Human trafficking is still a major issue in Nigeria, which serves as a source, destination, and transit country. Young women and girls are mostly trafficked to Europe and other destinations, and there is mounting proof of Nigerian crime networks’ participation. In 2001, Nigeria adopted major sections of the UNTOC and the Trafficking Protocol, and has subsequently established standards for the ECOWAS region and worldwide through its National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP)
Nigeria serves as a transit and destination country for women and children subjected to human trafficking, notably forced labor and forced prostitution. Women and girls are recruited from rural areas inside the country’s boundaries for involuntary domestic slavery and forced commercial sexual exploitation, while boys are recruited for forced labor in street selling, domestic service, mining, and begging. Nigerian women and children are transferred from Nigeria to other West and Central African nations for the same objectives, especially Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Benin, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Gambia. Children from West African countries such as Benin, Togo, and Ghana, whose ECOWAS laws allow for easy admission, are also compelled to labor in Nigeria, and some are exposed to hazardous occupations in Nigeria’s granite mines. Nigerian girls and women are trafficked to Europe, particularly Italy and Russia, as well as the Middle East and North Africa, for forced prostitution.
Traffickers occasionally transport their captives to Europe via caravan, forcing them to cross the desert on foot and subjecting them to forced prostitution in order to clear large debts for travel fees. Okojie (2003). (2003). Child trafficking is one of the most serious abuses of human rights in the world today. Children and their families are drawn in by the hollow promises of trafficking networks: promises of a better life, of a way out of poverty, and hundreds of thousands of children are transported over borders and sold as commodities each year. Their existence and development are jeopardized, and their rights to education, health, family life, and safety from exploitation and abuse are denied. All the women, children, and men who are duped, transported, and given into the hands of those who exploit them for profit are included. Poverty, conflict, a lack of information, gender inequity, and cheap labor put vulnerable demographic groups like women and children at danger. The inherent lack of opportunities in rural regions frequently leads to trafficking, and many of those trafficked originate from impoverished neighborhoods. One common dynamic is as follows: when states cut back on services and subsidies, women bear the brunt of the reduced resources because they are subjected to the rigid gender-based division of labor that assigns them the house-hold, and men tend not to devote their earnings to the house-hold, leaving the women responsible for the survival of their families; these women then seek to diversify their source of income, increasing their risk of being tr Users of trafficked individuals are at the end of a long chain. They might be sex workers or the owners of farms or businesses that require inexpensive labor. Prospective employers of trafficked people may approach the agents who negotiate with the trafficked people or their family directly.
According to UNICEF, “they frequently do not recognize themselves as part of the trafficking network, despite the reality that they constitute an engine in the machinery of exploitation.” Every facet of the numerous user roles need more investigation.” Users may operate as individuals or as part of a network by having access to additional illicit activities such as prostitution, child sexual abuse, and forced labor. They may be uninformed of or uncaring about human trafficking, or they may not consider themselves to be part of the trafficking network.
200 years after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished, the trafficking of African children continues unabated. This is one of the most heinous abuses of a child’s human rights. The recruitment, transportation, transfer, housing, or reception of a child for the purpose of exploitation is classified as trafficking. Sexual exploitation, forced labor and/or slavery, domestic servitude, forced marriages, unlawful adoptions, and even forced organ removal or human sacrifice are among reasons for trafficking minors. Nigeria serves as a source, transit, and destination country for children trafficked to Europe, the Middle East, and other African nations. According to UNICEF, nearly 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked each year.
According to NAPTIP, the Nigerian Anti-Trafficking Agency, the Niger Delta area has the highest incidence of child trafficking in Nigeria. Children become vulnerable to trafficking for a variety of reasons, including the aforementioned core causes of poverty and lack of opportunities, corruption and instability, and/or armed conflict. Their parents may pay to have them transported to another nation in the expectation that they would find work and a better life there. Alternatively, children may be sold to traffickers or abducted by such gangs by their parents. Because they face additional types of prejudice, street children are more vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking.
