By Isatou Jawara
National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAATIP) in collaboration with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) on Tuesday 15th May 2018, commenced a two-day training workshop of stakeholders for the implementation of the advocacy action plan to fight against human trafficking.
The objective of the training is to share the regional strategy and the action plan for the Gambia, to train the partners on essential advocacy actions and to review and finalize the action plan.
Dr. Henry Carrol, chairman of Gambian Law Reform said the two Gambian legal instruments which expressively prohibit force labor are the Gambia’s Constitution of 1997 and the Labor Act 2007. He said The Gambia also has signed and ratified several labor conventions.
He said the action plan is very effective and timely because most people hear about human trafficking but don’t know what it means.
“So it is a great thing to sensitize the general public to really understand this menace, because it is anti progress, anti development and anti social. So the only way to tackle it is to get an action plan.”
Dodou Kebbeh of the Gambia Tourism Board said their main objective is to make the Gambia the best tourism destination in Africa, and they cannot have a tourism destination where its people are tormented by being trafficked from the Gambia to abroad and forced in to labor.
“The Gambia Tourism Board is striving to make the Gambia one of the best destinations in West Africa. We therefore see the need to partner with NAATIP, the Child Protection Alliance, department of social welfare and all other stakeholders in order to participate, protect and prevent all ills especially when it comes to child protection,” he said.
Tulai Jawara Ceesay, Executive Director of National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAATIP) said human trafficking is of great concern in the international community especially in the West Africa.
“NAATIP’s specific mandate is to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases and forge partnership with other agencies in the fight against human trafficking,” she said.
She said the Gambia is a destination country of human trafficking which is affecting vulnerable people who are recruited in force labor and exploited by traffickers. She said every year human beings are trafficked worldwide and its estimated 32 billion dollar industry as the most profitable organized crime.
