A non-governmental organization that implements advocacy, prevention activities, rescue, and rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking through shelter, family tracing, vocational training, and empowerment has inaugurated a support network in Delta State for the survivors of human trafficking.
The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the Executive Director of EWCF, Adaramola Emmanuel on Wednesday at Lighthouse Suites, Asaba, the Delta State capital, as victims of human trafficking were in attendance.
The Executive Director while speaking, describes the inauguration support network as a family gathering of those who have survived human trafficking by ways of sharing their experiences, as many didn’t make it out of the situation.
Conducting the event, Adaramola said everyone present is a victim of human trafficking in Senegal, adding that most of them were tricked and deceived to such places as some through exploitative labor and sexual exploitation, while others through mining exploitation.
He also said they are working with an organization known as ‘Free The Slaves’, An international organization that is currently operating in Sub-Saharan Africa, stressing that the ‘Free The Slave’ organization partnered with a functional organization in each country while its West Africa office is situated in Ghana.
He added that in Senegal, The Free The Slave organization partnered with another organization that focused on the search and rescue of victims of human trafficking and then sponsored them to their countries.
According to him, 61 Nigerians have been brought back into the country between November 2022 and June 2023, with additional 3 female babies that were given birth to by some of the victims, emphasizing that some of the survivors are from Delta, Edo, Taraba, Anambra, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Rivers, Ekiti, and Lagos State.
Explaining the job of his organization, the Emmanuel World Children Foundation, Adaramola said, when the organizations from Ghana and Senegal send the survivors to the Nigeria airport, his organization took over the survivors from the airport and takes them to their shelter known as ‘The Ark Children Home’ in Ondo State, where they provide them with accommodation, counseling, rehabilitation, and tracing of their families by also helping them to settle down based on their area of interest among other things when the need arises.
He clarified that 16 of the survivors are already learning some skills like fashion & design, hairdressing, catering & decoration, make-up, and auxiliary nurse, adding that others will join in a few weeks.
The Executive Director of EWCF continue by saying “each support group is to leverage on each other strength and support by sharing ideas and challenges, as he said, over 15000 thousands Nigerians are in Senegal while about 16000 in Mali and other Africa countries including the Gambia, Ghana, Libya, Togo, Dubai, and others.
In his words, he said “We want the media to let people know that the traffickers majorly target vulnerable young girls, deceive them that they will provide job opportunity for them like selling in the super market or as house help who will be earning N120k per month.
“There are so many cliques and gangs going about recruiting young and innocent girls, deceiving them. These cliques have spread all over the place with a very strong network and connection. Every of the survivors are picked up by different individuals who handle them to another individual at a different locations until they get to their destination.”
“For instance, one will pick you from the village, then handover to another man in Calabar, from there, another will took over in Lagos then another from Benin Republic to Ghana, and from there, another will took over to Senegal which make It difficult for one to determine the main person to hold.”
“We want the media to let the communities and the people to know that the trafficker have shifted to young girls between the age of 10-14, they are now the target, Primary and Secondary school girls. As an organization and a family, we want the public to know about what is happening and we don’t want them to fall victims of that trap. If anyone tells you that he or she wants to help you in overseas, don’t believe them because a lot of people have lost their lives in the process while some of their families are still expecting their return.
“We also want the media to let the people know that our organization is doing this kind of a thing in the state. We’ve had meetings with the Ministry of Women Affair and the Delta State taskforce on human trafficking. Our organization is doing this job with our partner, ‘FREE THE SLAVE’ here in Nigeria. We have survivors across 12 states and the highest number of survivors state is Edo followed by Delta State, Adaramola stated.
Some of the survivors who speak during event said, they were tricked to Senegal by the traffickers who promised to help them with job. They added that they were also taken to spiritual houses were they swear an oath never to revealed to anyone what they are going there to do.
One of the victim who doesn’t know she was pregnant at that time until she get to Senegal said, she got the connection to go to Senegal through one of her sister’s friend in Benin, Edo State.
According to her, the lady said her sister living abroad will help her with a job when she get there, unknowingly she was pregnant at that time. “when I get to Senegal and discovered that I was pregnant, I told the woman that in charge of me in Senegal that I am pregnant, but she said it doesn’t mean anything that they will abort the pregnancy. It took the intervention of one woman who saw me in the street and have compassion on me and took me to the government agency in Senegal were they take care of me and my unborn child until I put to birth.”
Another survivor stated that she was deceived by a lady who approached her and told her that her sister who is living overseas has a bar where she sell drinks and she need four girls that will be working for her. According to the survivor, she went to inform her friend and they both embark on the journey. They left without their families knowing exactly where they are going to.
She said when they get to Senegal, the woman that received them took their phones from them and told them that they should rest a little then give them packs of condoms to use, when they rejected the condom, they were been maltreated without food.
