FG Cautions Youths Against Human Trafficking, Says Money Isn’t An Excuse To Leave, Government Can Take Care Of Them

FG Cautions Youths Against Human Trafficking, Says Money Isn’t An Excuse To Leave, Government Can Take Care Of Them

Concerned about the rising cases of human trafficking, the federal government has cautioned Nigerian youths seeking to relocate abroad, saying everything should not be about money.

Memunat Idu-Lah, the Director of International Cultural Relations in the Ministry of Information and Culture, stated this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Idu-Lah, who advised youths to seek opportunities within the country, said there are different empowerment programs of the federal government that can enable youths to be productive.

“Our youths should ensure looking inward and be creative at all costs. Everybody has one creativity or the other. Everybody has something they’re born to do in this world,” she said.

“I think we should condemn the youths from going out. If they need assistance, there are some government agencies saddled with the responsibility of providing many empowerment programmes.

“These agencies can support youths to learn something and be productive, rather than looking at running out. We should not think of going out. We should possibly trying to look inward and believe in government’s programmes.

“The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) is there, and so many programmes that the government has put in implementations to help the youths grow productivey is to encourage them.”

She further cautioned youths against falling prey to traffickers in their quest to seek employment abroad, saying:

“The people coming to pick them will not tell them the facts. It is only when the victims are out of the village and they are with their traffickers alone, that’s when sometimes, it is too late and they can’t go back home at will,” Idu-Lah said.

“So, let us make them understand that everything should alone not be about money. The victims can stay back in Nigeria, even help Nigeria’s economy, because when they use their hands to do something creative, they can add to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation, instead of even losing our good hands in the name of trafficking and they die in the process.

“Both so doing to stay back, we are trying to help grow the economy and we are also trying to save lives that are going to be lost in the journey of trafficking. We hear cases of organ trafficking, organ sales. They kill people in the process and sell their organs — all sorts of things are going on that we usually hear about.