The Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) says it will increase engagement with Nigerian youths and adolescents towards curbing the alarming rate of irregular migration, which most times, result to human trafficking.

The Executive Director of WOTCLEF, Mrs Imabong Sanusi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that the fatalities of such migration had become so alarming and needed to be curbed urgently.

“In 2019 we intend to improve our engagement with the youths and even children, and get to understand what pushes them towards irregular migration. We will interface with the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) and the various schools to try and catch them young”.

“We will let them know the dangers in travelling abroad without proper documentation, and how they can end up in forced labour and other dangerous conditions,” she said.

Sanusi said that irregular migration was akin to “brain drain” amongst the Nigerian youths, which needed to stop.
She advised that people who do not have cogent reasons to travel overseas should not undertake the risk of going through the desert and the high seas.

“Irregular migration is the new brain drain amongst our youths, and most of them still do not understand the dangers they are getting into until they embark on the journey. The fatalities in the desert and on the Mediterranean Sea are alarming, and they are enough to discourage such adventure”.

“Even when they survive the dangerous journey, they end up being used for forced labour, prostitution and even organ harvest. We need to encourage our youths to remain in Nigeria or to travel through legal routes, if they need to travel,” she said.

She therefore urged parents, guardians and communities at large to be vigilant and to promptly report suspicions of child labour, enslavement or sexual abuse within their environments. (NAN)