Conference seeks end to trafficking of women

A pan-African conference seeking an end to the trafficking of women and children has opened in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with President Olusegun Obasanjo pledging strong efforts to stamp out the practice, 'The Guardian' daily reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted Obasanjo, who declared the five-day conference open on Monday, as expressing regret that such practices persisted on the continent. He said "every effort must be channeled towards totally purging this evil from among us". The secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim stressed the need for campaigns in all African countries to make people aware of the dangers facing thousands of women and children who are forced into prostitution and unpaid labour every year. Economic and sexual exploitation were serious violations of human rights, he said. The conference has been organized by the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), headed by Titi Abubakar, wife of Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar. According to WOTCLEF, some 500,000 Africans, 95 percent of them women and children, are sold each year in Europe, Asia and America. Ms Abubakar said 1,180 Nigerian women who had been taken to Europe to work as prostitutes by traffickers were deported between March 1999 and December 2000.