By Garmah Never Lomo,garmahlomo@gmail.com
Liberia is become a leading transit point for human trafficking in the West African sub-region, but the Liberian government has put in place stern measures to crack down on this illicit activity, a senior Justice Ministry official has said in Monrovia.
In its 2019 Trafficking of Persons Report, the US State Department said: “The Government of Liberia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.”
The Assistant Minister for Litigation at the Ministry of Justice, Clllr. Wesseh A. Wesseh said the government has recently prosecuted four human trafficking cases, with one pre-bargaining meaning the person pleaded guilty so the charges were dropped.
Cllr. Wesseh was speaking at the Information Ministry’s regular Thursday press briefing, as the government announced activities to observe national Anti-human Trafficking Day, which started July 30, 2019 and will be ending August 2, 2019.
The Ministry of Labor is organizing the commemoration in collaborating with its partner taskforce, including the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
The anti- human trafficking task force comprises local and international partners and other stakeholders.
The Assistant Justice Minister said that MOJ is there to prosecute those who come in conflict with the law adding that MOJ is very robust, when it comes to prosecuting human trafficking but challenged with funding to support victims.
Labour Minister Moses Kollie defined human trafficking as an action or practice of illegally transporting persons from one countries to another for the purpose of force labor or sex workers amongst others.
Minister Kollie disclosed that the activities in observance of the national anti-human trafficking task force is intended to create awareness, to educate and inform every Liberians on anti-human trafficking issues.
Liberia’s Labor Minister stated that there are kinds of human trafficking and they are both internal and external.
Internal human trafficking for example, taking someone from Gbapolu County or from any parts of the country in the name of sending them to school or make their lives better by bringing them in the city, only to note that those children are given to someone else for the purpose of working for them or serving as bread winners.
He further explained external human trafficking of taking someone from one country to another. For example from North Africa to Europe or Libya.
Minister Kollie added that the root cause of human trafficking are poverty, volunerable, better life amongst others and the fighting of human trafficking is not only government alone but the effort of all Liberians taking the lead.
The head of Labor Ministry expressed some of their achievements since they took over the Ministry by developing a five-year national action plan and extended through a resolution from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019 in consideration with the fiscal budget.
The five years plan developed will run from July 2019 to 2024 to combat human trafficking in Liberia.
For his part, the Liberia Immigration Service Roberts Buddy said his institution is a critical component of the Ministry of Justice whose charge with the responsibilities of nationality, citizenship and to prevent crimes such as drugs.
LIS boss expressed that on July 24, 2019, they received an intelligence that eighteen females were trafficking from Sierra Leone and those eighteen females are also victim of criminal network trafficking.
Mr. Buddy said they immediately contacted the Sierra Leonean embassy near Monrovia, but they were by the Ambassador of Sierra Leone that the eighteen females were Sierra Leone for better living.
He also clarified that the eighteen females were not trafficking but rather they were victims and they were well taken care of for some time and later escorted them to Bo-waterside on Liberia’s border with Sierra Leone.