Significant milestones from my time in North Cyprus- Part 1

Contributed to the rescue of trafficked Nigerian girls from the island of North Cyprus

Back in July 2022, some young Nigerian girls had been trafficked to the island of North Cyprus and were in danger. Thanks to the efforts of people like Fezile Osum (she/her), Ashraf Saleem and many CSOs, including the North Cyprus authorities, those girls were rescued, but since Nigeria does not officially have ties with North Cyprus or have an ambassador assigned, reaching the Nigerian authorities was a problem. This is where I came in.

I reached out to Prof. Waziri on LinkedIn and the NATIONAL AGENCY FOR THE PROHIBITION OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (NAPTIP) on X. Prof. Waziri’s response helped connect Fezile Osum to NAPTIP, which in turn began the process of establishing connections to facilitate the return of those girls to Nigeria.

Beyond this, my article on human trafficking on the island of North Cyprus was published internationally by the kind Ipek Ozerim. This article then got the attention of a member of a parliament and eventually led to the North Cyprus authorities starting the process of passing a bill against human trafficking. Special shout-out to Jale Refik-Rogers, PhD.

This was only possible because Prof Waziri had replied to me on Linkedin. This article is also to appreciate the hard work that Prof Waziri did and has done.