The Gambia’s National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAATIP) has launched a hotline to boost its fight and struggle against human trafficking within Gambian jurisdiction and even beyond.
NAATIP is mandated under the Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 to receive and investigate reports of activities of trafficking from the public or otherwise coming to its notice or knowledge and to initiate activities and promote strategies to combat trafficking.
In line with this mandate, the agency on Friday launched and placed a toll-free hotline (1123) for the public to report cases of trafficking in persons.
Trafficking in persons, a form of modern slavery, is the recruiting, transporting, transferring of persons using force, fraud or coercion to exploit them for acts of labour or sex.
According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking is the fastest growing organised crime with approximately $150 billion in annual profits and 40.3 million individuals trapped in slave-like conditions.
“This development comes at a time when victims of trafficking require now, more than ever, facilities that provide access to confidential reporting by a mechanism that allows victims to report abuse without fear of intimidation, stigmatization or re-victimization. The hotline is reachable 24/7,” a statement signed by the agency’s executive director, Isatou Dabo, says.
