40% Of Human Traffickers Force Victims To Smuggle Drugs – Okah-Donli

The chairman, Board of Trustees of United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF), Dame Julie Okah-Donli, has said that over 40 per cent of human traffickers force their victims to smuggle drugs across borders.

She said these traffickers capitalise on substance abuse disorder to promise their victims free and constant supply of illegal drugs in exchange for sexual and labour exploitation.

Okah-Donli, who is also the founder and executive chairperson of Roost Foundation, state this at a two-day workshop titled: Outreach on Drug Trafficking/Abuse and Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign, organised by the AGA Africa in collaboration with Roost Foundation and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (NDLEA) in Abuja.

She said “The concept of drug trafficking and abuse, human trafficking and its attendant consequences is not new in this part of the world. Research has shown that more than 40 per cent of human traffickers force their victims to smuggle drugs across borders. This means that apart from the victims who are already addicted to drug abuse, human traffickers use drugs as a “bait” to lure people.”

She noted that the importance of training and capacity building cannot be over emphasised, especially in such a sensitive field as drug trafficking and abuse.

“The subject is a bit complicated and the object of exploitation are human beings.

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“After passing through primary, secondary and sometimes tertiary victimisation phases, victims of drug trafficking and abuse deserve a level of care and special treatment to support them in their recuperation process. At this stage, the survivors come in contact with caregivers and caregiving institutions. It is for this reason that training and retraining is quite imperative for relevant stakeholders,” she explained.

The vice president, Assistant General Counsel at Pfizer, Inc. Markus Green, said human trafficking is a $150billion per year industry, with $99 billion from sexual exploitation.

Green, who is also a board member of Attorney General Alliance (AGA) Africa, said “The idea that a human being can be exploited and used over and over for profit is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime.

“Human trafficking and drug trafficking are interlinked and this fact had not received much attention.

“Drug trafficking thrives by deploying defenceless human beings who are forced or lured into becoming drug mules.”

Also speaking at the event, the chairman/chief executive officer of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Marwa, said a 2018 survey revealed that 14.3 million Nigerians aged between 15 and 64 years use hard drugs.

Represented by the agency’s director, Drug Demand and Reduction, Dr. Ngozi Madubike, Warwa said “The National Drug Use Survey of 2018 revealed that 14.3 million Nigerians, aged 15-64 years, had used psychoactive substances. Also, one in seven persons had used psychoactive substances other than tobacco and alcohol.”