BENIN CITY – In its resolved to curb Human Trafficking and Forced Migration in Edo State, CLEEN Foundation, a non-profit and governmental organisation in the country has organised a 2-Day Capacity Building Workshop for Community-Based Women Led Organisations In the State.
The awareness and sensitisation workshop holding in Benin City, the State capital is well attended by critical stakeholders in the State.
Delivering the Chief Executive Director’s welcome address, Dr. Benson Olugbuo, the Legal Officer of the Foundation, Fikih Obaro, said that the training is aimed at enhancing the advocacy and communication skills, understanding of extent legal frameworks and improving the gender responsiveness of participants at the grassroots towards helping in the fight against Human Trafficking and Forced Migration in Edo State.
He disclosed that the program was conceptualised following failure of various institutional and legal frameworks to address human trafficking, forced migration, gender and non-gender related crime in Nigeria.
He lamented that cursory review of some of the laws, policies and protection services on trafficking and migration indicated that they are blind, devoid of gender sensitivity required to school prevention of irregular migration, trafficking as well as greater responsiveness to the need of victims of trafficking.
“Following the success of the earlier capacity building program which helped to improve the advocacy and communication strategies for anti-human trafficking interventions for Community based women led organisations which has placed them to prevent human trafficking and forced migration in communities;
“CLEEN Foundation is organizing a second capacity building program for the same women led organisations but different participants to enable effective scale down to their respective organisations and constituencies where they are domiciled”, Obaro maintained.
Speaking with The NIGERIAN OBSERVER during the workshop, the Edo State Coordinator of CLEEN Foundation, Mrs. Blessing Eromon, said that the foundation has taken the fight against human trafficking and forced migration in Edo State as one of his core mandates.
“The training is aimed at curbing human trafficking and forced migration and with our constant capacity building workshop, with more knowledge and awareness in relation to the subject, we believe that human trafficking and forced migration will be curb in Edo State.
Delivering her lecture on the topic:”Understanding Gender in the context of forced migration and trafficking”, Dr. Nosa
Aladeselu, said that the end product of human trafficking is sexual exploitation of victims by the traffickers.
She revealed that forced migration is the push that makes one to leave the present place of habitation to a different place as a result of conflict, insecurity, disaster, persecution and government authority, adding that the underlying reason for forced migration is to seek better living condition.
