The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is committed to supporting Nigeria in ensuring protection and assistance for victims of human trafficking.
Mr John Mckissick, the Deputy Country Representative, UNHCR, made this known on Monday, in Abuja, at the opening session of a three-day training organised for care givers of victims of trafficking.
The training programme by UNHCR, was organised in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), to boost the capacity of the care givers.
Mckissick said that the partnership between UNHCR and NAPTIP, to build and strengthen the capacity of the care givers, was very important as it would help in identifying, enhancing protection and assistance to victims.
Similarly, he added that it would help the two agencies, including the office of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), to develop and strengthen referral pathways.
He mentioned the referral pathways as identification, protection and assistance to victims of human trafficking who may be in need of international protection.
Mckissick further said that the UNHCR had adopted four main objectives in seeking to ensure that migration-management policies, practices and debates considered the particular protection needs of asylum seekers.
He said that the objectives also took care of Refugees, Stateless people, as well as acknowledged the legal framework that existed to meet those needs.
According to him, the objectives also assisted states and partners to meet asylum and migration-management challenges in a manner that was sensitive to protection concerns.
“Identifying migration, trafficking and related development impacting on persons under UNHCR’s mandate and support stronger governance and closer observance of the universal character of human rights.
“These rights include the rights of all persons on the move, regardless of their legal status, in ways that reinforce the principles and practice of international refugees’ protection,” he said.
NAPTIP Director General, Mrs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, noted that most victims of trafficking did not have access to adequate protection, hence the need for the training.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim, represented by Mr Arinze Orakwe, Director, Training and Manpower Development, said that victims deserved to be saved from traumatic experiences, which could occur from trafficking and Violence Against Persons (VAP).
She maintained that national and international legal frameworks stipulated some areas where victims could be saved and called for proper protection of victims.
“Safety of victims underscores the importance of this training and retraining of our care givers, who should be guided by the principles of human development and the core principles of humanitarian activities.
“So as to ensure equity and efficiency while rendering protection and assistance.
“You will agree with me that in fighting these crimes of Trafficking In Persons (TIPs) and VAP, all hands must be on deck to ensure that gross exploitation and abuse of persons is curbed.
“NAPTIP will continue to leverage on the collaborative effort of the UNHCR and other relevant international bodies to ensure that refugees and victims of human trafficking get deserved/sustainable access and possible opportunities that will give their lives some purposeful meaning.
“I must thank the UNHCR for making this training possible for care givers, this is just the pilot of what is yet to come,” she said.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim expressed the hope that under the leadership of Chanda Kapaya, the UNHCR Country Representative, the training would be extended to other parts of the country, to accommodate NAPTIP care givers at various zonal commands and state offices.(NAN)
