By Amadou Jadama
The National Agency Against Trafficking In Persons (Naatip) has organised intensive training for labour inspectors and labour officers on trafficking in persons and recruitment indicators.
The training focused on identifying key indicators of trafficking and the legal framework for TIP to facilitate the efficiency of their work in carrying out their mandate.
It was held as part of events marking World Day Against Human Trafficking, held at the Senegambia Beach Hotel.
Naatip is mandated to deal with all issues of trafficking in person in The Gambia, ranging from investigating trafficking cases among others.
Isatou Dabo, the executive director of Naatip, said that when it comes to protection, the labour inspectors play a very crucial role.
She said the issue of trafficking in person is on the increase on a daily basis.
“Recruiters all around the world are becoming more creative in their ways of recruiting people, either for sexual exploitation or for labour purposes,” she said.
In The Gambia, she went on: “We have a small number of labour inspectors. These labour inspectors should be able to play a very crucial and important role if they are equipped with the necessary skills and understanding to be able to identify indicators of recruitment and be able to pin point agents that are recruiting and not necessarily registered under the right provision of the law.”
The Naatip boss said it is important for her agency to conduct such trainings for labour inspectors.
“It will help them to be able to support our efforts together with the law enforcement officers to understand the authenticity of any agency or any entity that is recruiting for labour either within the country or outside,” she said.
Ousman Sanneh, principal officer at the labour department, described the training as significant for the labour inspectors.
“This is something we have been advocating for the labour inspectors to also benefit from training like this because they are the people who are always in the field, interacting with the people who are trafficking,” he said.
“This training is very important for us, and considering that now we have new labour laws and a new labour act that has been assented to by the president. We are working towards implementing the new labour act,” he said.
Aji Adama Ceesay, a representative of the Ministry of Justice, said labour inspectors can play a key role in the identification of victims of human trafficking, adding that their role is to ensure that labour laws and policies are enforced.
Meanwhile, a similar training was extended to social and health workers.
