CLEEN Foundation, UN, Italy deal as over 1.3 million Nigerians rot in slavery

IKEJA, Lagos – A non-governmental organisation, CLEEN Foundation has launched a project aimed at stopping forced migration and trafficking in women and girls.

This is coming even as the latest Global Slavery Index (2018) Report ranks Nigeria as 32/167 of the countries with the highest number of slaves.  The foundation quotes the report as saying that 1,386,000 Nigerians are into slavery worldwide.

Tagged ““Preventing forced migration and trafficking of women and girls in Nigeria: Build resilience; promote sustainable development” CLEEN Foundation is executing the project with support from the United Nations and the Italian Government

The project, according to Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Mr. Benson Olugbuo, Ph.D  is  specifically aimed at enabling a gender sensitive policy environment that addresses forced migration and trafficking and increasing gender sensitive information and awareness raising in source migration trafficking sites.

“The project also broadly seeks to support and strengthen the gender-responsiveness of interventions by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and other relevant government agencies”, he said.

He explained that CLEEN Foundation, under the above-mentioned project will be responsible for implementing key activities in Edo and Lagos States that will lead to these major outcomes:

“ Engender an enabling gender sensitive policy environment that addresses forced migration and trafficking, whose design and implementation is influenced by women and girl’s rights organizations in source migration trafficking sites;  Increased gender-sensitive information and awareness-raising in source migration-trafficking sites to aid  prevention of women’s irregular migration and trafficking”.

Already, he said the foundation has embarked on active collaborative engagement with various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies including NAPTIP and law enforcement institutions such as the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Immigration Service; civil society and community representatives in both project states.

Read Also, CORONAVIRUS IN NIGERIA AND BRAZIL

“The intervention will involve the conduct of gender audit of protection services within existing shelters and safe homes and other services by front-line service providers. This will form the basis for the development of specialized tools and trainings to enhance gender-responsive service delivery for security, health and justice sector agencies and training for community-based women’s organizations to enhance their advocacy and communication capacities in the two project states”.

 He explained that at an online meeting on Wednesday 25th June 2020, the foundation commended the activities of government agencies charged with the mandates towards the prevention of forced migration and trafficking of women and girls in Nigeria, prosecution of enablers and traffickers and enforcement of extant relevant laws.

“The organization also appreciated the collective measures taken by international development organisations and national agencies in the fight against endemic issues of forced migration and human trafficking in Nigeria”, he said, adding that different stakeholders welcomed the project and committed to supporting the CLEEN Foundation and UNWomen to achieve the objectives of the project.

He noted that the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria, which has become the subject of global discourse also comes with implications for human trafficking and forced migration as Nigeria continues to contribute the largest share of persons trafficked and or forcefully immigrated.

CLEEN Foundation consequently called on all critical stakeholders working to curb the rate of forced migration and human trafficking, to remember the plight of women and girls subjected to trafficking, as they remain a substantial number of victims of human trafficking and forced migration.

While commending government for interventions undertaken to address these concerns so far, the foundation called on the Federal and state governments to show greater commitment in formulating more gender sensitive policies and establishing gender sensitive protection services for trafficked women and girls.

CLEEN, he said will continue to work collaboratively with key stakeholders in ensuring that the project outcomes are achieved and recommends that the Federal and State Governments should domesticate the VAPP Act, 2015 and the Child Right’s Act 2003 for greater protection of women and girls in Nigeria.   

It also recommends an improved coordination among law enforcement actors, including NAPTIP, the Nigerian Immigration Service, Police, and others and the need to embark on vigorous investigation and prosecution of traffickers with stringent sentences to serve as deterrent.

It also called for support of NAPTIP to achieve its mandate particularly in providing adequate care for victims and expanding protection shelters.

To achieve the target goal, the foundation is of the view that law enforcement officers should be professional, gender sensitive and proactive in enforcing the relevant protective laws and work with endemic communities to engender communal trust, awareness creation and partnership aimed at preventing further trafficking of women and girls.

It also recommended the need for bodies charged with oversight of law enforcement agencies to monitor the conduct of security personnel and commit to applying accountable measures in the event of  rights violations of trafficked women and girls by state security actors.

It called for the equipment of Gender Desk offices across the state commands and the need to strengthen Anti-trafficking units; Increased female representation across the law enforcement institutions and that the Media should ensure adequate, accurate and balanced reporting of the efforts of the government and citizens in the fight against human trafficking and forced migration of women and girls in Nigeria.

CLEEN Foundation insisted that media practitioners must be professional in their conduct and comply with their codes of conduct for transparent media coverage and avoid fake news, misinformation and disinformation.

The foundation posited that citizens should be encouraged to observe and report perpetrators and enablers of human trafficking and forced migration of women and girls in their communities, avoid spreading fake news, disinformation or misinformation on human trafficking and shun the social and cultural norms that promote forced migration and human trafficking of persons especially women and girls.