The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has rescued 25 women suspected to be victims of exploitative labour en route to Saudi Arabia.

This was contained in a statement by NAPTIP Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, on Monday.

The Agency said the operation was part of a decisive crackdown on trafficking syndicates that specialise in the recruitment and trafficking of Nigerians to Middle East countries, adding that the unsuspecting victims were picked up in front of a popular hotel in Wuse II, Abuja, where they had gathered while awaiting their trafficker.

According to NAPTIP, it has also commenced a manhunt for a popular travel agency suspected of playing a prominent role in the recruitment of the victims.

It further noted that the operation was a continuation of renewed surveillance activities and monitoring in major state capitals across the country.

The agency recalled that NAPTIP’s Director General, Binta Adamu Bello, had a few weeks ago ordered operatives to intensify monitoring following a surge in trafficking activities targeting vulnerable persons from remote villages and communities.

NAPTIP added that the directive was in addition to enhanced collaboration with sister law enforcement agencies and partners along red-flag routes.

During interrogation, the victims, aged between 17 and 43 years, said they were recruited from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina States with promises of employment in Saudi Arabia as domestic workers.

“Some people came to our village and told my parents that they would assist me to travel abroad to work as a house help in Saudi Arabia. They assured us that the job there will pay us very well, and we will be able to come and take care of our parents and families. They asked us to come and wait for them here so that they would give us the travel document and the necessary instructions on how to go.

“They have not given us any documents, like an International Passport and a visa, and we are worried that none of them are here to attend to us as they promised,” one of the victims said. Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, a young son of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad, where he was allegedly leading a jihadist cell.

According to an intelligence source and a former insurgent, Yusuf was arrested alongside five other suspected members of the movement.