Social networks, effective tools to combat human trafficking

Social media has been an important tool in raising awareness and generating activism regarding human trafficking and irregular migration. In large numbers, victims and vulnerable groups have been using social media platforms to speak out. Unfortunately, social media has also opened up new avenues for people traffickers to seek out victims.   

Millions of Nigerians, especially young people, are very active on social media, making these platforms an ideal medium to raise awareness about people trafficking.   

Faced with this situation, the A-TIPSOM project, financed by the European Union and managed by FIIAPP, organised, in Keffi (Nasarawa state), a strategic planning workshop on the effective and efficient use of social networks to reach the masses and reduce the incidence of people trafficking and migrant smuggling in Nigeria.  

The workshop’s attendees comprised personnel in charge of the social networks of the country’s law enforcement authorities and other institutions involved in the project such as the National Agency for the Prohibition of People Trafficking (NAPTIP), the National Police of Nigeria (NPF), the Network of Civil Society Organisations Against Trafficking, Abuse and Child Labour (NACTAL), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and media professionals.  

During the workshop, an annual Social Media Strategic Plan was developed that will serve as a working document to provide an opportunity for specialists in the fight against trafficking, who belong to the participating organisations, to meet, create synergies, collaborate and promote a better exchange of information and good practices.  

The course was opened by the recently appointed NAPTIP general director, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, who thanked the European Union and FIIAPP for their support and collaboration.