Tayo Olanipekun

U.S. has invested a total of $75m into efforts geared at combating human trafficking and modern day slavery since 2017, the Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, has said.

The country made this commitment through the congressionally-funded U.S. foreign assistance program, Program to End Modern Slavery, launched last year to reduce the prevalence of modern day slavery in specific countries or regions.

Pompeo made this revelation on Thursday when he chaired his Administration’s first meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The U.S. government is seeking new ways to leverage input from human trafficking survivors to strengthen federal policy and programming efforts, according to him.

“The Program began with an initial investment of $25 million for the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, and now we have just awarded a second contribution of $25 million to the Global Fund and the University of Georgia Research Foundation to continue this important work,” Pompeo said. “Congress has made yet another $25 million available for fiscal year 2018.”

Thousands of young Nigerian girls are routinely trafficked to Europe and Asia for sexual exploitation, making the country account for a significant percentage out of the over 700,000 persons trafficked across the world annually.

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on Thursday said 836 out of the 13,285 victims rescued from the hold of traffickers were from a Nigerian state, Delta.

Its Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli, said in Warri that three out of the total suspects arrested in 2017 were also from the state.

With no less than 6,000 cases of human trafficking reported to the agency since its inception,the body investigated 3,600 of the cases,according to Okah-Donli.

NAPTIP also recently handed over two female victims that were trafficked to Russia to the Edo State Government.

The victim had been taken to Russia under the guise of attending the 2018 World Cup and subsequently securing them jobs abroad.