Politics
THE Federal Government says it plans to check modern day slavery through awareness creation activities on the effects of illegal immigration, child labour, sexual abuse and other vices.
Mrs Memunat Idu-Lah, Director, International Cultural Relations, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
NAN reports that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), designated August 23 each year as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, and Nigeria is preparing to join other member countries to commemorate the day.
Idu-Lah said the ministry in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders would use the celebration to showcase the experience of victims of trafficking, to educate Nigerians on the tricks of potential traffickers.
She said that: “We are looking at the effect of this slave trade on Africans and the effects of what we termed as modern day slavery.
“We have learnt in history about how people are enslaved; now we can see how people are being trafficked.
“There is illegal immigration where people are moving to locations they are not sure of their means of livelihood. Many of them die in transit, all those vices, child labour, sexual abuse, all sorts of things that are going on.
“We want to see how we can use this celebration to also reach out to people to create awareness, let them know that these things people are doing are another forms of slavery.
“And it means we are not yet out of slavery, as of those of us who went to school and study history, we learnt of Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“We should be able to look at what is happening now and correct these modern day slavery.”
According to her, this is because generations to come will sit down and read what we did during our own time.
Idu-Lah said that: “It will be bad if we as educated as we are, cannot check this modern day slavery that is going on.
“One of the ways of checking it is through awareness because a lot of people don’t even know when they are being lured to be trafficked, they don’t know.
“Through this celebration, we can reach out; we might be having people who have experienced it,
“They will come out to tell people their experiences and alert people on the kind of languages traffickers use, how they lure them.
“People will get to know that when somebody comes and says those kinds of things they will know that this is a possible trafficker,” she said.
NAN
– Aug. 01, 2021 @ 15:24 GMT |
Tags: FG to check modern day slavery via awareness creation – Official
