80 per cent of Nigerian women in Italy do sex work - IOM

Eighty per cent of Nigerian women entering Italy are trafficked for sexual exploitation, an official of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

According to Mrs. Florence Kim, a Communication Expert at the IOM, the situation was also not different in Ghana, as many of the Nigerian women in the country were engaged in commercial sex work.

Human trafficking, she added remained the worst form of crime against humanity, and called for concerted effort and decisive action to arrest the situation especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking at a media workshop on migration at Abesim, near Sunyani, Mrs. Kim said the Nigerian traffickers entered into agreement with the victims and pay their travelling expenses abroad.

On reaching abroad, the trafficked women had to go into commercial sex work to enable them to pay back their debt to their masters, she said.

The workshop, which was jointly organised by the IOM and European Union (EU) and attended by about 30 selected Journalists was aimed at empowering the participants to report accurately and vividly on migration.

It forms part of the EU-IOM joint initiative for migrant protection and reintegration in Ghana.

Mrs. Kim said human trafficking and irregular migration remained a global challenge and lauded the Government of Ghana for her collaboration with the IOM to help reintegrate migrants into the society.

Mr. Collins Yeboah, a Community Outreach Assistant at the IOM, advised the media to intensify public advocacy and campaign against irregular migration.

Irregular migrants, he said went through serious human rights abuses and advised potential migrants to pass through approved routes by ensuring the acquisition of genuine travelling documents.