The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has taken the fight against trafficking in persons, organ harvesting and others to various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, telegram amongst others.
The Director General of NAPTIP, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, stated this yesterday, while interacting with journalists on plans and programs for the commemoration of the 2022 World Day against Human Trafficking.
The DG, while observing that NAPTIP was already partnering with major owners of various social media platforms, disclosed that the agency would in a few months time unveil the, “NAPTIP Alert” which is aimed at sensitising innocent Nigerians of the activities of online traffickers.
She lamented that human traffickers have, “shifted from physical recruitment to virtual recruitment through virtual assessment of victims and proxy negotiations.”
According to Waziri-Azi, NAPTIP has seen an increase in fake job advertorials and fake scholarships via social media, adding that traffickers use it to recruit and cat fish unsuspecting victims.
“Traffickers also use technology to control their victims. For instance, besides oath taking, they make nude videos of their victims and threaten to share the explicit images online.
“While technology is frequently misused to facilitate trafficking in persons, its positive use helps combat trafficking and support anti -trafficking work, such as aiding investigations that in turn enhances prosecution, scaling awareness campaigns, development of technology-based tools that support victims and survivors and enhancing international cooperation, ” she said.
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Among the lineup of events to make this year’s celebration include: short films, inter university debate on the 2022 theme, anti-human trafficking awareness walk, novelty football match and awareness fitness and jogging as well as a celebration with victims of human trafficking.
Also speaking at the media parley, representative of the International Organisation for Migration, Prestage Murima, noted that this year’s theme: Use and Abuse of Technology,” was apt because it focuses on the role of technology as a tool that can both enable and impede human trafficking.
“Prevention and awareness-raising activities on the safe use of the internet and social media could help mitigate the risk of people falling victim of trafficking online. “Hence cooperation with the private sector is important to harness innovation and expertise for the development of sustainable technology-based solutions to support prevention and combating of human trafficking,” she said.
