There's a human trafficking crisis in Niger right now, where women and children are being smuggled across the Sahara desert. These human traffickers take advantage of refugees and try to take them across the desert as it is largely unpatrolled due to horrible weather conditions of sandstorms and temperatures between 40C-50C during the day.
Recently, the bodies of 37 people were found in the desert, abandoned by smugglers. 20 of these were children. The Nigerian government knows that this is problem and passed anti-smuggling laws to prevent this from happening but they have yet to come fully into place.
Sign today to urge Niger to crack down on human trafficking. By signing today you are helping the thousands of vulnerable refugees who cross Niger to avoid being dying of thirst in the desert while trying to find freedom.
*Photo Credit: Oxfam East Africa [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
To President Mahamadou Issoufou,
As a person concerned greatly with human rights I urge you to crack down on the human trafficking problem in your country. While there are anti-trafficking laws now in place in the country, they haven't come into full effect yet.
Please fully implement these anti-trafficking measures, including more border security between ECOWAS countries so that undocumented people cannot be brought into the country without government knowledge and profitted on by smugglers promising passage to Europe.
[Your Comment Here]
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
