This is the first time the Lagos office of the NAPTIP has secured a conviction for smuggling of migrants.
''Lagos is the commercial capital city of Nigeria. We have land borders with the Republic of Benin, a busy international airport and several sea ports. These are all international borders. Many people leave and come into Nigeria through these borders. Migrant smugglers are very active here and we are taking steps to increase our enforcement duties when it comes to the smuggling of migrants'', said Jimoh L.0, Deputy Controller of Immigration, Lagos command.
STARSOM is funded by the Government of Canada through its Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program (ACCBP).
