The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, says with the emerging trends in human trafficking no one is safe from the perpetrators’ tricks.
It said all hands must be on deck to fight the menace.
Delivering a lecture on “The Emerging Trends, Tricks and Routes of Human Trafficking”, at the training and capacity development on Standard Reporting Template for Members of the Trafficking in Persons, Media Corps and Officers of Press and Public Relations in Delta State, Southern Nigeria. The NAPTIP’s Director of Public Enlightenment, Josiah Emerole said that all hands must be on deck to curb trafficking.
On the new trends of traffickers, Mr Josiah Emerole pointed out that with the development of technology and social media, the use of technology has helped in the tracking, investigation and apprehension of traffickers.
“Technology can also have a positive use in helping to combat crime such as aiding investigations, enhancing prosecutions, raising awareness and providing services to victims.”
The Director of Public Enlightenment, however, noted that traffickers have capitalised on the new technology to carry out evil acts of trafficking, thereby misusing technology to engage to lure unsuspecting members of the public.
Some of these trends perpetrated with the use of social media and the new technology, although not limited to commercial surrogacy, football trafficking, orphanage trafficking, advertisements of real jobs in the Middle East, marriage and oath-taking at the destination, have been used to lure survivors of human trafficking.
“Traffickers have integrated technology at every stage of the process; from recruiting to exploiting victims. Many children are approached or lured by traffickers on social media. Social network sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, and Twitter are one of the most popular destinations on the media. There is no doubt that these sites have contributed negatively to the high level of cases involving human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.”
“Human traffickers use the social media as a tool in luring their victims through fake advertising offers that are always too good to be true.”
In the areas of partnerships, Mr Emerole said that NAPTIP has worked with traditional rulers to understand some strategies of traffickers which has helped in the fight against trafficking.
He added that NAPTIP has also collaborated with various social media platforms as part of an effort to utilise the new technology in addressing human trafficking,
“NAPTIP has gone into some relationship with Facebook and the US Center for Missing Persons so that as soon as we get something we can flag it and also as soon as they also see such suspicious post from Nigeria, they can also send alert to us.”
NAPTIP’s Director of Public Enlightenment stated that this move has yielded improved results saying “this is also yielding positive results because we have received many alerts and investigations are also going on regarding such reports.”
At the training, the President of a non-governmental organisation, Journalists International Forum for Migration, JI FORM, Mr Abayomi Ajibola stressed that the media must influence the government in combating the rising cases of trafficking.
Affirming the relevance of journalists in the war against trafficking, Mr Ajibola said that the government must be informed of the causes of trafficking so practical steps can be taken in reducing its causes.
“We also must tell our government that those people that are being trafficked and returned to Nigeria, what are their stance in the society? What is the government doing to rehabilitate them? The media must tell the government what needs to be done, what strategies are to be adopted in addressing the surge of human trafficking.”
JIFORM President emphasised that “the government must be given quality information on causes of trafficking so that practical steps can be taken in reducing the number of cases.”
“The media must therefore up the ante on public enlightenment to prevent the act, expose those behind the crime and call for various support for the survivors through rehabilitation and re-integration,” added Mr Abayomi.
Dominica Nwabufo
