There has been a six-fold increase in the number of Nigerian women and girls trafficked into Italy in 2015 and 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The leading inter-governmental organisation dealing with population flows estimates that there were 9,000 such victims of trafficking in 2016 alone, half of whom were children.

The figures tracking the upsurge in the trafficking of Nigerian citizens to Italy were cited in Dublin this lunchtime by Margaret Tuite, the European Commission's Coordinator for the Rights of the Child.

She was addressing an audience at the Institute for International and European Affairs on the role of the European Commission in the protection of migrant children.

She said no child protection officers had been assigned yet to hot-spots for asylum-seekers in Italy or Greece despite the obvious need for them, but added that they are expected to be established by the year's end in Greece.

Ms Tuite said that, as of a fortnight ago, Ireland had accepted 68 unaccompanied children for relocation from Greece and 22 of them had already been transferred here.

She underlined that well over half (1,473) of the 2,400 unaccompanied child asylum-seekers estimated to be in Greece last month were on a waiting list for shelter. Of this number, 142 of them are detained in police cells.

She also emphasised the importance of alleviating pressure on both Greece and Italy, recalling that the commission had urged all member States to make new relocation pledges before the end of this month.