From Ameachi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta Correspondent)
85 percent of prostitutes from Nigeria in Europe are from Edo State, the Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, Mr. Benson Olugbuo, has claimed.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Benin, titled “Community Awareness: Panacea to Ending Trafficking of Women and Girls,” Olugbuo pointed out that the International Organization for Migration (IOM), had put the figure at over 60 percent in 2018.
According to him, three LGAs of Orhionmwon, Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha constitute some of the main recruiting centres for traffickers, and the main areas of departure of irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Olugbuo stressed that Nigeria had in the last two years, evacuated thousands of its citizens from Libya and Lebanon after they have suffered several forms of abuses, including enslavement.
“The crime of trafficking in persons is clandestine and complex, it is a modern day slavery and with negative long-term effects on the victims and the society at large, particularly its disproportionate effect on women and girls.”
Olugbuo, however, appealed to the traditional institutions, religious bodies and the state government to join its quest to end the scourge of human trafficking in the state.
