Grace Obike, Abuja
THE British government, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Switzerland and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies, have all commended Nigeria’s progress in the fight against human trafficking.
The achievements which the international community says has been recorded through the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has led to the government’s collaboration with several countries to stem the scourge of human trafficking in the country.
Regional capacity building manager, British High Commission, Tim Galvin said that the British government will continue to support NAPTIP in the excellent work that it is doing.
He said that the achievements recorded by the agency in the last 15 years of its creation is impressive and his government has been working with the agency in pursuing criminals involved in trafficking and its prevention.
Galvin said this in Abuja, at the 24th stakeholders’ consultative forum on combating human trafficking.
His words, “Human trafficking is an international crime that requires an international response across governments and agencies working together, I have seen the tremendous progress that has been made by NAPTIP, the British government supports and will continue supporting NAPTIP and the excellent work they are doing.
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Seeing NAPTIP and what they have achieved over the last 15 years is very impressive. There is no magic formula to tackling human trafficking, it need to be done in various ways, it could be prevention, pursuing the criminals involved, prevent people becoming victims and protect people who do fall victim, in terms of NAPTIP, the result that they have achieved these years is commendable and it is lovely to meet with a lot of these people those involved with NAPTIP and discuss the work that they have achieved.”
Deputy country regulator UNODC, Elizabeth Bayes said that the global statistics for 2018 on trafficking in persons places the global figure of trafficked victims from 2003-2016 at 225,000.
She said, “Through our partnership with NAPTIP, we have achieved a lot in the past two years. As the guradians of the United Nations conventional transnational organized crimes and its protocols on human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, UNODC have highlighted in the past few uears what we call peace, prevention, prosecution and protection, we have laid a foundation with many agencies including NAPTIP’s leadership in all these areas.”
Director General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli since her inception into office in 2017, she has pursued the fight against human trafficking with unprecedented vigour through organisational and policy re-engineering which is evident in the establishment of various programme and strategies such as the establishment of a reform unit.
She added that it also includes the commissioning of a new zonal command in Oshogbo, Osun state, the introduction of i-report app as well as increased awareness of human trafficking both at home and abroad.
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