CAT/C/64/D/730/2016
security forces, the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons
and a Nigerian government agency on counter-trafficking came to the complainant’s shelter
in Bamako and requested her to provide housing for around 70 Nigerian girls who were
victims of human trafficking in Mali and whom the Government of Nigeria wanted to
rescue from sex slavery.1 On 9 November 2011, the complainant went to a police station
and met more than 80 women who claimed that they had been arrested, imprisoned and
beaten by the Malian Police working with the National Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons, and that their money had been taken. They also stated that they were
traders who had come to Mali of their own free will and insisted that they were not victims
of trafficking or sex slavery. Some of them declared that they were not Nigerians. The
complainant was very worried about the inhuman treatment of those women and asked for
their immediate release. However, officers of the National Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons threatened to kill her for interfering in their operation. They also
threatened to arrest and take her to Nigeria, and to kill her. On 12 November 2011, those
women were forcibly repatriated to Nigeria. Most of those who refused to cooperate were
imprisoned in Nigeria and forced to pay a ransom for their release.
2.3
On an unknown date, the complainant was summoned to a meeting at the Nigerian
Embassy in Mali, where she was told that the Government had the right to do whatever they
wanted with Nigerian citizens anywhere. Afterwards, the complainant went to Amnesty
International in Mali to reveal those facts. She also sent messages to, among others, the
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the United Nations
Children’s Fund, the Nigerian Embassy in Mali and the International Organization for
Migration. On 19 December 2011, the Nigerian security forces and agents of the National
Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons called the complainant from Nigeria to
accuse her of violating national security. They threatened to arrest, persecute and kill her.
They also warned her not to communicate any information regarding the operations of the
Government of Nigeria in Mali to any organization. Thereafter, the threats to her life
intensified: she was followed and threatened in Mali and she was also threatened by the
Malian Police. She left Mali on 17 March 2012.
2.4
On 18 March 2012, the complainant entered the United Arab Emirates with a twoweek visa. On 19 March 2012, she had an interview for admission to the Gulf Medical
University Ajman, which offered her a one-year student visa. She registered for a course
and started a programme.2 She was advised3 to report the death threats that she had received
in Mali. She therefore reported the events to the police.
2.5
The complainant was then informed 4 that the Nigerian Embassy had been contacted
and that the Embassy wanted her to return to Nigeria because she was a wanted person. She
declared that she would not go back because her life was in danger. She was therefore taken
to Sharjah Jail, where she slept on a wet floor in a packed cell. On 29 April 2012, she was
transferred to the Dubai Immigration Jail in Al Aweer, where she was severely tortured. 5
On 7 June and 18 August 2012, she was brutally beaten by male prison staff. She sustained
head and body injuries and severe physical abdominal trauma, which led to heavy non-stop
bleeding for months. No medical treatment was provided. On several occasions, a
representative of the Nigerian Embassy named Adama came to the jail and demanded her
deportation. He stated that, according to the National Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons, she was wanted by the Nigerian authorities. On 5 July 2012, Adama
came back to the jail to threaten and hit her, until the immigration officers stopped him. He
requested the immigration officers to do whatever possible to force the complainant to be
sent to Nigeria, because the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons
and the Nigerian authorities were waiting for her.
1
2
3
4
5
2
The complainant provided a copy of a press release allegedly printed from the National Agency’s
website, dated 17 November 2011, with the title “104 Nigerian sexual slaves evacuated from Mali”.
No further information provided.
By a staff member of the Ewaa Shelters for Victims of Human Trafficking and by the Dubai
Foundation for Women and Children.
No further information provided.
No further information provided.