President Tshisekedi welcomes efforts made to fight human trafficking in DR Congo

03 Octobre 2020

Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 3 (Infosplusgabon) -  President the  Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo of DR Congo has welcomed local efforts to prevent and fight against human trafficking in his country.

The president made the remark in his communication to the 51st meeting of the Council of Ministers which he chaired Friday on video conference in Kinshasa.

Government spokesman Jolino Makele indicated in his report, made available to PANA on Saturday, that the head of state revealed that the score of DR Congo in this matter has risen by a step up on the international scene, especially with the creation and operationalisation of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Human Trafficking (APLTP).

In order to continue this momentum, he added, Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba was tasked with having the government (Law Commission) and the Council of Ministers to examine the draft law on the trafficking in persons which was adopted at the end of the validation workshop organised in Kinshasa before its transmission to Parliament for adoption.

The United States had raised the DR Congo to level 2 on the watch list of the report on human trafficking for the year 2020. An evolution in this matter is observed despite the weak policy in place.

In order to fight against human trafficking and strengthen the privileged partnership for peace and prosperity between the DR Congo and the United States, American ambassador to DR Congo, Mike Hammer, launched on August 18, a three-year programme of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimated at $ 3 million.

The programe aims to bring to justice and to protect victims of trafficking and supports the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Human Trafficking (APLTP) created by President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.

This programme is managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in coordination with the DR Congo government's national programme to bring traffickers to justice and to protect victims.

DR Congo ratified in October 2015 the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in October 2005, better known as the Palermo Convention, a background legal instrument in the fight against human trafficking, as well as its additional protocol on the smuggling of migrants.

Human trafficking, also known as modern slavery, includes both sex trafficking and forced labour. In DR Congo, child victims of human trafficking work in mines, they are recruited as child soldiers and others are forced to work.

Human trafficking is a serious problem that affects millions of people around the world, including children. Today it is considered a modern form of slavery and one of the most serious human rights violations.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/OCT/GABON2020

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