Skip to main content

Nigeria’s Labour ministry denies complicity in human trafficking

                       Nigeria?s Labour ministry denies complicity in human trafficking

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has denied complicity in human trafficking, following claims of illegal issuance of Recruiters’ Licence to Private Employment Agencies (PEAs). 

 

According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Charles Akpan, they've not issued any recruiters’ licence with respect to the placement of Nigerian citizens abroad in breach of the relevant provisions of the Labour Act CAP L1 2004.

 

Akpan noted that there is a Labour Migration Desk which seeks to ensure and create employment opportunities for Nigerians to work legally abroad, without fear of molestation, exploitation or any form of inhuman treatment or being subjected to unfair labour practices.

 

He said; 

 

“Furthermore, at no time did the Federal Government issue any moratorium against issuance of recruiters’ licence.

“The ministry is empowered by sections 23, 25 and 71 of the Labour Act Cap L1 LFN 2004 to licence fit and proper persons to operate as labour contractors and private employment agencies.

“As part of the strategies to reduce irregular labour migration whilst promoting regular migration, the ministry has put in place a Labour Migration Desk to address the associated problems with the movement of skilled and low skilled persons within and outside the country.

”It is apparent from Section 25 of the Labour Act CAP L1 2004 that persons who meet the requirements for International Licences are eligible to engage in domestic recruitment as well.

“Furthermore, a recruiting agency may recruit low, middle, or highly skilled workers for placement within and outside the country. 

“The recruited worker must be brought before an authorised labour officer and certified by that officer as duly recruited in accordance with the provisions of the law.

“It is therefore obvious that the possession of a recruiters’ licence for foreign employment does not confer or guarantee automatic clearance for a recruiter to recruit citizens for work abroad without first complying with the procedures provided in the Labour Act.

“This is before workers travel under a contract of employment with the recruiter.

“To set the records straight, at no time did any person, body or committee request the ministry to suspend its statutory duty of issuing recruiters’ licence to qualified PEAs as being peddled by some uninformed persons.

“It is therefore not true, but a Legislative misrepresentation, for the ministry to be accused or held responsible for the huge numbers of Nigerians trafficked through the Nigerian borders every year.

“The ministry should be commended for instituting a watertight licensing regime which guarantees regular migration of Nigerians to work legitimately in other countries, and for being the Secretariat of the Nigerian Task Force against Forced Labour, Child Labour and Human Trafficking.

“Those who for reasons best known to them have mounted an orchestrated campaign to malign the image of the ministry are therefore by this medium advised to discontinue as facts are sacred."

                                                                                   Credit-LIB 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killings: Group demands resignation of Police IG

                              A human rights group, National Intervention Group of Nigeria, has called for the resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for alleged loss of morality to continue in office given his inability to tackle killings across the country. The convener of the group, Segun Akinloye, made this call on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja on the state of the nation. Mr Akinloye said “the lives of Nigerians, even in Nigeria appears nowadays to be cheaper and more worthless than ever before witnessed or recorded in history.” He frowned at the powerlessness of the police to abate the killings, warning that Nigeria may be heading to division and eventual collapse if urgent steps are not taken. He made reference to the killings in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Plateau and Kaduna St...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kano Hisbah Board destroys 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 m

                                   The Kano State Hisbah Board has seized and destroyed 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 million. In a statement released on Tuesday December 25th, the board’s Public Relations Officer, Adamu Yahaya, said that the cartons of beer were destroyed on Monday evening December 24th after interception at Kalebawa on Danbata Road in Dawakin Tofa area. “The Kano State Law No. 4 of 2004 has banned the manufacture and use of intoxicants in the state. Furthermore, an order was given by a magistrates’ court for us  to go ahead with the exercise,” the public relations officer said. The worth of a trailer load of beer is between N5.2 million and N5.5 million. The sale of beer and its consumption has been banned in Kano state.
Post a Comment
Read more

Girl, 16, is gang-raped by four men and dumped to slowly die on building site

  A schoolgirl was allegedly gang-raped and killed by four migrants who dumped her on a building site and left her to die.   Desiree Mariottini, 16, from Cisterna di Latina, Italy, was found dead after being drugged and raped in the construction site in the district of San Lorenzo in October 2018.   A witness claims that the 16-year-old girl went to the abandoned site used by homeless people to buy drugs from the four men.     Narcisa Leon, an Ecuadorian woman who squatted in the abandoned site, told the court that she found the victim lying motionless on a dirty mattress.   She had seen the schoolgirl with the four defendants earlier in the day.     She also said that one of the suspects, Mamadou Gara, confirmed in a conversation with her that they had given the victim a strong tranquiliser and that he had then had "sex with her".   The case is ongoing.   The four men, Yusif Salia, Mamadou Gara, Brian Minteh, and Chima Alinno, are ...
Post a Comment
Read more