BY the year 2020, the menace of human trafficking in Edo State will be a thing of the past, Governor Godwin Obaseki has vowed.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at an event to deepen strategies towards dealing with the phenomenon, he said he had made that a priority objective to achieve by the end of his first tenure in 2020.
He told his audience which included members of the diplomatic corps that his target is to reduce human trafficking by 50 percent this year.
To demonstrate his commitment, he signed into law, the state’s anti-trafficking law.
He explained that the state’s strategy to eradicate human trafficking is anchored on four pillars including “Returnee, resettlement and re-integration; Reducing irregular migration, Eradicating human trafficking and Providing quality public services in at-risk communities.”
Pillar One seeks to enable the dignified reception and re-integration for all returnees to Edo State, promote a safe voluntary return of migrants and explore migration agreements with key destination countries. This, he said, is to ensure that returnees are properly resettled to reduce the possibility of further illegal immigration and re-trafficking.
Pillar Two’s main objective is to enhance the economic empowerment of youth and returnees for the purpose of reducing the economic pressure which drives migration to Europe and other destination countries.
The main objective of Pillar Three, the governor stated, is to enable targeted programmes geared towards tackling all forms of human trafficking/modern slavery from Edo State through the 4Ps of protection, prevention, prosecution and partnership.
Pillar 4 seeks to explore/expand programmes that enhance the delivery of basic social service and social protection to citizens and returnees.
According to him, this is aimed at improving the overall quality of life and security of Edo State residents who live in the poorest communities where most of the returnees and trafficked victims come from.
“Data from returnees highlight that people from specific communities are much more likely to participate in irregular migration than others,” Obaseki said.
The governor said one of the measures to check the illegal migration menace is to help prospective migrants to regularize their movement through providing relevant skills and facilitating visa issuance.
Expatriating on this, the governor told journalists at the sideline of the event: “You cannot stop migration, it is a global phenomenon that has been with mankind, people will just like to move.
“And so what we are saying is if young people have made up their minds to travel, we saying let us help you to do it properly, let us regularize it for you. Because, today people coming into our cities, and seeing these young men and women, collect huge sums of money from them up to N500,000, under the pretext that they are going to get them visas and take them abroad. And these youngsters fall into it and that is why we have over 10,000 of them so swindled last year.
“So, we are saying if you want to travel abroad, come, we will work with the federal government. There are bilateral agreements with various countries, we will train you so that you have some certification so that when you go abroad you can find a real job. Also, we will in the process get your visas.”
Also speaking, European Union (EU) Ambassador, Ketil Karlsen, observed that victims of human trafficking are faced with the tragic situation.
He praised the political will governor and the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II to deal with the menace head-on.
Karlson said the EU in conjunction with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has supported the safe and voluntary return of 8,142 Nigerians from Libya, the majority of them from Edo State.
The diplomat also announced that the EU has so far spent €20 million on specific projects in Edo to facilitate job creation as well as work in 133 communities of Edo, reading 170,000 beneficiaries.