Children in the Niger Delta who have been labeled as “witches” are very vulnerable since they are generally shunned by their families and communities, and they often live on the streets with no one to care for them. Women trafficking is an endemic social problem that has taken on international dimensions in a global environment where poverty has been feminized. Because organized syndicates specialize in transporting women and children from one country to another for prostitution, human trafficking is international in nature.
Discourse on Concepts Of Human Trafficking In Nigeria :
Who are the victims of human trafficking? – A victim of trafficking is defined as any trafficked person under Section 50 paragraph 10 of the Nigerian Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons through the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control over an individual. At a minimum, exploitation shall encompass the exploitation of others’ prostitution or other types of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices comparable to slavery, servitude, or organ removal. Subjection of a person to the real and illegal sway of other persons by using violence or threats, or by abuse of authority or intrigue with a view to exploitation of prostitution forms of sexual exploitation and assault on minors, or trade in abandoned children, is defined in the Europol Convention. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) defines trafficking in human beings as: “any activities associated in the recruitment, abduction, transit (within or beyond borders), safe, transfer, harboring, or receiving of individuals; –
by using or threatening to use force, deceit, coercion (including misuse of power), or financial bondage;
– with the aim of putting or keeping such person in involuntary servitude, forced or bonded labor, or slavery-like conditions, whether for compensation or not;
– in a community different than the one in which the individual resided at the time of the original deceit, coercion, or debt bondage. The UN Global Programme against Human Trafficking employs the following terminology in accordance with the Convention and Protocols: An organized criminal group is defined as a structured group of three or more people who have existed for a period of time and are acting in concert with the goal of committing one or more serious crimes or offences established in accordance with this Convention in order to obtain a financial or other material benefit, either directly or indirectly ( Olaide 2005). Smuggling of migrants shall constitute the unlawful admission of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident in order to derive, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Person Trafficking, Especially of Women and Children, and the Protocol to Prevent Migrant Smuggling by Land, Sea, and Air. The Convention outlines how nations might increase their cooperation in areas such as extradition, mutual legal aid, transfer of processes, and joint investigations. It includes protections for victim and witness protection, as well as safeguards against organized criminal groups infiltrating lawful markets. Parties to the pact would also give technical support to developing nations to assist them in implementing required measures and improving their capacity to combat organized crime.
On September 29, 2003, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime went into effect. On December 25, 2003, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, went into effect. On January 28, 2004, the Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air went into effect. “Serious crime” means action that constitutes an offense punishable by at least four years in prison or a more serious penalty. “Structured group” means a group that is not established at random for the purpose of committing an instant offense. It does not need clearly defined responsibilities for its members, membership continuity, or a structured organization.
The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), the International Human Rights Law Group, and the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), in collaboration with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world, defined trafficking as “any act or attempt involving the recruitment, transport within or across national boundaries, exchange, sale, transfer, lodging, or reception of a person by means of deception, constraint (including the use of force or the abuse of authority), or by force or abuse of authority.”
The Geneva Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, enacted by the League of Nations in 1926 and supplemented by a Supplementary Convention in 1956, defines slavery and trafficking precisely. Slavery was defined by the Convention as the possession of a person and the exercise over that person of any or all of the rights attributable to the right of ownership. The Geneva Convention defined trafficking as “the act of capturing, acquiring, or conferring a person in order to reduce that person to slavery, as well as every act of acquisition or conferment by sale or exchange, and, in general, every act of dealing or transporting slaves.”
Trafficking in Minors is defined in Article 2(a) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography (2002) as “any action or transaction that transfers a child from one person or group of persons to another for remuneration or for any other benefit.” Trafficking is prohibited under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), as well as the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of Others’ Prostitution (1949).
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1979), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) with its supplementary Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography (2002); International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 Relating to the Prohibition of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999), and the Charter of the International Criminological Organization (Rome, 1998). In many parts of the world, the horrible crime of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, enslavement, or forced labor has reached horrifying proportions.
