By Ragan M Conteh

33% of children between the ages 5 to 17 years is lately recorded as the rate of child trafficking increase in Sierra Leone.

The cases have occurred in eastern province of Sierra Leone while 36% of the children have suffered child labour.

Madam Melrose made this disclosure on Monday citing a new collaborative report from Aries University of Liverpool and the University of Georgia in USA.

She added children between the ages 12 to 17 are the most vulnerable population of human trafficking due to single parent family.

She disclosed that Sierra Leone is currently a “source, transit, and destination” for thousands of women and children who are trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation.

She made the statement by referencing 2023 report by the Department of States Trafficking in Persons.

“The latest global estimates by the IOM Sierra Leone and the International Labour Organization indicate that 28 million people are trapped in various forms of trafficking and almost every country of origin, transit,” she said.

The training which organized for twelve Sierra Leonean journalists was geared towards breeding and grooming journalists to report human trafficking and child labour issues.

She emphasized the role of the media in combating human trafficking and child labour.

And she urged journalists to help in addressing human trafficking and to promote issues of nation-building.

She underscored her ministry’s role in addressing human trafficking and child labour in the country, speaking on the essence of the establishment of the National Task Force on Human Trafficking in 2022, which wages war on human trafficking, and prohibits migrant-smuggling.