Human Trafficking:

Organisation Emphasises on Need for Related Laws To be More Victim Oriented

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

Mr. Nchongsi Joseph Ayeah, Director of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy CHRAPA has harped on the need for laws on Human Trafficking in Cameroon to be more victim oriented. He made this appeal on Friday the 17^th of June during a press café that brought together journalists and human rights actors at the organization's Head Office at Ghana Street in Bamenda. It was part of the launch of a programme by the Organisation dubbed “Rights based approach to combat trafficking in women and children in Littoral and North West Regions of Cameroon.”

Mr Nchongsi Joseph Ayeah during the Press cafe

  

Nchongsi Joseph Ayeah said Human Trafficking among other things involved the recruitment, transfer and harboring of  human beings with an intention of exploiting them. The victims he said were dominantly always women  and children.

Sponsored by the US Embassy in Cameroon, CHRAPA is intensifying efforts to combat Human Trafficking through the raising of awareness on trafficking and responding to the needs of victims in Mezam Division in the North West Region and in Douala IV in the Littoral Region of Cameroon. In this vein CHRAPA has  provided protection to 50 women, trained 20 civil society activists and provided assistance to some victims in the form of sustainable vocational training amongst others. Mr. Nchongsi Joseph Ayeah emphasized that it was more about providing support to victims of Human Trafficking adding that a certain number of criteria guided them in their identification of victims and that  the underlying factor was their degree of vulnerability.

In the heart of exchanges with Journalists and civil society actors

He noted that with the present crisis in the country, the situation of human trafficking was becoming increasingly alarming.

Assistance he further said was in the form of food and non food items, civil identification, sustainable vocational training to permit victims to get out of their predicaments, legal assistance amongst other things.

Perpetrators or Middlemen he said were made to understand that they could be punished with at least five years of imprisonment but added that other litigating procedures also involved out of court settlements. The CHRAPA director however acknowledged  that overcoming the obstacles put in place by some perpetrators was usually very challenging but further chipped in that the experience and strong network that the rights organization had gathered over the years had greatly contributed to their constant successes in such challenging moments.

He however lamented that weaknesses in the execution of the existing law lay in the fact that it was not victim centered.

CHRAPA is presently a member of the commission that has been set up to fight human trafficking in Cameroon. The Prime Minister is the Chairman of this commission and though the rights organization has been handed the role of identification of victims, they anxiously look forward to be assigned to do more which will be commensurate to the experience and the mastery that CHRAPA has in the domain in Cameroon.

The organization  is equally part of the task force that has been created to combat Human Trafficking in the North West Region of Cameroon.

Edev News

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