The Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women and Children, along with the Rivers State Taskforce on Anti-Human Trafficking (NAPTIP), are a coalition of non-governmental organizations that have urged parents to keep a close eye on their children and wards during the state’s extended holiday.
The CSOs also exhorted recent graduates and school dropouts to enter society with creativity and diligence rather than desperation, emphasizing that the desire to quickly achieve a new status has led to many becoming victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, human trafficking, and organ harvesting.
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Tombari Dumka-Kote, Coordinator, Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women and Children, and Secretary, Rivers State Anti-Human Trafficking Taskforce, said in a statement signed on Saturday by Queeneth Igbara, Communication and Public Enlightenment officer, that the joint campaign is now required because human trafficking is a crime against humanity in addition to gender-based violence.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has named July 30th as World Day Against Human Trafficking, and he alluded to the program’s start of activities to commemorate this annual event.
Dumka-Kote stated that the message must be taken to the market’s buyers and sellers because they are not exempt from the group of people who may be influenced by traffickers’ actions.
“Human trafficking is an organized crime that impacts families, particularly women and children who are sexually exploited and abused,” said Queeneth Igbara, Programme Officer, Centre for Justice, Empowerment & Development.
She insisted that parents of children in the Oroworokwo Community markets protect them from predators and individuals whose only goal is to take advantage of the weaker elements of society.
Assuring the women of the support of the CSOs and the Taskforce in collaborating with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to address all reported cases of trafficking, child labor, and exploitation within the State was Donwile Apenu, a representative of the OLEGH Centre for Community Development.
NAPTIP, Relief International Africa, and the Together to Win Foundation spokespeople were among the other speakers at the Oroworokwo Community Market’s awareness campaign on “Zero Tolerance for Human Trafficking and Gender Based Violence.”
Ending the exploitation of human trafficking is the theme for the 2025 World Day Against Human Trafficking.
