A Press Officer in the Press and Public Relations unit of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Vincent Adekoye, Wednesday, called on the media to play a critical role in the war against human trafficking in the country.
Speaking at an event organised by NAPTIP in collaboration with the European Union, the Nigerian Police, Nigeria Immigration, and FIIAPP, at Keffi, Nassarawa State, Adekoye harped on the importance of media in the fight against human trafficking.
Adekoye, who spoke on the sub topic: “NAPTIP and the Media in Post COVID-19 Era,” said the media had a critical role to play in the containment of human trafficking.
He said Nigeria had been flagged 10th country in the world for harvest of human organs, adding human trafficking remained a security threat through out the world.
He noted that the media could be helpful in giving prominence to stories on human trafficking, writing incisive features, human interest stories and going beyond the surface to help track activities of traffickers.
He advised that the media should be careful not to be used by “unscrupulous agents of human traffickers not to carry harmful advertorial” against the interest of the nation.
He said NAPTIP had commenced aggressive enlightenment and massive awareness on social media platforms to tackle emerging situation and tricks used by traffickers.
He also said the agency had strengthened collaboration with other partners to wage a decisive war against all forms of human trafficking.
He said victims of traffickers overseas were most hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This, he said, was as a result of Identity loss of victims which made them not to be captured in palliative handout.
According to him, “once a victim is trafficked abroad, the first thing a trafficker does is to destroy the international passport of that person, making him or her not have any form of identification. The victim is not captured in any data of the host country. This makes it impossible to identify such person.”
He added that during the pandemic many would have died and buried without the knowledge of the parents or relations back in Nigeria.
He said in the post COVID-19 era, there was possible increase in activities of trafficking syndicates who would be taking advantage of the space created by dead ones abroad.
This, according to him, would come in form vacancies for jobs, adding that “the irony is that the jobs really exist but traffickers will lure unsuspicious victims with the job offers and then sold off immediately they leave the shores of this country.”
The 3-day training workshop for journalists, themed: “Capacity Development and Orientation, Development of Standard Reporting Templates for Members of the Trafficking in Persons Media Core and Officers of Press and Public Relations Unit Agenda,” will end on Friday, December 10.
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