Human trafficking for sexual and other types of exploitation has become a worldwide business, yielding great profits for traffickers and organized criminal syndicates while inflicting egregious human rights breaches and severe issues for governments across the world. After drugs and the arms trade, human trafficking is the world’s third largest area of organized crime. It is an illegal commerce that the human heart cannot tolerate. Human trafficking is inhumane, unethical, and illegal under the law. Despite the presence of several international agreements prohibiting human trafficking, the illegal trade continues unabated. As the twenty-first century began, the inhumane practice of human trafficking grew widespread across the world.
Theoretical Structure Of human trafficking in Nigeria:
Theories are often used to explain phenomena and develop understanding of a certain idea. As a result, Thozama Mandisa and Mark Lanier’s integrated theoretical framework, which provides a collection of theories to describe the trend and occurrence of human trafficking, is the best theory that explains human trafficking in this respect. Economic theory is used in this research to explain crimes, acts, and behaviors that compute the profits and advantages received by participation in a certain endeavor. According to economic theory of crime, people make decisions to offend in ways that are similar to their decisions regarding non-criminal actions (Witt & Witte 2000:4, 6). If the projected earnings from legal employment are smaller than those from illicit work, the criminal may commit crime. The core tenet of economic theory is that criminals commit crime because the rewards of the crime exceed the risk of being prosecuted and suffering costs (Eagle & Betters, 2007:166; Persson & Siven, 2007:213). Pratt (2008:44) and Witte & Witt (2002:2, 5) argue that people engage in legal or illegal activities because of the expected utility from those actions, and that they are influenced by the fact that the possibility of expected gains from crime relative to earnings from legal work accentuates trafficking efforts. Another component of this hypothesis is that the smaller the penalty, the greater the progression of people trafficking.
The magnitude of the crime will be determined by the likelihood of being arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced, as well as the value of the projected punishment. This brings up another economic factor in human trafficking that McCray (2006) presents, arguing that clarity is more crucial than severity. Furthermore, McCray adds that the criminal in this aspect would behave like an economist and adopt the image of a self-maximizing decision maker, meticulously calculating his or her gain, which may differ from an opportunist whose willful and reckless character may get him in trouble. The two factors deemed vital for the creation of an integrated theory are certainty and harshness of punishment. In summary, the human trafficking process resumes once reasonable judgments have been made, the vulnerability of potential victims has been determined, and the needs of the demand have been evaluated.
The human traffickers might have researched the legal reaction to human trafficking by then to determine the penalties they would face if they were caught by the criminal justice authorities. The trafficker serves as a connection between supply and demand, increasing supply through the recruiting, deception, transportation, and exploitation process while also raising demand by offering easy access to trafficked individuals. This includes recruiters, transporters, receivers, pimps, brothel owners, crooked border guards, and makers of fraudulent papers, all of whom gain when trafficking individuals pass through their hands. Whatever the scope and methods of the operation, the process is a systematic, well-organized economic phenomena involving the displacement and relocation of people purely for the purpose of profiting from the labor of the trafficked person.
Historical Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Slavery:
Human trafficking is not a new phenomena; it predates human life and civilization. It stems back to the time of old empires and kingdoms, when captives of defeated civilizations were sold into slavery and forced to serve monarchs and queens of other places. Later, the practice shifted to selling excess prisoners to other similarly strong monarchs who need the services of slaves as palace wards, status symbols and the illusion of dignity, power, and riches, or in certain cases as objects of sacrifice to placate ancestor spirits.
When the early Portuguese explorers discovered the continent of Africa, the practice was exploited by Portuguese sailor who saw a ready market for African slaves in tea and sugar plantations in Europe and America, respectively. As a result, the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Sahara slave trades began, with millions of African able-bodied men being transported over the sea and Sahara into slavery. However, by the 18th century, when Europeans’ economic interests gradually switched from agriculture to industry, in tandem with the humanitarian spirit and movement that spread over Western Europe and America. By the latter decade of the previous century, universal agreement had evolved that human trafficking and slavery are two brothers from the same father, because they both serve similar, if not identical, purposes.
