Human trafficking has continued to increase in Cameroon thanks to armed conflicts in the North-West and South-West regions since 2016. In doing so, insecurity, displacement and poverty have made many people vulnerable or even victims of the phenomenon of human trafficking. For CHRAPA (Center for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy), this phenomenon is not only a serious violation of human rights, but even more so a hate crime against humanity. The subject was the subject of a meeting organized on Tuesday August 2, 2022 at the CHRAPA headquarters in Douala.
Actors from civil society, men and women from the media responded to the invitation from CHRAPA in French “Center for the Defense of Human Rights and Peace (CDHP)” . In his introductory remarks, Joseph Chongsi, national coordinator of CHRAPA, stressed that the government’s actions to reduce, if not eradicate, the phenomenon of human trafficking exist, but they remain limited. “According to the 2020 US report on human trafficking, Cameroon was downgraded by two points in this evaluation scale. Since 2011, the Child Trafficking Act has been amended to become the Human Trafficking Act. But the provisions to punish the perpetrators of these offenses have an impact which is still limited in meeting the needs of the victims ,” continues Joseph Chongsi.
Additionally, the Center reports that the 2020 US State Report on Human Trafficking shows that in Cameroon, at least 9 suspected cases of trafficking were investigated and only 77 victims were identified. However, “the Ministry of Social Affairs acknowledges having identified 877 vulnerable street children in 2018 and 1,147 children in 2019 ,” specifies CHRAPA.
Support and accompaniment for victims
The observation made. Solutions to deal with this are in a project led by CHRAPA. This is the project entitled: “Rights based Approach to Combat Trafficking in Women and Children Victims of trafficking in the Northwest and Littoral regions”. In other words: “Rights-based approach to combat trafficking of trafficked women and children in the North-West and Littoral regions” . According to Ms. Ningo, the Littoral coordinator of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy, this project aims to draw people’s attention to human trafficking, with a view to protecting victims in view of the weak capacities of existing organizations. to effectively respond to the needs of victims of trafficking in the Mezam department in the North-West and in the Douala IV district, Wouri department, Littoral region.
“CHRAPA receives victim cases. This project aims to offer protection to 40 (20 women, 20 children) victims of this type of modern-day slavery thanks to the conflict in the NoSo and the Littoral where many of these victims are found. There will also be substantial assistance with the aim of building them on the legal corpus, both national and international, as well as the protection mechanisms provided for victims ,” we learned.
