By Albert George Sheriff
Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Steven Gaogia has called on Sierra Leoneans to help raise awareness about the dangers of human trafficking because “the government cannot do it alone”.
He made this statement during the launch of the campaign against human trafficking at his New England office in Freetown.
Gaogia said the purpose of the launch was to respond to the US State Department's annual report on human trafficking where Sierra Leone was ranked in tier two of the report.
The Minister singled out street children, hawkers and maids as victims of human trafficking in Sierra Leone which he said amounted to servitude and child labour. He said his Ministry would strengthen the monitoring of human trafficking in the country through research and data collection.
“We are trying to intensify the sensitization and awareness in our communities about the issue of human trafficking” Gaogia said, adding that “moving someone from one end under deceptive means and exploiting their labour without due regard to his human dignity and human rights constitute human trafficking”, which he said was against the country’s Anti-Human Trafficking Law of 2005.
