IPNEWS: Labour Minister, Cllr. Charles H. Gibson, has emphasized the urgent need for Countries in the Mano River Union (MRU) sub-region to consolidate efforts and be more proactive in the fight against Human Trafficking, which he has described as a global menace.
Speaking in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the Labour Minister is meeting and holding bilateral talks with top level Sierra Leonean government officials, Cllr. Gibson assured his counterparts that President George Weah attaches urgency to stopping Human Trafficking, and that the President is interested in a collaboration that will see MRU countries working together to clampdown on all forms trans-national crimes, with emphasis on human trafficking.
Cllr. Gibson told Sierra Leone’s Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Madam Manty Tarawalli, and the Inspector-General of Police that Liberia is seeking consensus from Sierra Leone and Guinea for the convening of a mini-summit aimed at consolidating efforts and advancing a synchronised strategy in fighting Human Trafficking.
Both countries expressed alarming concerns about the operations of the Q-NET group in Liberia, Sierra Leon and Guinea, which has over the years continued to serve as a major vehicle through which human trafficking perpetrated within the south-regions, and expressed the urgent need to ensure its disbandment.
Cllr. Gibson is today expected to have separate meetings with his Sierra Leonean counterparty, Hon. Alpha Osman Timbo, and also with the Minister of Justice, Minister Social Warfare, the Commissioner General of Immigration and the Parliamentarian Chairman on Human Rights.
The Minister is being accompanied by Mr. Adolphus Sartiah, Director of the Secretariat of the Anti-human trafficking national Taskforce, Police Chief Commander, Joseph B. Washington, Chief Investigator of the joint LNP-LIS unit on Human Trafficking, and Mr. Josephus M. Flumo, Assistant Minister and Special Assistant to the Minister of Labour.
The delegation arrived in Freetown on Monday, December 20, 2021, and returns to Monrovia on Wednesday, December 22, 2021.
