CALABRIA, ITALY

A talk Given in Catanzaro (Calabria) Italy, 10.5.2017, by  Archbishop Kaigama on human trafficking

Excerpts:

“Thank you for the kind invitation to share my perspective about the phenomenon of human trafficking in Nigeria. Permit me to thank you also for being generous hosts to our  young Nigerian migrants who arrive Calabria, Southern Italy, mostly though Libya,  having undergone the torturous and harsh journey by sea,  with many of them sick, traumatized, bastardized or dehumanized. You have kindly put in place commendable humanitarian structures to receive them over the years, offering humanitarian protection, etc. We on our part in Nigeria know the risks of such migrant adventures undertaken by our youths. I hope both Nigeria and Italy will find acceptable  solutions to end or minimize this human tragedy.  For those Nigerians who braved all the odds to reach Europe, repatriating  them without helping them is not a good solution. Returning them home to the same conditions they left  will only complicate their life the more. Xenophobic attack as witnessed in some  countries is not a solution to human trafficking either. Collaborative and co-responsible activities of the Italian government and its humanitarian agencies, indeed those of Europe and Nigeria will help to bring the issue of human trafficking to greater  focus and hopefully better solutions to end it found”.