The Geneva Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, enacted by the League of Nations in 1926 and supplemented by a Supplementary Convention in 1956, defines slavery and trafficking precisely. The Geneva Convention defined slavery as “the possession of a person and the exercise over the same of any or all of the powers attributing to the right of ownership.” It also defined trafficking as “the act of capturing, acquisition, or conferment of a person to reduce the same to slavery, as well as every act of acquisition or conferment by sale or exchange, and, in general, every act of trading or transport of slaves.” This threat represents one of the most dehumanizing forms of human rights abuse and child labor, and nations have been encouraged to develop mechanisms and immediate countermeasures.
Analytical Perspective on Human Trafficking in Nigeria
Human trafficking remains a source and destination country of concern in Nigeria. Child trafficking is inextricably linked to poverty and child labor. Africa has the highest rate of child labor in the world, with 41% of children aged five to fourteen working. Robertson and Palus (2001) Approximately 8 million Nigerian children are involved in exploitative child labor, putting them at high risk of human trafficking, with 43% based in the southern border towns of Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Owerri.
In Nigeria, around 19% of schoolchildren labor after school in exploitative and unsafe situations. It is claimed that 80% of children trafficked to Italy originate from Africa, with Nigeria accounting for 60% of the total. Boys are generally trafficked from the south-east, Imo, Abia, and Akwa-Ibom, into Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo, while those from Kwara travel to Togo and Mali to work on plantations, according to Slavery International (UNICEF, 2003). This is because the discovery and knowledge of trafficking circumstances came about as a result of research and the study of child labor and the living conditions of working children. Child labor studies have drawn attention to the topic of child trafficking by examining their technique of entry into the labor market. According to a 1992 research conducted in Nigeria among children residing in five states, 54% to 70% of children living on the street were migrants, and 40% of children in domestic service came to town with a third party or non-family member (Bazzi-Veil, 2000).
In another UNODC study of 173 street children in four Nigerian towns, it was determined that 15% arrived with their parents, while 67% came with other adults (friends of the family or strangers); 43% indicated they had been victims of trafficking (Veil, 2000). A related sign of trafficking is when a youngster is placed outside of his immediate family unit and lives with his employer (Talens, 2000). According to the aforementioned survey of 173 youngsters living and working in four Nigerian cities, 47% indicated their employers paid their pay straight to the person who brought them, 35% were unaware of the agreements made, and 19% said there was no monetary arrangement (Veil, 2000).
Nigeria has the biggest population on the African continent, estimated at 136 million people (UNFPA, 2003). According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a 2.2% annual growth rate would bring the population to 161 million by 2015. According to the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), 80% of these young women are engaged in prostitution in Europe, primarily Italy, and are typically girls aged 12 to 25. The population is made up of many ethnic groups (over 250 ethno-linguistic groups) and a large proportion of children. 44% of the population is under the age of 19; 52.2% is under the age of 24. (UNDP Human Development Report 2004).
The UNDP Human Development Report 2004 estimates that per capita income in 2002 was $328, and the number of people living in absolute poverty is growing. Nigeria ranks 151st out of 173 countries in the Human Development Index, with more than 70% of the population living in poverty on less than $1 per day. Women and children, as well as those from rural areas, are disproportionately affected; a lack of education, high illiteracy rates, and work in low-wage sectors disproportionately affect girls and women (Aronowitz, 2004). Child victims are mostly recruited from outlying villages and towns. Many of the kid victims are from Akwa Ibom State’s communities and rural towns. Ekori is regarded as the state’s trafficking headquarters in Akwa Ibom. Other states of origin included Cross River and Abia. Child victims were recruited in Akwa Ibom State and trafficked to Ondo State (Nigeria) and Cameroon cocoa plantations. Adult victims were mostly from larger towns or cities. Adults were recruited from state capitals such as Benin City (Edo State), Asaba (Delta State), Yola (Adamawa State), and Kano (Kano State). Many of the adult victims were women trafficked from Edo State to cities in West Africa and Europe. Under the guise of going on a religious pilgrimage, some adult victims were trafficked to the Middle East via Kano International Airport (the Hajj).
