Parents have been warned against mounting pressure on their children to be part of sex trafficking business abroad to avoid penalties and imprisonment.
Executive Director, Pathfinders Justice Initiative, Evon Benson-Idahosa, gave the advice in Benin at a dissemination meeting of research findings on recruiters of females for sex trafficking in Oredo Local Council, Edo State, conducted in partnership with CLEEN Foundation.
The ‘Pathway to Prevention’ research Project was conducted September 2019 and September 2020, focusing on sex traffickers from one of the most endemic hot spots in Africa.
She said the research showed that 98.7 per cent of interviewees agreed that parents in Oredo Council mounted pressure on their children, potential victims, to travel aboard for prostitution.
“It also revealed that although, both parents of potential victims may mount pressure on them to consent to being trafficked abroad, mothers are more often implicated.”
She also said 99.9 per cent of respondents indicated that they had heard about sex trafficking, but some asked that campaigns should focus on the dangers and implications of sex trafficking.
The executive director said the findings also showed that traffickers now recruit sex victims via digital platforms, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, among others.
The Zonal Coordinator, National Agency for the Prohibitions of Trafficking in Persons, Benin Zonal Command, Mrs. Ijeoma Uduak, called for stiffer punishment for traffickers to serve as deterrent.
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