From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
Stakeholders in the media industry have been called upon to intensify awareness and sensitisation of the public against trafficking in persons as National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) raises alarm over increased rate of human trafficking in the country.
The Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Benin Zonal Command, Barr Nduka Nwanwanne, made the disclosure yesterday, during a three-day media training workshop on “Countering Trafficking In Persons (CTIP), organised by Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Child Labour, (NACTAL), in collaboration with USAID in Benin, Edo State.
He said as at May 2022, NAPTIP had rescued and sheltered 17, 753 victims in Nigeria, adding that out of the figure, 13,626 were females, while 4,727 were males. He said no fewer than 25,000 Nigerian women and girls are trapped, living in shanties in the mining areas in Mali where they are sexually exploited.
Nwanwnene said the trade on human trafficking was worth $150 billion in global criminal enterprise and it is the second largest in trans national organised crime after drug trafficking. He lamented that despite the huge sensitisation and awareness created by government and media agencies against human trafficking, majority of young people were still not informed about the risks and dangers involved.
He said: “I asked some students from an elite school that if there is a plane and they are asked to travel now in the next 30 minutes, who would be interested?
Majority of the students raised their hands and when I inquired if they wouldn’t tell their parents before leaving, one said when she gets to her destination, she would call her parents.”
He said young people, especially girls, must be patient, stay home, go to school and develop themselves, adding that it is the duty of their parents to cater for their children at a young age.
While he identified poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, economic hardship, lack of opportunities at home and parental pressures, among others, as root causes of trafficking, the commander noted that the risks; loss of life, health risks, emotional and psychological breakdown and unwanted pregnancy, among others, outweigh the benefits.
Nwanwanne, who took journalists on several topics such as “Understanding basic concepts in trafficking in persons, root causes, emerging trends, effects of TIP” as well as “Identification of TIP victims, potential victims and traffickers,” among others, urged them to expose cases of sexual exploitation, forced labour, baby sales and cases of of trafficking in the society and the traffickers, to rid the country of the menace.
Earlier, the National President, Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Child Labour, (NACTAL), Abdulganiyu Abubakar, said the media has been a key player in the fight against trafficking in persons, especially in sensitising the public on the dangers of trafficking, tactics adopted by traffickers and extant laws that prohibit trafficking in persons, hence, it become pertinent to train them and improve their capacity.