Human Rights Watch (2003) reported that older women, mostly divorcees or widows, traveled to Saudi Arabia. According to a research conducted by the Nigerian NGO, Girls Power Initiative, girls are more vulnerable to trafficking overseas than boys/young men. For starters, there is a market for their sexual services (they are marketable abroad). “Parents preferred to send their daughters abroad because they could be counted on to help the family and lift them out of poverty; girls were more willing to sacrifice themselves for their families.” Other girls’ success stories of being trafficked and making it also encouraged others to try their luck. High rates of female unemployment as a result of relatively low levels of female education as a result of their parents’ unwillingness to send them to school provided a larger pool of girls to be trafficked abroad than male counterparts.
Nigerian Human Trafficking Pattern :
According to research, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo are all part of well-defined trafficking routes. Cross-border trafficking primarily originates in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo, from which child domestic labor is exported to major urban centers in countries such as Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, and Nigeria (UNICEF, 1998).
Despite these trends, it is not uncommon for a country to both supply and receive children, as well as serve as a transit country. Four trafficking routes from northern Nigeria have been identified in Nigeria: Those departing from Kebi or Sokoto travel to the Republic of Benin, then to Niger, Ghana, Senegal, and finally to Libya, Algeria, or Morocco. These are transit countries for the destinations in the Middle East or Europe. Exits at Zindel (Katsina State) and Megatel (Jigawa State) are used to transport people from Niger to Mali, Burkina Faso, Libya, and then to Europe or the Middle East. From Yobe and Borno States, persons travel by road to Chad, Sudan and onwards. Mayo, Sudan is known as the Nigerian traffickers’ transit camp.
People may have to wait for days or weeks to get travel documents to go to Europe or the Middle East. The fourth transit route connects Adamawa and Taraba States (which have the most porous borders) to Gabon through Cameroon. This route is mostly used to transport women and children out of Nigeria. People are trafficked from Imo, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom States to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon via the southern axis for cheap labor.
Human trafficking is major business, with the UN and other organizations estimating a total global market value of USD 32 billion, with around USD 10 billion obtained from the initial “sale” of humans, and the balance representing earnings from the victims’ services or commodities. The high profits and low risk of being caught are key motivators in Nigeria. There are numerous negative consequences associated with this phenomenon in Nigeria, including the loss of lives, an increase in the prevalence of STDs including HIV/AIDS, an increase in violence and crime, higher school dropout rates, impaired child development, a poor national image, and the mass deportation of Nigerian girls. Nigeria functions as a provider, recipient, transit, and stopping point.
Nigerian Government Efforts to Combat the Human trafficking :
In 2003, Nigeria became the first African country to pass a legislation against human trafficking.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Human Trafficking (NAPTIP) was tasked with enforcing the law. The agency was established on August 8, 2003, in response to the passing of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, which was signed into law on July 14, 2003. Human traffickers had a field day before then, inflicting havoc on human lives by recruiting, deceiving and forcing individuals to go inside Nigeria and abroad for sexual exploitation, forced labor and marriage, rituals, begging, pick-pocketing, and drug trafficking. Throughout the years, the Nigerian government has maintained law enforcement operations to prevent human trafficking. All kinds of human trafficking are prohibited under the Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act of 2003, which was revised in 2005 to tighten punishment for trafficking offenders. The law’s prescribed penalties for labor trafficking are five years in prison and/or a $670 fine, ten years in prison for trafficking of children for forced labor or street hawking, and ten years to life in prison for sex trafficking, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.
