Dogara calls Mediterranean 'world's biggest cemetery'

Hon. Dogara charged the international community to employ effective tactics to combat the scourge while speaking at an international conference on "Women Empowerment and the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons: Partnership Between Nigeria and Italy".

During the event, which was organised by the President of Italian Chamber of Deputies, Ms Laura Boldrini, in Rome, Italy on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, Hon. Dogara called the Nigerian government to combat poverty and the lack of hopelessness that's fuelling human trafficking.

He also charged the Italian authorities to arrest and prosecute known perpetrators of trafficking in the European nation as it will help to discourage others.

He said, "Anyone forced into deep retrospection over these multiple regrettable tragedies cannot but ask these questions: What makes a young boy or girl leave their families and subject themselves to this terrible ordeal? What are the possible solutions to this inhuman trafficking in persons? Have the relevant authorities in Nigeria and Italy done enough to stop this crime against humanity?

"The Mediterranean has today become the world's biggest cemetery leaving deep wounds on humanity's conscience that will over a period of time produce historical scars to serve as a testimony to the ineptitude of our generation in dealing with this problem.

"We are all involved in this crime either as perpetrators or those who are aiding and abetting human traffickers by standing aloof while they convince victims to embark on a supposed journey in search of a "better life" that has almost always ended in "bitter life" if not death.

"How do we address the motivation for someone to want to be trafficked? The crisis most victims are faced with is that they are trapped in a kind of life that is worse than death where the potential victim has no flicker or glimmer of hope to cling to.

"Such desperate fellows can fall for anything especially if it offers them the slightest opportunity to break free from their hopelessness.

"The bad news is that in impoverished countries where human trafficking is rife, the population curve is far outpacing the hope and opportunity curve. That means more despondency.

" As long as this is the case, the motivation for individuals to want to be trafficked will always be there.

"The partnership between our two friendly Nations must develop the needed tools to address the hopelessness that serve as motivation for the victims to want to risk to be trafficked and the greed of the traffickers.

"Any delay in dealing with these twin evils, is postponement of victory over this global scourge. I therefore commend the effort of the good people of Italy and the Government of Italy for the partnership with Nigeria especially their earlier work in Edo State entitled 'Preventing and combating trafficking of women from Edo state to Italy' that involved skill acquisition programmes, financial grants, enlightenment campaigns etc.

"I understand that this programme has ended. May I use this opportunity to kindly request the Italian government to restart and even expand this very useful and laudable initiative."

26 Nigerians dead at sea

The Speaker's tough words come in the wake of the 26 Nigerian girls and women who were allegedly sexually abused and murdered while trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe earlier in November.

The victims were buried in , Italy on Friday, November 17, after autopsies revealed there was no recent trace of physical or sexual violence. Most of the dead victims are teenagers aged 14 to 18 and two of them were pregnant.

Spanish warship, Cantabria, docked at the southern port of Salernoon Sunday, November 5, carrying 375 survivors and the dead women kept in a refrigerated section of the warship.

The bodies of the victims were recovered from two separate shipwrecks, 23 from one and three from the other, after rescue operations by Cantabria which works as part of the European Union's Sophia anti-trafficking operation.

Italian security authorities have already arrested two men in connection with the deaths.

The two men, named as Al Mabrouc Wisam Harar, from Libya, and Egyptian Mohamed Ali Al Bouzid, have been charged by investigators after they were identified by survivors as the captains of one of the boats where the victims died.