Sierra Leone and Liberia have agreed on the urgent need for the convening of a mini Mano River Union summit to address issues of human trafficking in the sub-region.
The two countries reached the consensus at the climax of a two-day official working visit to Freetown, Sierra Leone with Liberia’s Labour Minister, Charles H. Gibson at the head of the Liberian delegation.
According to a dispatch from Freetown, the Minister Gibson said, the proper modalities will be worked out to ensure the hosting of the summit early next year which will be done after concluding talks with their Guinean counterpart on combining efforts to combat human trafficking in the region.
Speaking during the interactions with his Liberia counterpart, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Labour, Alpha Osman Timbo, recommended that countries within the MRU sub-region should put in place legal migration regimes to formalize and regulate migration of their citizens for jobs abroad.
Minister Timbo further said when MRU States integrate regulatory measures, there will be proper monitoring of those involved with migration to ensure orderliness and avoid association with criminal enterprises.
The Sierra Leonean Labour Minister noted that while MRU States remain cognizant of ECOWAS protocols on free movement of people, elements of Trafficking in Person (TIP) cannot be ignored.
On request from Foreign Ministries about Sierra Leoneans involvement into human trafficking, mainly Asia, Minister Timbo disclosed that his country now has travel restrictions for its citizens, whom he noted, must seek exit permit from the government for those going abroad for employment.
According to the Sierra Leonean Labour Minister, to make this system effective, his country has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Governments of Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to ensure the orderly movements of workers without risk and more attractive incomes.
Meanwhile, Minister Gibson on Tuesday, December, 21, 2021 met with the Ministers of Justice, Social Welfare, and the Chief Immigration Officer of Sierra Leone and also held bilateral talks with the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights, Barrister Daniel Brima Koroma thus climaxing the delegation’s official working visit to that neighboring country.
During his meeting with the Sierra Leone Minister of Justice it was agreed that all three MRU countries need to combat human trafficking as a bloc to ensure a better and sustainable outcome.
The Minister of Social Protection who heads the Human Trafficking taskforce in Sierra Leone, expressed solid support for the special MRU summit on human trafficking and thanked Liberia for its ongoing assistance to the many Sierra Leoneans who are victims of human trafficking in that country.
The chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee On Human Rights emphasized the need to also prioritize countries’ human trafficking policies during the upcoming Special MRU summit.
He expressed the need of a synchronized the human trafficking law in all three MRU countries as a means discouraging perpetrators from operating in the sub-region.