Summary of convictions 2004-2012
2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | Total | |
Abuja | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 15 | |
Lagos | – | – | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | – | 8 | 1 | 20 |
Kano | – | – | – | – | 5 | 3 | 14 | 9 | – | 31 |
Uyo | – | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 6 |
Benin | – | – | – | 3 | – | 2 | 7 | 22 | – | 34 |
Sokoto | – | – | – | – | 11 | 10 | 4 | 6 | – | 31 |
Enugu | – | – | – | 2 | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | 6 |
Maiduguri | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
Total | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 26 | 30 | 50 | 4 | 149 |
Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003 criminalizes child trafficking as well, however only 23 of the country’s 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, have adopted it. Because legislation dealing to children’s rights are under the purview of individual state legislatures in Nigeria, the Child Rights Act must be enacted by individual state legislatures in order to be completely implemented.
The Nigerian criminal law has several provisions protecting children and youth from harm and sexual exploitation, as stipulated in the criminal code for the South and the Penal code for the North. The Nigerian government has not effectively enforced these laws over the last three decades; however, since the democratic transition in 1999, the government and several state Houses of Assembly have passed or are in the process of passing laws to protect children. Ladan (2012) (2012) Human trafficking is an appealing business because of the high profits and low risk of punishment.
African traffickers are unlikely to be arrested, prosecuted, or face other negative consequences. They have taken advantage of the weak rule of law, the failure to enforce existing anti-slavery laws, and the corruption of judicial systems. These flaws allow offenders to walk free. Prosecutions are uncommon and fraught with difficulty. People who have been trafficked frequently report that some Nigerian authorities help with traffickers by providing them with false documents and then facilitating their passage across borders. Law enforcement authorities are typically hesitant to pursue violent crimes, particularly those committed against women and children who are unable to pay for investigations or bribe the investigating police. Rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and human trafficking criminals are so mostly unpunished in Nigeria. As a result, a combination of corrupt officials, complicit authorities, and lax laws ensures impurity for traffickers while worsening the plight of trafficked people, according to Human Rights Watch (2002).
According to NAPTIP, 118 people were convicted of human trafficking offenses between 2004 and 2011, while 5,399 trafficked victims were recovered during the same time period. Non-governmental organizations and women’s rights organizations continue to protest the government’s inability to prosecute well-known traffickers. Convictions of traffickers are uncommon, and even when they are, they are frequently released without serious punishment.
Recommendations
Beyond mere lamentation, now is the time for all levels of government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), churches, and mosques to pool resources to effectively combat the scourge of human trafficking and its allied crime of organ trafficking. NAPTIP appears to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. As a result, the agency should seek the assistance of foreign human trafficking experts in the surveillance and monitoring of our porous borders.
There is also a legal aspect to the threat. According to a study of the 208 convictions obtained by NAPTIP from 2004 to 2013, the punishment meted out to human trafficking offenders is disproportionate to the crime. As a result, the NAPTIP Act should be amended to make human trafficking offenses punishable by long or mandatory sentences. It is a mockery of criminal justice to sentence someone to three years in prison with the option of a fine for procuring young girls for prostitution abroad.
More importantly, the government must address youth unemployment. An unemployed or underemployed hand is obviously easy prey. The majority of Nigerian females become victims as a result of their desire for economic job and a better life abroad. Furthermore, the constant pressures on the family in modern times have led to some parents abandoning their primary responsibility of raising their children in a moral manner. Critical stakeholders, particularly religious institutions, are needed to assist in strengthening the family institution.
Finally, human trafficking and human organ trafficking in Nigeria cannot be combated unless the country’s criminal justice system is effectively reformed. Corruption and a slow judicial process have also been identified as major impediments to bringing offenders to justice. As a result, Nigeria’s criminal justice system requires immediate reform. Many human and organ traffickers will be successfully prosecuted in court and brought to justice if crime investigations are expedited, suspects and witnesses are brought to court on hearing days, there is no executive interference in the trial of high-profile criminal cases, and criminal cases are not adjourned indefinitely.
Originally Written By
- Osimen Goddy Uwakonye
- Afe Babalola University
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