United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), on Monday commenced a four-week workshop aimed at training professional handlers of victims of drugs and human trafficking, on effective service delivery.

UNODC representative, Abimbola Adewumi, in a brief speech to flag off the training holding in Makurdi, said that it would focus on ways counselors and social workers could manage rising challenges in their callings.

She said the training, funded by the Swiss Government, would be guided by a curriculum developed by the Department of Sociology of the Benue State University, Makurdi.

According to her, the university will also provide the pool of resource persons for the exercise.

Of the 30 participants, she said that 22 were from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), while eight were from the National Association of Civil Societies Against Child Trafficking and Labour ((NACTAL).

“Special attention shall be paid to skills needed to reduce the psychological trauma of victims,” she said.

The official said the training was first carried out in 2013 to enhance the skills of professionals caring for trafficked persons, but regretted that their performances were yet to meet international best practices.

Vice Chancellor of the Benue State University, Prof. Msugh Kembe, in his remarks, commended the Swiss Government and the UN for the project, and described the fight against trafficking as “all encompassing”.

He said the problems associated with trafficking were massive and cut across ethnic, religious, geographical and political lines.

Kembe likened it to the old slave trade, and called for concerted efforts to end it.

The vice chancellor assured the UN of the university’s support toward tackling the menace, and promised to always provide the needed human resources.

Also speaking, Godwin Morka, a director at NAPTIP, urged the professionals to reciprocate the good gesture by improving the quality of care delivery service to victims under them.

On his part, the representative of NACTAL, Olatosin Kowale, said that the training was another step in the fight against trafficking.