Journalists in West Africa have been advised to collaborate with other journalists across the sub-region in order to strengthen their fight against human trafficking.

The advice was given by a press officer of the Nigeria National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person, Vincent Adekoye, at an ongoing 5-day advance training workshop on human trafficking organized by Expertise France for 20 journalists from Ghana and Nigeria.

According to Vincent Adekoye, effective collaboration between journalists would help in identifying and rescuing survivors of human trafficking.

He added that such collaboration would also enable the general public have an in-depth knowledge on the modern and dynamic ways of human trafficking in their respective countries. 

Mr Adekoye noted that, globally, human trafficking remains a big canker with Africa being worse affected, hence the need for the media to help in the eradication of the menace by constantly putting a spotlight on it to get the maximum attention of governments. 

He said, there is the urgent need for African journalists to be united, and engage in regional cooperation in order to tackle the menace with the aim to help the survivors and also the respective country authorities.

Media Consultant, Mr Charles Autheman, said the issue of human trafficking still remains a big canker that needs the urgent attention and cooperation of journalists globally to help tackle it.

He commended the organizers for bringing journalists together for such an advanced training workshop.

Expertise France is a non-governmental organization training selected journalists on human trafficking and aims at supporting the fight against human trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea with funding from the European Union.  

Expertise France is the French public international cooperation agency. It designs and implements projects which aim to contribute to the balanced development of partner countries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and the priorities of France’s external action.

As the French public agency for international technical cooperation, Expertise France is committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Accord. As a complement to financial resources for development, technical cooperation is integral to France’s response to the environmental, health, social, economic and security challenges faced by governments today.

Expertise France works in close collaboration with French public institutions, as well as with the European Union, in order to respond to the needs of partner countries that wish to improve public policies that tackle these challenges. To do so, the agency coordinates and implements national- or regional-scale projects in major areas of public action:

SDG target 8.7 is to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.