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The Minister of Social Welfare Melrose Karminty has addressed 12 journalists at the Journalism Centre on Global Trafficking and the Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach second phase of its Sierra Leone’s journalism training programme on Human Trafficking and Child Labour.
In her statement in Freetown at the Journalism Centre on Global Trafficking and the Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach second phase journalism training programme on human trafficking and child labour, she addressed journalists on the need to take the event very seriously and have the issue dealt with.
The second face was to build the capacity of journalist to report on human trafficking and child labor issues, serving as partners in development of which she the participants understand that Human trafficking is a heinous crime and grave human rights violation affecting men, women and children all around the world for which they have to take a proactive step to have it dealt with immediate effect.
She maintained that, the latest Global Estimates by the IOM Sierra Leone and the International Labour Organization indicate that 28 million people are trapped in various forms of trafficking and almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims, citing the 2023 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.
“Sierra Leone is a source, transit, and destination country for thousands of children and women trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation every year.” She stated
She added that, the report states that over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Sierra Leone, and traffickers exploited victims abroad who were taken from Sierra Leone and with regards child trafficking she disclosed that a new collaborative report from APRIES University of Liverpool and the University of Georgia, which estimate that, “33% of children aged 5 to 17 in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province alone have experienced child trafficking, and 36% have experienced child labour.
The report also reveals that the populations most vulnerable to trafficking include 12-to-17-year-old children, children who have lost one or both parents, and children not enrolled in school.”
Explaining what government through her ministry and the Anti-Trafficking In Persons Task Force Secretariat-Sierra Leone is doing to combat such, she notified that tremendous efforts have been made with the support of partners both local and international to develop policy frameworks and strategies to combat trafficking since the end of the civil war in 2003 which cost more than 50,000 lives and set the ground for human trafficking networks.
She mentioned the first human trafficking conference held in February 2022; establishment of a National Task Force on Human Trafficking; passing into law of the anti-human traffic and migrant smuggling act of 2022 which replaced the 2005 anti human trafficking act; convictions secured at the High Court of Sierra Leone relating to human trafficking cases; regional engagements; launching of a victims of trafficking trust fund among others.
She revealed that, central to the process of anti-trafficking management and intervention is the effective operationalization of a National Referral Mechanism (NRM) that provides a step-by-step procedural structure to be followed by all Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP) institutions and groups in their day-to-day management of potential cases of trafficking – victim identification and rescue as well as protection (including rehabilitation, reintegration, case investigation and prosecution).
She expressed her commitments to the process and always working to ensure that, the issues are dealt with, adding that, the ministry’s role can encompass involving different sectors to enhance effective and efficient monitoring and supervision in attaining a comprehensive goal.
