Community members urged to join hands to fight human trafficking
Mr. Wahab Suhuyini Wumbei, Tolon/Kumbungu District Chief Executive (DCE), on Thursday appealed to community members to join hands with stakeholders in the fight against forced labour and human trafficking.
He said “It is necessary for community members in the Tolon-Kumbungu District to join forces with all relevant agencies in the war to eliminate forced labour and human trafficking particularly among children and women”.
Mr. Wumbei said this in a speech read for him at the handing over of some human trafficking monitoring equipment to three communities in the district.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is carrying out a pilot project that seeks to contribute to the prevention of human trafficking through targeted awareness raising, prevention and rescuing of trafficked victims through community based outreach and assistance in one pilot region in Ghana and Nigeria.
The communication and transport equipment included three Yamaha 125 Motorbikes, six bicycles and six mobile phones, and were given to some members in Gbanjon, Garizegu and Galinkpegu communities where the pilot project is underway.
Mr Wumbei said studies that had identified the three northern regions as source and transit point of trafficked humans and child labour.
He thanked ILO for the assistance to complement government efforts at fighting human trafficking.
Mr. Mathew Dally, the National Programme Coordinator of the ILO who represented the German Development Organization (GTZ), programme expressed ILO's gratitude of partnering in the project that sought to build the capacity of grassroots community members to prevent people being trafficked and rescuing victims.
Mr. Dally said estimates in trafficking in persons, in West Africa alone was between 200,000 and 800,000, and had become a major criminal activity and a source of illicit incomes.
He urged the district assemblies to be more proactive in finding sustainable solutions to the causes of human trafficking by working to end poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and large and family sizes culminating in irresponsible parenthood and negative cultural practices.
He also called for measures to provide enough educational facilities and opportunities and help solve domestic violence, high unemployment rate and high demand for cheap labour.