IOM Advises Prevention And Prosecution As Key Factors To Eradicating Human Trafficking

By Bukar BOLORI

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has advocated for a two-pronged approach of prevention and prosecution for the eradication of human trafficking.

The Deputy Head of Mission, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Ms Paola Pace gave the advice on Thursday in Abuja at the award ceremony of the third edition of the short film contest on combatting trafficking in persons in Nigeria, organised by the United Nations agency, which was part of activities for the celebration of this year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, with the theme: “Human Trafficking is Organized Crime – End the Exploitation.”

Pace said as the global fight against trafficking in persons is commemorated on July 30, yearly, during World Day against Trafficking in Persons, such provides opportunity to reflect progress and challenges made in tackling trafficking in persons.

According to her, the contest this year attracted dozens of powerful entries from across the country with winners selected for their compelling narratives, originality and technical excellence.

Pace said: “We started with 40, then 50 and now 80 submissions of short films. So there is more interest from young Nigerians to also join the counter-trafficking path through storytelling from real case scenarios they have witnessed in their own community or stories they want to tell.

“The first year the winner projected the movie during the film festival in Lagos, the second year during Kaduna Film Festival. This year Naptip will help us amplify the voices of these young cinematographers.

“We have worked closely with the government. We are working on migration, specifically abusive form of migration that is crime, that is trafficking everywhere and have learned lots of things.

“In fact, in order to eradicate trafficking, you really need to work on the prevention side and the prosecution side because traffickers do this terrible thing because of the money involved.

“So, freezing of bank accounts, really going by the networks, using that money for the survivor to thrive is the only way forward. At the same time we need to reduce the number of those lured in these false promises.”

She explained the choice of storytelling and the role played by stakeholders in ending human trafficking to be critical in ensuring the sustainable eradication of the crime.

For her part, Director of Public Enlightenment, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Kehinde Akomolafe commended IOM’s strategy on helping people understand that their relatives, even their employer and people in their community could be behind trafficking networks.

According to her, there is the need to deepen collaboration towards ending trafficking because such concerns women, girls, boys and men who are lured into promises from their own families.

She said: “We have so much to thank IOM for, because even in the capacity building and awareness creation, they have been of immense support to the agency.

“Through the support of IOM, we’ve carried out quite a lot of sensitisation and training of judges in the sphere of human trafficking, such that we have some designated courts that treat only human trafficking cases.

“We have gotten over 700 convictions in the agency. However, that is from inception and we actually rescued over 20,000 victims, rescued and empowered over 20,000 Nigerians,” Akomolafe said.

She decried ignorance on the part of victims of trafficking to hinder progress in tackling the crime, saying there should be increase in awareness creation, intervention and breaking the culture of silence.

Meanwhile, a media strategist, cultural advocate and storyteller for development who emerged winner of the contest and carted away a prize money of $2,500 for his entry: “The Hostage”, Babalola Oluwatobi said every awareness creation is key to achieve targets in ending trafficking.

Oluwatobi said: “Every aspect of advocacy for people to get the right message around how to relate to information that are likely to prevent them from danger of trafficking is important.

“Individuals do not pay attention to close friends, family members and people in the front line of engineering these acts or even carrying them out. This calls for serious attention.”

Jayeoba David, a Nigerian storyteller and digital creative came second with “Promise Beyond the Border” winning a cash prize of $1,500, while Ndulue Emmanuel, a Nigerian filmmaker, creative director, graphic designer, cinematographer and mobile content expert emerged third with “Click the Link” going home witj$1,000.

The short film contest started in 2023 as an annual event aimed at raising awareness and encouraging public engagement through creative storytelling around the fight against human trafficking in Nigeria.