By Ben Adoga
As the National Agency for Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP celebrates 2022 World Day Against Human Trafficking, the agency is set to play host to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the supervising Minister, Minister, of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq during the grand finali of activities.
In a press statement issued by the agency in Abuja on Monday, the agency decried the use of technology and internet to prorogate fake news concerning the agency.
In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly held a high-level meeting and designated July 30th as the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
This year’s theme: “Use and Abuse of Technology” focuses on the role of technology as a tool that can enable as well as impede human trafficking.
“ This theme is timely, couldn’t have come at a better time considering the fact that human traffickers now operate online as much as they operate offline. If COVID has taught us anything, it is the re-enforcement of the need for digital channel of communication which has led to a massive digital transformation.
“The fact remains, while technology has come as a great relief and a major boost in the way of life of people, the same has left much to be concerned because human traffickers have also caught on to this digital transformation. There is a shift from physical recruitment to virtual recruitment through virtual assessment of victims and proxy negotiations.
“The Internet provides easy access to a larger pool of potential victims because geographical limitations no longer exist, thereby increasing the ease with which traffickers can locate and recruit their victims; control and organize transportation for victims, communicate amongst perpetrators, and hide criminal proceeds.
“At NAPTIP, we have seen an increase in fake job advertorials and fake scholarships via social media as Traffickers use it to recruit and cat fish unsuspecting victims. Traffickers also use technology to control their victims. For instance, besides oath taking, they make nude videos of their victims and threaten to share the explicit images online.
“While technology is frequently misused to facilitate trafficking in persons, its positive use helps in combat trafficking and support anti-trafficking work, such as aiding investigations that in turn enhances prosecutions, scaling awareness campaigns, development of technology-based tools that support victims and survivors and enhancing international cooperation.
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The celebration which kicked off Monday is expected to last till August 1st and on the list of activities is the premier of a film title, Pound of Heart. A film on organ harvesting produced by the NAPTIP Drama Club, inter-university debate on the 2022 theme.
Others are Anti-Human Trafficking Awareness Walk in Abuja and across the country in Abuja.
Novelty Football Match and Awareness Fitness Exercise and Jogging in collaboration with the Federation of Public Service Games.
There will also be sensitisation activities across the country on human trafficking throughout the week by officers of the Agency and stakeholders. There will also be media appearances by NAPTIP and her partners and stakeholders.
Other participants are International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD); International Organization for Migration (IOM); International Ibero America Foundation for Administration & Public Policy (FIIAPP); Sir Emeka Offor Foundation and FORTEM Microfinance Institution.
