HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Edo victims to undergo HIV, other medical test, counseling

Victims of human trafficking from Edo State who were recently repatriated from Libya have been told of undergoing HIV, hepatitis tests and other screening for infectious diseases.

Secretary of Edo State Task Force against Human Trafficking, Mrs. Oyemwense Abieyuwa, made this disclosure on Wednesday at the event where the state government received 275 Libyan returnees from the state in Benin.

The victims she further promised will also be given counseling and other psychological assistance for those of them who might have been traumatized by their experience in Libya.

“We have on-the-spot medical assistance right now in collaboration with the (Benin) Central Hospital. The test is extensive.

“It will cover HIV, hepatitis, all the tests that they need to take, particularly for these persons who have gone through this kind of situation,” Abieyuwa stated.

The new returnees, she said comprised 58 females, some of whom with babies, and 217 males.

She added, “Like I said earlier, it is an emergency; it is a crisis that has to be dealt with as soon as possible. This is the seventh batch and we have another one coming in on Friday.”

The returnees were received by the chairman of the task force and the state’s Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe on behalf of Governor Godwin Obaseki.

According to Omorogbe, more than 1,100 victims of human trafficking and irregular migration had been received so far by the state.