Agency laments Nigeria’s rising status as major source, transit, destination for human trafficking

Agency laments Nigeria's rising status as major source, transit, destination for human trafficking

WorldStage Newsonline-- The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) has lamented the rising status of Nigeria as a major source, transit and destination country for various forms of human trafficking, saying Nigerians, particularly women and children "are trafficked internally for various forms of exploitation; while staggering numbers are being ruthlessly exploited all across the globe, particularly in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, North and Central Asia as well as various destinations in West, Central and North Africa."  

NAPTIP however blamed lack of cooperation from the private sector as well as the low commitment of the state and local governments for hampering the eradication of trafficking in persons in the country.

Speaking at the public presentation of the book, "Eight Evils of Human Trafficking" on Tuesday, Acting Director General of the Agency, Alhaji Abdulrazak Dangiri said the agency was also faced with lack of cooperation from the source/vulnerable communities who due to ignorance, believe the traffickers are helping their people and should therefore be protected from NAPTIP.

According to him, while the agency has prosecuted about 300 cases since inception, fear of witnesses to testify in court due to the nature of the crime and possible reprisal attacks from the suspected traffickers is another obstacle to the eradication of the crime, the porous nature of the borders has made it difficult to patrol the entire border towns or areas of Nigeria by the Nigeria Immigration Service because of the large size of the country.

Alhaji Dangiri said further than in most cases, the public found it difficult to report incidents of trafficking in persons, while issues of unemployment, poverty, break down in family values, greed, corruption, overpopulation/birth control etc has contributed to increasing the crime.

While lamenting inadequate logistics on the part of the agency, he stressed that  the inability of some members of the public to differentiate the crime of trafficking in persons from some similar crimes like illegal adoption, baby sales etc as well as their inability to differentiate human trafficking from genuine traditional relationships and fostering in many Nigerian cultures.

He stressed that the fight against human trafficking in Nigeria cannot be borne by one agency alone, but through a collective obligation which must be borne by the Federal, State and Local Governments, as well as the civil societies, the Media and the organised private sector. 

He maintained that as Nigeria remained a source, transit and destination country for various forms of human trafficking, "Many are stranded in Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic, Niger, Burkina Faso, Morocco and Libya where they are subjected to sexual and labour exploitation, while transiting to Europe.

"Staggering numbers of Nigerian women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution in Italy, Spain, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Greece, the United Kingdom, Russia amongst others. Nigerian women are trafficked to Malaysia and some Asian countries where they are forced into prostitution and to work as drug mules for their traffickers.

"While EUROPOL has identified Nigerian trafficking organized crime as one of the largest law enforcement challenges to European governments, the presence of our citizens in this situation across the world has become a major source of embarrassment for the country and to Nigerian Missions abroad. This scourge also has negative consequences on our human capacity development potential and undermines national developmental strategies.

"In addressing issues of human trafficking, the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons comes to mind. Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

"Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs

"Human beings especially Women and children are trafficked into a range of exploitative practices namely: Sexual exploitation, Pornography, Removal/Harvesting of organs, Labor exploitation (including domestic servitude, fishing, farming , work in bars, street trading inclusive of child labor etc), Bonded Labour, Rituals, Forced begging, Forced Marriage, Illicit Adoption, Sports, Forceful recruitment into armed conflicts amongst others

"The predisposing Factors to Human Trafficking include: Poverty, General unemployment, especially amongst young graduates, Collapse of social safety nets, including the abuse of the traditional fostering by family members, Ignorance about the reality of life in Europe and other parts of the world, Increasing global demand for illicit sex, and Wide-spread illiteracy that facilitates deception by traffickers.

"Others are: Breakdown and erosion of cultural and moral values, Greed on the part of parental figures who easily fall prey to promises of monetary rewards, The lucrative nature  of the crime which makes it attractive to traffickers, activities of juju priests who put psychological pressure on victims through oaths and Porous borders

"The modus operandi of traffickers worldwide is essentially the same. Victims are lured with false promises of a better life in the city or abroad and as soon as they cross the borders, their phones and other travel documents if any, are confiscated.

"The trafficker then claims to have incurred huge expenses associated with their passage, places huge debt burdens between 20,000- 80,000 Euros on the victim which they have to pay off to regain their freedom.

"Victims are freely sold and resold as commodities and often times we find that the victims are made to take oaths with their body parts to make them bound to their captors.   The victims are not paid any money and all the proceeds from their activities are paid to an agent or the trafficker. 

"Potential victims do not realise they are at risk of exploitation until it is too late, and some ignore glaring warning signs including the practice of oath taking with body parts with the aid of juju priests.

"Many victims are willing to be trafficked abroad, in the belief that they are destined for a better life and start their journey believing they are economic migrants, either legal or illegal.

"They are usually quite fiercely loyal to their facilitators whom they believe hold the key to a better future abroad. In other cases, victims may start their journey independently and come to rely on facilitators along different stages of their journey to arrange papers and transportation. 

"The risks and consequences of human trafficking, results in spread and diversification of organized crime, economic destabilization as a result of money laundering, demographic destabilization, human capital erosion, increase in public sector corruption and increased public sector costs, mainly due to higher health expenditure as a result of the health consequences of TIP."

Source: Agency laments Nigeria's rising status as major source, transit, destination for human trafficking