Human Traffickers Infiltrate Government Organisations

Deputy minister of internal affairs, local government and rural development Kalilu Kalokoh Tuesday said that collaborators of those involved in human trafficking have infiltrated state organisations.

In an effort to rid government agencies of corruption the ministry will do all in its power to restructure the intelligence services and other state organs that are responsible transnational crimes, including human trafficking, that continue to tarnish the image of this country worldwide.

Kalokoh said the government supports the need to build the capacities of the National Task Force in the fight against human trafficking and create new legislation so that there will be no escape route for criminal in such activities.

The deputy minister made this statement at the opening of a two day seminar at the Lagoonda Conference Hall in Freetown, designed to build the capacity of Sierra Leone’s national task force in preventing and fighting trafficking in persons.

Papa Babacar Ndiaye, a regional Expert for United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), said that human trafficking undermines social and political stability of the rule of law by fuelling money laundering and corruption among law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

Ndiaye said that the workshop aimed to facilitate national ownership of the issue so that appropriate action, taking into account national realities and priorities, can be taken.

According to the US State Department Human trafficking is considered to be modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people — mostly women and children — are trafficked across national borders which does not count millions trafficked within their own countries.

“Poverty stands to seriously influence parents to exchange their children for economic gains or promises. Government will therefore strengthen its resolve in the implementation of the poverty reduction strategy”, he said.

Human trafficking is deeply rooted in poverty, poor governance, weak management of borders and worsening terms of international trade. “Children and young girls are in most severe conditions of vulnerability and are major victims of this complex phenomenon”, he noted.

Assistant Inspector General of Police for training and welfare Kadie Fakondo who chaired the programme said the economic gains accrued to perpetrators, endemic poverty, and the lack of adequate and proper investigative skills to criminalize and prosecute offenders partly explain why the trade has gone unabated.

She said government has responded and supported the global fight against this menace through the adoption of the anti-human trafficking Act of 2005. The act is designed to suppress the act of human trafficking and ensure laws against it are enforced, including the prosecution of corrupt government officials who facilitate human trafficking.