By Matik Kueth
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJoSS), conducted a pivotal training session on Friday aimed at empowering journalists to raise awareness and practice ethical reporting on human trafficking.
“South Sudan is also an origin for trafficking in persons and for smuggling of migrants. They’re usually also accompanied by other crimes like money laundering and so on. So, we as a government, have been making strides and taking serious steps and you’ll learn about some of these steps during the cause of this awareness that has been provided by our partners and I want to thank them at this juncture,” Teny said.
Teny urged journalists to take an active role in preventing trafficking activities perpetrated by organized groups or firms.
“This is a work for the journalists, it’s a work for the civil society, it’s a work for our communities, and so on. So, we continue to do this awareness so that we embark on prevention more than anything else,” she noted.
“I would like to thank IOM and its partners for organizing this workshop because it’s really in line with our mandate as the union of journalists, in line with our mandate of capacity building. We go to journalism or media or information technology, information communication technology schools, we study communication, we study journalism, but when we come out, we are faced with some information that we have very little or we know very little about,” Patrick stressed.
He emphasized the importance of building journalists’ capacities to report accurately on stories related to human trafficking.
The biggest concern, Patrick said, is “We do not know the status of all the people in South Sudan, whether they are victims of trafficking or they are having their rights protected. And that’s why it’s very important to enhance your skills to understand and investigate and get the facts and also help the other stakeholders in their response to helping traffickers and also the migrants in South Sudan.”
Meanwhile, Sabri Wani, Chairperson of the National Counter-Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants, pointed out that human trafficking is a global issue affecting 27.6 million people, denying them their dignity and freedom.
He explained that various strategies are involved in combating trafficking in persons, including education for teachers, civil society, students, and journalists to create awareness within communities.
“There are different aspects for combating the trafficking in persons in terms of educating the teachers and also the students and the parents and identifying the victims of trafficking in persons, educating members of the institutions, civil societies, journalists and providing technical assistance to them like this kind of awareness and training that will enable the country to combat this crime,” he stated.
Wani stressed the significance of South Sudan supporting the protection and support of victims.
According to him, South Sudan has not ratified the Palermo Conventions and the three protocols that complement the convention.
On her part, Barbara Eggar, a representative of the EU delegation, urged journalists to actively report on trafficking stories.
She asserted that addressing the issue of trafficking requires collective action and implementation from all sectors.
“Your role as media organizations and civil society is fundamental in this common task of ours which is all about ending trafficking, protecting victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice. Addressing trafficking is a collective action of all of us and it’s a whole of society approach as well. So, we rely on you as representatives of civil society and media to reach to the communities, the communities where people end up being trafficked to and end up in, but also the communities from which people are trafficked,” she emphasized.
Eggar further pointed out, “We all need to ensure you that we don’t do no harm. People who become victims of trafficking need to be protected, need to be protected and supported.”
The participants included about 40 journalists, representatives from civil society organizations, and government officials, underscoring the collective effort towards creating awareness of human trafficking in South Sudan.