Cross section of participants at the 25th national stakeholders’ consultative forum on human trafficking and presentation of three policy documents on Thursday in Abuja
By Aderogba George
Abuja, April 28, 2022
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stressed the need for cordial working relationship among stakeholders to tackle the menace of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants in and out of the country.
The vice president, who said this at the 25th National Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Human Trafficking, stated that human trafficking and smuggling of migrants was a challenge of extra-ordinary magnitude.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event also featured the presentation of three policy documents on human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
NAN also reports that the event was championed by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
According to Osinbajo, it is only by working together that the issue of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants can be won, and that it is a course he supported dearly.
The vice president, however, admitted that for the war against human trafficking and smuggling of migrants to be won totally, the issue of poverty among Nigerians must first be tackled, and it simply means investing on people.
According to him, the Federal Government is doing everything within its ambit to address the issue of poverty through encouragement of Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) businesses, granting of loans, encouraging agriculture and others.
He said that the government would continue to go in this direction where poverty will be alleviated totally in the country.
The NAPTIP Director-General, Dr Fatima Waziri-Azi, said that the three policy documents included the National Action Plan on Human Trafficking 2022-2026, Protocol for Identification, Safe Return and Rehabilitation of Trafficked Persons 2022 and the National Policy for Protection and Assistance to Trafficked Persons in Nigeria (2022 Revised Edition). They were recently approved by the Federal Executive Council.
She disclosed that the National Stakeholders Consultative Forum was instituted in 2004 as a platform for stock taking amongst stakeholders working in the human trafficking space
She added that it provided an avenue for all stakeholders to assess their efforts in addressing human trafficking.
According to her, it is also a platform to examine successes, setbacks, in theory, practice and actions taken by the government and the society as well as strengthen cooperation, collaboration, communication and partnership between the NAPTIP and its partners.
She stated further that since inception, the agency had worked tirelessly in making human trafficking a national priority by putting the issue at the fore-front of National and International discourse, saying that a lot had happened since the last National Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum held in Nov. 2019.
The director-general disclosed that the agency was currently having 261 ongoing cases in various courts across the country.
On his part, the IOM Chief of Mission to Nigeria, Mr Frantz Celestin, stated that the organisation had been implementing Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) projects since 2001, the largest project with the highest caseload with the support of the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF).
Celestin, who was represented by Mrs. Prestige Morina, said that the organisation had also assisted NAPTIP in refurbishing three of its shelters in Enugu, Akwa Ibom and Abuja, and pledged the continuous support of the organization to the Nigeria government.
The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) Country Representative, Mr Oliver Stolpe, expressed happiness that UNODC had supported the process of the three policy documents from the beginning to their final stage.
According to Stolpe, the UNODC supports document preparation by first conducting an in-depth baseline assessment through preparing the ground for evidence based planning, and the development of framework.
“Subsequently, we supported NAPTIP in the conduct of a wide range of stakeholder’s consultations, eventually producing the final draft which was endorsed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) a few weeks ago.
“The plan sets clear objectives, charts a well-calibrated implementation strategy, establishes distinct institutional accountabilities and outlines ambitious timelines. As such it prepares the ground for our collective efforts towards greater impact.
“We welcome the strong focus on prevention and prosecution both critical in reducing the prevalence of human trafficking.
“We also congratulate NAPTIP and all stakeholders on elevating data, research, monitoring and evaluation to a self-standing objective enabling us to identify changes in the trend of trafficking,” Stolpe said.
