Joseph Osuigwe and Ambassador Rachel Bakam advocate for proactive action against human trafficking

Joseph Osuigwe and Ambassador Rachel Bakam advocate for proactive action against human trafficking

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (WDATP) is a call to end human trafficking and give hope to the victims who often live unrecognized among us. This is also a period to get private sectors, individuals, organizations and government to support the fight against human trafficking through donations and sponsorship.  It is a period to promote the awareness and fight against human trafficking around the world.  There are over 27 million victims of human trafficking globally while 30, 000 victims die every year as a result of abuse, torture, and illness.

To commemorate 2016 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Joseph Osuigwe, an anti-human trafficking advocate and Ambassador Rachel Bakam, an actress, TV personality and producer spoke to Nigerians on why they need to take action against human trafficking. During their advocacy talk at African Independent Television studio, Ambassador Rachel said that human trafficking is the use of deception, or force to exploit the services and dignity of women and young people. She stated that women and girls are more vulnerable to human trafficking and made up of 70 percent of the victims. According to her, girls as young as 6 years are sexually exploited by perpetrators. 

Joseph Osuigwe expounded on the harm of human trafficking. He categorically stated that the human trafficking is a weapon against the future of young people. Joseph stated, “27 million victims of human trafficking are more than the population of Netherland, Ghana, North Korea, Togo, etc. At least 80 of the victims are young people which include women, girls, boys and children between the ages of 6 and 25 year. Each year, 32 billion dollars is generated from the exploitation of victims. The future of young people have been frustrated, their vision delayed and potentials caged because of the triumph of human trafficking which has continued to thrive in the shadow and silence of others”. He stressed the need for proactive action in addressing human trafficking and called on young people to be in the forefront of combating human trafficking. Joseph categorically stated that young people need to use their intellectual weapons like creativity, talents, abilities, and ideas to combat human trafficking.

The two guest interviewees (Ambassador Rachel Bakam and Joseph Osuigwe) at Kakaaki Show of African Independent Television(AIT) appealed to Nigerians to open their eyes to the realities of human trafficking and join in combating it. They advised organizations, companies, philanthropists, and religious group to support the fight against the crime thereby saving more young people from been trafficked.