By: Nyima Sillah
Isatou Dabo, Executive Director of the National Agency against Trafficking in Persons (NAATIP) has assured more convictions on trafficking cases.
Executive Director, made this remark yesterday during the opening ceremony of the NAATIP one-day training workshop for transport personnel and law enforcement officers on TIP and the NRH, held at the WALIC Conference Centre.
Madam Dabo said “This is a message to perpetrators. NAATIP is watching and through our training and public sensitization programs, the public will equally be watching. The number of prosecutions will increase and there will be more convictions in trafficking cases. Anyone found wanting shall face the full force of the law.”
She added that the National Agency against Trafficking in persons continues in its efforts to contain trafficking in person as mandated by the 2007 TIP ACT.
However, she said Human Trafficking is a form of modern slavery that is the recruitment, transport, and transfer, of persons using force, fraud, or coercion to exploit them for the act of labor or sex.
According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking is the fastest-growing organized crime with approximately $150 billion in annual profits and 40.3 million individuals trapped in slave-like conditions.
While it is not compulsory to involve transportation for human trafficking, the transportation industry plays a critical role in combating human trafficking as traffickers often rely on the transportation system to recruit, move or transfer victims of human trafficking for either sex or forced labor.
“Law enforcement offices are equally key stakeholders for it is the immigration officers, personnel of the Gambia Police Force, State Intelligence agency and the Drug Law enforcement agency that are stationed at every entry and exit point of which the victims and in some cases smugglers pass through to get their destination.”
Chief Superintendent of Police Mr. Lamin Jaiteh added that it is important that they are involved in such training to aid in their daily operations as police officers because Human Trafficking is very delicate and done in secret.
He added that it is very important for the security unit to be well-equipped to handle this problem.