Mrs Marie Saine-Firdaus, the attorney general and secretary of state for Justice, has said that The Gambia government has put in place necessary legal frameworks, based largely on acceptable international standards, to combat human trafficking and its related offences.

SoS Saine-Firdaus made these remarks, on Tuesday, at the opening ceremony of a three-day ECOWAS meeting on the implementation of the ECOWAS Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, at the Jerma Beach Hotel, from 10th - 12th June, 2008.

SoS Saine-Firdaus highlighted Trafficking in Persons Act 2007, the Children's Act 2005, the Money Laundering Act 2003 and the Drug Control Act 2003, as examples of some of the steps made by the government in combating the growing menace of trafficking in persons.

The Justice SoS described the Trafficking in Persons  (TIP) Act as a comprehensive piece of legislation which seeks to prevent, suppress and punish those involved in TIP, as well as protect, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of this heinous crime.

She added that the Act also provides for the establishment of a separate agency to deal with issues and crimes related to trafficking in persons, but she was quick to note that the agency is yet to be fully operational.

Mrs Saine-Firdaus told the participants that the forum presents the best opportunity for member states to take stock of the level of implementation of the ECOWAS Plan of Action; the successes registered, the problems and challenges encountered during implementations. She said this will help prepare and improve on common strategies and find common solutions to common problems.

"This meeting, I also believe, will provide further technical guidance on the multifarious member states' obligations under the ECOWAS Plan of Action, as well as the relevant international and regional agreements on TIP and to empower experts here present with adequate knowledge and attitude to deal with the issues so as to ensure a better and more comprehensive implementation of the Plan of Action," SoS Saine-Firdaus told the gathering of experts.

She finally urged the delegates to share information, participate fully in the deliberations and take the best that this forum can offer, adding that every contribution in the deliberation is important towards riding "our world of all the evils of human trafficking and its destructive spiral effects".

Speaking earlier, Mrs Henrietta Didigu, the acting director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, Nigeria, said the process of adopting the Plan of Action began at the 23rd Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Governments in 2000, when Benin made a presentation of the problem of illegal trafficking in children for economic exploitation.

Mrs Didigu, who deputised for the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambers, thanked the government of The Gambia for its hospitality.

Min Whee Kang, the Unicef representative in The Gambia and Papa Babacarr Ndiaye of UNODC, delivered statements during the opening ceremony.