BENIN CITY- A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), CLEEN foundation, yesterday, called on traditional institutions, religious bodies and the state government to join in its quest to end the scourge of human trafficking in Edo State.
The Executive Director of the group, Benson Olugbuo, made the call at a town hall meeting titled”Community Awareness: Panacea to Ending Trafficking of Women and Girls held in Benin City.
He said it is estimated that 85 percent of Nigerian sex workers in Europe originated or migrated from Edo State noting also that the International Organization for Migration, (IOM) in 2018 puts the figure at over 60 percent.
He Olugbuo said in Edo State, Orhionmwon, Oredo and Ikpoba Okha local government areas respectively constitute some of the main recruiting centres for traffickers while also being the main areas of departure of irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Olugbuo said Nigeria has in the last two years, evacuated thousands of its citizens from Libya and Lebanon after they have suffered several forms of abuses including enslavement.
Olugbuo said the crime of trafficking in persons is clandestine and complex just as he said is a modern day form of slavery and with negative long term effects on the victims and the society at large, particularly its disproportionately effect on the women and girls.
Olugbuo further called on the various stakeholders in the state to work with the foundation to put an end to it.
