Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) have called on the federal government to embark on massive job creation, create a quality educational system, and come up with infrastructure that supports entrepreneurship, to discourage the alarming trend of irregular migrations in the country.
Making this charge, over the weekend at a seminar on World’s Day Against Trafficking in Persons, organised by LCCI, in collaboration with some non-governmental organisations, in Lagos, were LCCI’s President, Mrs Toki Mabogunje and Director General, NACCIMA, Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni.
In her welcome address, the LCCI’s president, Mrs Toki Mabogunje, stated that the call had become imperative since traffic in persons, especially children, had taken a horrendous dimension in the country.
Citing the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) report, Mabogunje argued that human trafficking, globally, generates an estimated $150 billion in profits annually, with about 25 million people, being exploited by the traffickers, during the period under review.
“17 per cent are trafficked for forced labour, while 80 per cent are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Children, women, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons, are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking,” she added.
The LCCI’s boss explained that the decision of the chamber to organise the seminar was informed by the need to bring the plight of many victims of human trafficking to the front-burner.
According to her, many of the victims had been ignored in their attempts to get help, while some, she added, had continued to have traumatic post-rescue experiences during identification interviews and legal proceedings.
“Some have faced re-victimisation and punishment for crimes they were forced to commit by their traffickers. Others have been subjected to stigmatisation or received inadequate support,” she stated.
Mabogunje, therefore, harped on the need to learn from victims’ experiences, so as turn their suggestions into concrete actions that would lead to a more victim-centred and effective approach in combating human trafficking.
In his remarks, the Director-General, Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, called on the federal government to take the issue of education of the Nigerian citizens seriously to prevent them from falling victims to human trafficking.
Ambassador Olukanni also called on the nation’s private sector to support the federal government in its efforts at rehabilitating victims of human trafficking.
“While it is obvious that the federal government can not do it alone, I think corporate organisations also have a role to play in taking in some of the survivors,” he stated.
According to Ambassador Olukanni, the chamber had also put some program in place that would enable it to absorb some of these survivors and retrain them to make them useful to society.
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