A Catholic Nun of the West African Country of Nigeria has confirmed that the COVID – 19 pandemic has magnified the scourge of human trafficking as traffickers prey upon the most vulnerable and look for opportunities to exploit them.
“COVID pandemic created avenue for internet trafficking, buying selling of human persons, pornography and others,” Sr. Monica Onwunali, OLA, a member of the “Talitha Kum” Nigeria Network, said in a presentation she made during a Human Trafficking Workshop held last week in Accra, Ghana’s Capital.
The 5-day Workshop from June 1 to 5, 2021 was organised for “Talitha Kum” members in Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso and some lay Collaborators who work to combat human trafficking.
“Talitha Kum” is an International Network of Consecrated Life Against Trafficking in Persons, working as a network to facilitate collaboration and interchange of information between Consecrated Men and Women in 94 countries.
According to Sr. Monica who, is a member of the Our Lady of the Apostles (OLA) Congregation, “As the whole world stood still, traffickers did not shut down. They continued to harm people, finding ways to innovate and even capitalize on the chaos.”
Presenting an Overview of Human Trafficking to the 25 participants at the Workshop, she bemoaned that in the era of COVID-19, Sr. Monica “Vulnerable youth are easily lured into sex trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation using promises, psychological manipulation, provision of drugs and alcohol and violence.”
She added: “Teens can be commercially sexually exploited through prostitution, pornography, stripping, erotic entertainment, erotic massage or other sex acts.”
The Nigerian Nun lamented that although human trafficking is common in different continents of the world, it is endemic in Africa as the continent has been bedeviled with a number of crises, including high levels of unemployment, poverty, hunger, corruption, political and economic instabilities.
“The quest for survival in the midst of these socio-political and economic crises have engendered high migration flow from one African State to another; from one African region to another, and from Africa to other continents,” she observed.
Sr. Monica told the participants from Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso that while some migration activities were legal, many others were carried out illegally, stating, “Criminals regularly deceive migrants and traffic them into a world of different dimensions of exploitation. Many African countries are still finding it very challenging to combat human trafficking due to ineffective policies and capacity, even where legislation is in place.”
The Workshop was organised by the Ghana Network of “Talitha Kum” known as Consecrated Persons Against Human Trafficking ( ConPAHT- Talitha Kum Ghana), coordinated by Sr. Olivia Umoh, DC, Director of Safe-Child Advocacy of Ghana’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi.
It was aimed at exploring effective collaboration and networking methods in stopping human trafficking in the sub-region.
