Human Trafficking: Not every information on social media is real – UNODC

The Team Leader of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) Trafficking in Person/ Smuggling of Migrants Portfolio, Mrs Abimbola Adewumi has warned Nigerian youths to be wary of human traffickers by saying “Not every information you see on social media is real.”

Mrs Adewumi who stated this during a workshop on “Digital Advocacy on Youth speak Against Human Trafficking,” in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital advised youths to always verify all information both online and offline to avoid being victims of human traffickers.

“Young people, it is not every opportunity you see on social media that you jump at or click on. You have smartphones, if you are in doubt about a particular offer either on education or job, Google it to know the genuineness of that particular information before getting involved, if not you will fall into wrong hands of traffickers.” 

She explained that there has been a disturbing menace of human trafficking of Nigerian youths who are heavy users of the internet.

“In 2020, the report raise alarm of the increased use of technology, this is because of COVID 19 Pandemic, and social distancing people could not go out, everything went down because of the lockdown, people couldn’t travel to recruit people the way they use to do. And so they have to device new ways of identifying and recruiting trafficking victims, which the use of smartphones and internet came in to use. When you look at the demographic of people that use social media, you will know that we have a very vibrant youth on social media, which means they are the ones that will be vulnerable to some of this information. Most times, they drive on fake news, on things that don’t exist and turn it into existence and use it to lure people into being trafficked.”

Mrs Adewumi also stressed the need for everyone to get involved when it comes to youth advocacy on combating human trafficking.

“When it comes to traffickers one thing is certain it is circle of debt bondage that the family can never come out from, the money never reduces, the pay back can never reduce, and trauma never reduces because is emotion. When you look at the trauma people who were trafficked go through, some of them take long to recover from it. So we will continue to speak to parents and community and the state task force that NAPTP had established in Nigeria. These task force are in 23 states and are made up of law agencies in the state, traditional rulers and NGOs, everybody that is an influencer in the state including the media is part of it. We Hope that the traditional rulers and other influencers will continue to sensitize people and do this awareness that, don’t allow your children or your family members to be trafficked. We need everybody to work together on this, NAPTP and UNODC cannot do this alone. Let’s all get involved.” She added

The Chief Executive Officer, iLEAD Africa, Yusuf Abiodun, said that the aim of the workshop was to enable youths acquire more information and insight into effort and means of countering human trafficking in the country.

“The aim of the program is to We are also leveraging on the power of young people because we know they have the power to effect the change in their communities. So when they have proper training we are expecting they take the message from here to the grass roots. We’ll continue with our collaborative efforts to ensure that the message is taken to the grass roots and advocate for an effective policy from the government that will relieve the burden of the citizen and get youth full involve. Because if you are well stand economically, you won’t be looking for alternatives to leave the country for greener pasture. One of the major problem the citizens are facing is poverty vulnerability, which make them fall in to the hands of traffickers. We are using this opportunity to call on the government to also implement policies that will ease economic burden from citizen. We also demand for accountability from traffickers and justice for the victims. Also what we are doing in the marginalise communities is actually an online program, we are still going to have an off line programs to complement the effort of online program to ensure that we reach out the community through the radio program which they actually use.” He said

Mr Abiodun, while speaking on the challenges encountered in mitigating trafficking called for support.

“We still need more hand put together to achieve our goal. Because advocating for a particular cause is not what one organisation can do. we need collaborative like this, we need people to come together to support our initiatives most especially an initiative come from a youth led organisation, so we need more to reach out to more people to advocate online. And to also empower more people With our little we have trained up to 80 participant, so if we have opportunities more than this, we can train up to thousand people to know about human trafficking and create more awareness about the issue.”

Participants at the workshop, who were winners of the Youth Speak Against Human Trafficking Challenge, urged the government to create an enabling environment for youth to use their talents and skills to advocate and help mitigate human trafficking.

The workshop, with 70 young people in attendance, was organized by UNODC and iLEAD Africa, in commemoration of this year’s World Day Against Trafficking-in-Person.

The UNODC project improved Response to Trafficking in persons in Nigeria has helped strengthen Nigeria’s criminal justice response to trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants

Available data shows that more than a million Nigerians are trapped in Mali, Benin, Libya, Chad, as well as countries in Europe and other continents of the world.

Out of this figure, 50,000 Nigerian girls are believed to be victims of human trafficking.

PIAK