* Says its only solution to win war against humanity trafficking
In its bid to curb the menace of human trafficking in the country, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP has said that human traffickers must be crippled economically by destination countries and international law enforcement agencies.
The NAPTIP Director-General, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday while playing host to the new Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Ketil Kathleen.
She noted that the fight will be won only when the accounts of those involved in the act is crippled.
She said, “We must cripple traffickers economically by tracing and freezing their accounts for the benefit of victims of human trafficking. We must take their money and render them impotent”
The NAPTIP boss also stressed the need for destination countries to work closely with the Nigerian Embassies in the areas of victims’ identification; language barriers and assistance to victims.
She urged the European Union and her members to consciously deal with issues of pornographic sites, massage parlours and farms scattered all over Europe and where victims of human trafficking from Nigeria and Africa are daily exploited.
She said, “What are the destination countries doing about the pornographic sites, massage parlours, and escort services? You have the factories, farms, restaurants and you can see them and the exploitations that go on in such places. Do more investigations in the destination countries and clamp down on those businesses. Look into yours as we are looking into ours”.
On the need for equal attention to be focused on the trafficking and exploitation of boys and men by traffickers, Okah-Donli said, “The boys and men are even more brutalized and nobody is doing anything about it. These are the people who when they survive and are deported back home, they become potential armed robbers, hired assassins and engage in other crimes. We need to empower them and help them rather than focus only on the plights of the girls and children’”.
Okah – Donli also harped on the need for stakeholders across the world to address the issues of human trafficking from both source and destination countries.
Speaking further, she said, “We must begin to address the menace from the situations in both source and destination countries. We must address those things that make prostitution attractive in the destination countries. We must take a look at the legalization of prostitution in some destination countries in Europe and the effect of such legislation on the global efforts to fight human trafficking.
“On our part, we have launched out to the endemic communities across the country as part of our massive awareness creation programme to stem the tide of human trafficking and irregular migration. We are not only targeting women and girls; we are also taking men and boys into consideration because they are equally victims of labour exploitation, organ harvesting and even sexual exploitation”.
In his remarks, the EU Ambassador Kathleen said that the current increase in human trafficking and irregular migration is an issue of shared common responsibility that must be addressed by all stakeholders in order to arrive at reasonable results.
He stated further that the European nations are deeply committed to the eradication of all forms of trafficking and irregular migration due to its attendant consequences which is always grievous in most cases.
Doosuur Iwambe – Abuja
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