She said the Etireno did not have any unaccompanied minors on board. Her claim could not be independently verified. Benin's claims drew questions from child welfare groups. My main concern is that the kids are here and safe, and we will hear if that is the case. Pron did not rule out the possibility that the Etireno' s captain, a Nigerian with a criminal past, could have somehow earlier unloaded his human cargo.
Girls often end up as domestic workers or prostitutes.
He said there were concerns that the crew might throw the children overboard. It wasn't clear how Benin's late Monday announcement that the unidentified vessel was the slave ship would affect the search. During the days-long wait for the MV Etireno, the Nigerian police and navy had deployed along the coast to search for the vessel, officials said. A sighting was reported Saturday near the Nigerian port of Calabar, but the ship disappeared before it could be intercepted, said Tunde Fagbohungbe of the country's Women Trafficking and Child Labor Eradication Foundation. Earlier Monday, Moussa said Benin had contacted the United Nations and planned to call ambassadors of the United States and France to ask them to launch a search.