Sierra Leone stiffens penalty for human traffickers – Politico SL

The Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, Baindu Dasama during the Ministry of Information and Communications weekly press briefing noted that a minimum of 25 years custodial sentence has been provided for persons convicted for the offence of human trafficking.

She made this disclosure while popularizing the Anti-Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Act, 2022 (Act Number 12 2022). The new law replaces the Anti-Human Trafficking Act of 2015.

The minister noted that the chapter that deals with the 25 years sentence for the traffickers also has protection clauses for children in prostitution; children being exploited in tourism and fraudulent adoption. She said the consent of victims of trafficking is irrelevant as long as it is proven that the victim was recruited, deceived and exploited, there would definitely be a case.

She spoke about a Human Trafficking Trust Fund to ensure adequate protection services are provided for trafficked victims, including their general rehabilitation and reintegration.

“In that regard, the fund would be used for setting up of recovery shelters in various parts of the country to provide trauma healing and care for victims of trafficking,” she said.

She said many Sierra Leoneans are being smuggled across the country's porous borders under the guise of fake jobs, study or resettlement opportunities or programmes. She emphasized that migrant smuggling can quickly turn into a more heinous crime than human trafficking.

“So, it is now time to go after those agents here in Sierra Leone and their business partners overseas, who are in the habit of arranging fake travel programmes for unsuspecting and vulnerable young people, especially women, who may want to seek greener pasture abroad,” she said.

She reaffirmed that there are other key provisions in this new Act, which she said were absent in the 2015 Act such as a robust witness protection scheme, and the admissibility of electronic evidence. She said trials under the Anti-Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Act, 2022 shall now commence in the High Court, rather than go through the  Magistrate Court for preliminary investigations, thereby causing undue delays and frustration for victims and their families to the extent that they would just stop attending court trials.

Minister Dasama encouraged citizens to report suspected trafficking situations to the 134 Anti-Human Trafficking Hotline or Freedom line appropriate authorities for action. She said the 134 hotlines is currently hosted by the Police Communications Unit and is connected to Africell, Qcell, Orange and other mobile networks across the country and beyond. She said the Police will be supported by social workers from the ministry attached to the Police Communications Unit.

“In that regard, the Task Force Secretariat has put together monitoring tools to track and report on actionable calls received and referred. Also, there is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to guide the public, including the press, on how to report suspected trafficking situations for referral and action,” she said.

She said they will engage the public on Anti-Human Trafficking, using various channels of communication such as music, film, drama, print, broadcast and social media.

According to the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Coordinator, Dehunge Shiaka, a major child-trafficking baseline study was conducted by APRIES and its partners in 2020. He said that based on the 2019-2020 household survey, the rate of child trafficking was estimated at 33.0 percent in the Eastern province, 45.7 percent for Kono District, 32.9 percent – in Kailahun District and 26.6 percent for Kenema District.

He also quoted the 2019-2020 household survey placing child labour at 44.6 percent in the Eastern province alone. He said 64.9 percent of children aged from 5-17 years were from Kono, 41.4 percent from Kailahun and 35.0 percent from Kenema.

The Anti-Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Act, 2022 was passed into law by Parliament on April 26, 2022, replacing the old Act of 2015.

Copyright © Politico Online (19/08/22)