Trafficking: WOTCLEF urges parents to be vigilant, stop engaging children in labour

The Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) has advised parents to be vigilant and stop engaging their wards in child labour to prevent them from falling prey to human trafficking.

Mrs Imabong Sanusi, Executive Director of WOTCLEF, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Sanusi said that any engagement that would have negative effects on any aspect of the child’s development constituted abuse and should be avoided.

She recommended that children could only do “soft jobs” which would not affect their education, adding that, making children do hazardous jobs exposed them to avoidable risks and constituted abuse.

“Child labour affects the victim’s physical, psychological, emotional and academic development and parents should do all they can to protect their children and wards against it.

“Children are meant to do soft jobs, which would help build them to be responsible adults, but when they are made to do hazardous jobs, it constitutes child labour and child abuse.

“Any engagement to make children miss out of school should be condemned because education is key, and basic education is a necessity for every child,’’ she said.

According to her, most victims of abuse and child labour are female children.

She urged parents to take particular care of their female children and protect them against societal dangers.

“It is regrettable that most victims of child labour and the vulnerabilities that come with it are female children.

“When a girl child is made to hawk on the highway, for instance, the dangers are enormous’ she could be raped or even abducted for exploitation.

“Parents should endeavor to give their female children equal educational opportunities as the males to protect them against such avoidable risks,” she told NAN.

The WOTCLEF executive director also advised Nigerian youths to shun irregular migration which could lead their being trafficked and exploited.

“Our youths should avoid any form of migration or foreign travel that is irregular because that is the way human traffickers move their victims around.

“Human trafficking comes with shades of exploitation; it could be sexual exploitation, forced labour or organ harvest.

“Whatever it is, it puts the victim in a situation of servitude, and that is dehumanising,” she said.

NAN reports that WOTCLEF is a Non-Governmental Organisation formed by Mrs Titi Abubakar, wife of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, to fight for the eradication of child labour and human trafficking in Nigeria. (NAN)