A workshop to endorse the national reference system against trafficking opened in Yaounde on Monday.

The evaluation of the Strategy Document for Poverty Reduction has brought to the country today several social plagues including street children, child trafficking, trafficking of humans especially women and children, drug abuse and most recently trafficking in human organs.

It is in this light that a two-day workshop to endorse and to master the national reference system and standard operating procedures for the prevention and the fight against trade and trafficking in Cameroon opened in Yaounde yesterday.

Speaking at the opening, the Minister of Social Affairs, Catherine Bakang Mbock said the fight against these social plagues is not only a responsibility of the government but it is at the same time a national challenge and a collective responsibility. She called on the participants to work hand-in-glove in order to meet set objectives.

The trade and trafficking of human beings is a criminal act which brings profit estimated between 12 to 32 billion US dollars per year to the detriment of the fundamental rights of victims. According to figures from international organisations, two million people are objects of trafficking thus one million children who are often sexually abused. In Cameroon, until 2000, the problem of trade and trafficking of human beings is mainly centred on the trade of children due to the recurrence of cases of children.

Organised by the Ministry of Social Affairs in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the workshop brings together 45 participants from the government, and the civil society. It aims at providing participants with the necessary tools to prevent trafficking as well as identify and assist both victims and potential victims.