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MOSCOW (AP) – About 60 Nigerians who say they entered Russia on the pretext of being fans of the World Cup camped Friday in front of their country's embassy in Moscow to ask for more information. l & # 39; help.
Sofiya Dukhovnaya, activist Alternativa, a group of human traffickers, told the Associated Press that the men arrived in Russia using a legal loophole to qualify as fans of the Cup of Nations. World. job. But it was clear that the men were not in Russia for football because they did not know which matches were playing their national team or even how many players were part of the team, according to Dukhovnaya.
Once in Russia, the men realized that they had lied. There were no jobs for them, their return tickets were fake and they were running out of money quickly and could not afford to feed themselves and lodge.
"They hoped to find work and improve their lives" Dukhovnaya said.
Alternativa said that the Nigerian embassy promised help, but did little for men. The group tried to feed some of the men and house them in homes, but as Alternativa was found to be short of resources and could not support them all. In addition to the 60 men who showed up Friday near the embassy in Moscow, human rights activists believe that there are dozens of others in and around Moscow.
Nigerian Ambassador Steve Davies Ugbah promised to provide them with food and shelter.
The Embassy of Nigeria has not responded to a request for additional comment.
Alternativa said that Nigerian men are not the only ones to have been trafficked to Russia for the World Cup. She said her group was able to identify several women brought here for sexual exploitation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that foreign nationals who do not have the money to buy return tickets must turn to their embassies.
"The practices of human trafficking are in opposition to FIFA's own values," FIFA said on Friday. "The competence to deal with issues related to trafficking in human beings, like any other criminal activity, is with the relevant national and international authorities (political, judicial and governmental), and FIFA welcomes the measures taken in this regard."
returned a question about the flaws in his Fan ID system to the Russian Ministry of Communications, which did not immediately respond to questions sent by email.
The Fan ID system was designed to offer visa-free travel to ticket holders. the same ticket number could be used to request multiple IDs and even expired ticket numbers could be used. In some cases, people seem to have used their Fan ID to enter Russia as a stepping stone to countries in the European Union.
The organizers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar said on Monday that they were considering copying the Fan ID system for their event as a security measure.
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More coverage of the AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/tag/WorldCup
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