In December, Interpol arrested 15 suspected human traffickers in various African countries and rescued 56 minors who were victims of sexual exploitation, forced labor and child exploitation.
As part of operation ‘Priscas’, Interpol arrested a suspected human trafficker and his accomplice at a roadblock and managed to rescue 35 people, including eight minors, victims of a sexual exploitation network in Ivory Coast, according to a statement from the agency.
Officers also arrested another person in Burkina Faso and freed ten other undocumented minors during a vehicle checkpoint on their way to an illegal gold mine, where they had been promised work.
The operation also resulted in the rescue of four minors in Benin, at the Dantokpa market in Cotonou, the country’s economic capital, who were victims of forced labor. All operations were carried out between December 5 and 12.
Finally, in Togo, officers arrested a Nigerian national who was on his way to Mali in the company of five women, three of them minors, who had been promised work in a hairdressing salon, a cover to force them into a club for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
«The operation is named after a little girl rescued from a cocoa field in 2015 during Interpol’s Operation Akoma. Today it is thriving and, through this and other initiatives, the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling unit will continue to connect law enforcement to provide a better future for many more children,» he sentenced.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
