The Edo State Government has said its collaboration with the United States Consulate in Nigeria will curb human trafficking in the state.
According to a statement, the state Commissioner for Social Development and Gender Issues, Mrs Christabel Ekwu, disclosed this on Saturday, during a visit by US delegates to Benin City.
According to her, the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration has put in place several measures, policies, and legislation to sustain the fight against gender-based violence, including human trafficking.
She said, “The meeting with the US Consulate was a good one as it deals with issues that affect us as a state, issue of migration and trafficking of persons. We have been able to rub minds with people from the US embassy.
“We told them the giant strides Edo State has made in the area of combating human trafficking and to further strengthen programmes to reduce irregular migration to the barest minimum and even those that are in shelters to better help them to be economically viable.
“We also talked about capacity building, collaborating with the US Government to enhance the capacity of the people at the rural level. We talked about sensitisation and awareness creation because we discovered that people at the rural level are not abreast with the information about things that happen in the city so they are prone to deception and gullible”.
On her part, the head of the US delegation and Foreign Affairs Officer, TIP Office, Washington, Kelsey Brennan, said the team was in Edo State to “know the state efforts at combating human trafficking and illegal migration, challenges faced, and the ways the US can support the state”.
