NGO, Government to tackle trafficking of desperate youths to Europe

President of the NGO, Ms Roselyn Dressman, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Yenagoa while presenting the Niger Delta job-creation Master Plan to the state deputy governor Rear Adm. John Jonah (rtd).

Dressman, who led a 10-member team from ATU, said the group was out to find solutions against human trafficking in collaboration with Bayelsa government.

According to her, the partnership is aimed at creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the state as part of solutions to the Niger Delta crisis.

Also speaking, ATU’s Youth Ambassador, Ms Tarilaya Weber, said the master plan entitled, “Reduce Migration, Activate Returnees (Red-Mas)’’ was developed to stop desperate youths from migrating from the Niger Delta to Europe.

She said the union worked for five years to package the plan aimed at reducing frustration among the youths and create comfort in their area.

Weber said the union was worried with the increasing numbers of desperate migrants heading to Europe.

She said that 70 per cent of the 600,000 Nigerians smuggled into Europe last year hail from Niger Delta region.

She said that if implemented, the master plan would create series of activities and projects, including Handcraft Centre where the youths would be taught vocational skills to enable them become employers of labour.

Weber said: “Migration is not good for the Niger Delta region; it is draining your human resources as minority and marginalised group.

“If you don’t wake up from your marginalisation by yourselves, you will never come out if it.

“I employ everybody to join in this vision to find jobs for our youths. We have to make them comfortable in their own soil.

“In Germany or anywhere in the shores of Europe, there is nothing to take there. Things are not like the old times.

“Finding your feet in Germany is very difficult, especially when the youths are not educated.

“I can show you disheartening pictures of youths trying to cross the Sahara Desert. People die while crossing the desert and the sea.

“Apart from that, they enslave themselves. Just imagine the old story of slavery coming back.

“Many of our children are out there in Mali, Libya wishing to come back home but they can’t come back because there is no means for them to come back.

“Some of them are used for sex slavery; that is why we should together look into how we can stop our children from embarking on this dangerous journey.’’

In his remarks, Jonah said the government was excited at the partnership since its motive was to engage the youths in meaningful ventures.

He expressed concern with the dangers faced by youths while trying to cross into Europe through illegal routes through Mediterranean.

The deputy governor said that it was time to build confidence among the youths in the region.

“Some of these migrants end in Libya; they couldn’t cross, others venture into the Mediterranean and in most cases they don’t get across.

“The statistics is very frightening. They are so desperate at times that they don’t know about the risk, they just want to go.

“There are also agencies that exploit their vulnerability, expose them to these dangers.

“I am happy with Red-Mas. This is one of the opportunities you are creating for people to return back,’’ he said.

Jonah appealed to the youths to embrace the opportunity offered by the partnership, adding that people must embrace the attitude of hard work.

He said that part of the problems was the neglect of the vocational skill components of the 6-3-3-4 educational system by the government.

“The 6-3-3-4 system clearly on paper specified what should be done to overcome deficiency in the educational system.

“But for one reason or the other we haven’t been able to follow it through.

“This could be a very good example for others to follow so that vocational training is given to our youths so that when they finish they will become employers of labour.

“They have to restore their dignity,’’ Jonah said.