The Nigerian Immigration Service has rescued 16 children from child labour in Ekiti State in the last four months.
The NIS Comptroller in Ekiti, Mrs. Oluremi Talabi, disclosed this in Ado Ekiti when the Boots family from Netherlands – that adopted two children in Ekiti 12 years ago – visited her in her office.
Joshua, 18, and Victor, 14, were adopted in October 13, 2015 and taken to Netherland after the death of their mother.
The Boots family was led by the Director, Social Welfare in Ekiti, Dr. Ayodele Ibikunle.
Talabi said of the 16 rescued children between ages of five and 14, only one was a boy.
She said, “When children are trafficked, they are transported illegally and they are subjected to inhuman treatment because they know they can’t come out.
“Within this year alone, we have rescued 16 children from where they were being used for hard labour.
“When they are supposed to be in school, they would be washing plates, doing sorts of work and probably will be the last to go to bed.
“The sad thing is that people are going beyond child labour, they are using them for prostitution. We will keep fighting this until we record all round success.”
Talabi added that the rescued children had been re-united with their parents and guardians.
Earlier, Ayodele said 60 children from Ekiti had been adopted to Netherlands and Sweden.
He said the Boots family’s visit would help in erasing some of the misgivings about the adopted children.
“We have had terrible experiences where we were accused of selling these children,” he lamented.
(Punch)
