The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it is making efforts to rescue about twenty thousand Nigerian girls trapped in different parts of Mali.

Mrs. Julie Okah-Donli, the Director- General of NAPTIP, who made this known in Abuja, said the victims were trapped in different parts of Mali, for prostitution.

She said that the trafficked victims were discovered after NAPTIP sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last December, following some security reports.

According to reports many of the girls said that they were deceived that, they were being taken to Malisia, making it sound like Malaysia, to work in hotels, restaurants, hairdressing salons and some other jobs.

The NAPTIP boss decried the living condition of trafficked Nigerians in the West African country, adding that some of the girls were sold for six thousand naira and were made to service, mainly miners.

She assured that the Nigerian authorities were collaborating with their Malian counter parts as well as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to rescue and rehabilitate the victims, most of whom were eager to return.