Enugu Govt. Inaugurates TWG For Human Trafficking Survivors

The Enugu government has inaugurated a Technical Working Group (TWG) for the establishment of a Legal Hub for the compensation of survivors of human trafficking.

Speaking during the inauguration in Enugu, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Kingsley Udeh, explained that the hub would manage the Trafficking Victims Trust Fund and ensure that trafficked survivors were compensated.

Udeh expressed confidence in the ability of the members to deliver on the responsibility, urging them to bring their wealth of experience, passion, diligence, and commitment to bear.

The commissioner assured TWG members of his assistance, urging them not to delay in reaching out to him for any assistance to enable them to succeed in the assignment.

In his remarks, the TWG chairman, Mr Jonathan Ukpai, said that the committee was mandated to fashion out the structure and modalities to ensure the legal hub was established.

Ukpai, who is the South East Zonal Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), said the hub would ensure that survivors of human trafficking who had suffered untold hardship were compensated.

According to him, the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Act establishes a Victim Trafficking Trust Fund, which had been operational but had gone into limbo.

“So we want to resuscitate it by the establishment of this legal hub.

“Now we have already started. We have already separated ourselves into groups to start looking at the constitution.

“The constitution is not really in the form of law, but we are talking about the people to pilot the affairs and the following terms of reference as given to them”, he said.

The secretary of the group, Mrs Ogechukwu Enwelum, said the TWG was currently made up of 14 members drawn from different groups, adding that the membership could expand in the future.

Enwelum, who is also a legal practitioner, explained that the group comprises the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Legal Council of Nigeria, the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), the State Ministry of Justice, among others.

She added that the objective of the hub was to prepare compensation for survivors of trafficking.

According to her, the technical group would prepare a document that the legal hub would work with.