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AN ANALYSIS OF THE
CONCEPT OF VICTIMS OF CRIMES IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
It is not exaggeration
that despite the effort of NAPTIP and other bodies like the ILO, there are
still cases and reports of women and child trafficking in Nigeria. There are
occasions where hospitals take in young pregnant girls, offer them money for
their babies ranging from N20,000-N25,000, which they in turn sell between
N150,000-N30,000 depending on the gender of the baby. Regrettably, many
Nigerian children in particular and Africa in general are prone to the whims
and caprices of human traffickers at a very astronomical rate. Some of the
problems of trafficking in persons are; the past and present military and
political leaders lack political will of the states to deal with the current
issues despite large budgetary amount that was earmarked to deal with the issue
of all sorts of criminal activities, parents and relations of trafficked
persons are never interested in helping law enforcement officials to discourage
their children or alert the officers responsible for the prohibition of
trafficking in persons, The absence of reliable records in the offices of
NAPTIP, various ministry of justice and some police departments on crimes and
victimization has hindered the understanding of crime pattern and trend of
human trafficking, the lack of enforcement mechanisms in to search arrest and
prosecutions of the suspects of trafficking and deal with them in accordance
with provisions of the law is another problem. Some of the objectives are; to
examine the laws on trafficking, to examine the application of the law on the
offence of trafficking, also to establish findings on the application of those
laws on the offence of trafficking and to provide recommendations. The findings
are; the judiciary and administrative mechanisms for the prevention of human
trafficking is ineffective, illiteracy contribute a lot to backwardness of combating
human trafficking, Nigerian anti-trafficking law in itself does not provide a
serious punishment that is commensurate with the gravity of the offences, it
has been observed that there has been a problem of lack of coordination between
international agencies and the Nigerian domestic agencies, i.e. NAPTIP and
other law enforcement agencies that are meant for protection of trafficking.
The recommendations are; Judicial and administrative mechanisms should be
strengthened where necessary to enable victims to obtain prompt and adequate
redress through formal and informal procedures that are expeditious, fair,
inexpensive and accessible, Need to educate the public about the rights and
duties of suspects, offenders, victims and the state as stakeholders in the
criminal justice system, Need to further re-examine our criminal justice
administration with a view to addressing the problems created by our
inheritance of a colonial system which extols the theory of law and state to
the point that recognizes only the state and the offender as the “parties” to
criminal proceedings, and to the attendant neglect of the rights and welfare of
the victim.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It is not exaggeration
that despite the effort of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking
in Persons (NAPTIP) and other bodies like the International Labour Organization
(ILO)1, there are still cases and reports of women and child trafficking in
Nigeria. There are occasions where hospitals take in young pregnant girls,
offer them money for their babies ranging from N20,000-N25,000,which they in
turn sell between N150,000-N30,000 depending on the gender of the baby2.
Regrettably, many Nigerian children in particular and Africa in general are
prone to the whims and caprices of human traffickers at a very astronomical
rate. This however, truncates their chances of being exposed to proper and
standard education and/or training that is expected to transform them into
becoming part of the available human capital resource in Nigeria and the entire
Africa.If human capital development centres on the education and training of
human being within a society and human trafficking involves the movement of
human beings illegally from one location to another for the purposes of
exploitation and money making, then trafficking in persons should be considered
as a serious impediment to the development of human capital of any nation. As a
matter of regret, it is unfortunate to disclose that the women and children who
are trafficked from Nigeria to other nations for the development of such
destination countries would have been the same people who ought to have been
developed and used in Nigerian nation3.Train up a child well, and he or she
would become a functional future adult member of society, bound with the
responsibility of developing the nation4.
The act of women and
child trafficking in Nigeria and West Africa in general has become a common
phenomenon, which involves young boys and girls on the average age of 15years,
which are mainly girls.60%- 80% of them are sent to Italy for sex trade and the
common routes are west coast of Nigeria to Mali, morocco, boat to Spain or west
coast of Nigeria to Libya and Saudi Arabia. It has been estimated that about 15
million children are engaged in child labour in Nigeria and 40% of them are of
the risk of being used for entertainment, pornography, armed conflict, rituals
and forced labour5. Adenekan further revealed that traffickers lure children to
leave their homes promising them education and training abroad, though due to
poverty some go willingly. Sometimes officials at borders and traffickers
conspire to smuggle women and children out for selfish interest6.
Ignorance and poverty
are central reason why some parents allow their children to be taken away from
them for menial works. Parents with large families too willingly give out their
wards to strangers for money to enable them cater for the rest of the family.7
Traffickers prey on the vulnerability of such poor parents who are mostly
illiterates to exploit them, since they are desperate for financial succor and
therefore give out their children to strangers who give them money with promise
to give the children quality education. Ironically the children are maltreated,
physically and psychologically abused. Those that are taken as domestic
servants stand the risks of being sexually exploited which invariably, exposed
them to deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS8. Unfortunately, some of them are used
for ritual. Majority of the people trafficked, ranging from children to girls,
young women and men are usually engaged in forced labour9. Such assignments
include: domestic services, agricultural activities, prostitution and
extraction of some parts of their body such as kidney and at the extreme, using
them for rituals. The implication of this is that the human capital strength of
the country is jeopardized as the resources in human persons are being wasted
sometimes very prematurely. It is germane to note that even at the local and
international fronts; victims of human trafficking are mostly subjected to
carrying out odd job10. These include assignments like; nannies, house helps
and some other domestic works as well as street trade (hawking) which would
never allow them to develop any reasonable low manpower skills, let alone
middle or high level manpower skills and knowledge. Even when such victims are
exposed to good education and other forms of training, they would only be
withheld to make them use their skills and knowledge within their countries of
destination. Furthermore, the monies made by the traffickers are sometimes used
to import illegal arms and ammunitions which are used by politicians and
criminals to eliminate people within the country. Consequently, this gesture
reduces the number of existing human capital in Nigeria11.
Apart from the
inconsiderate treatment meted out on these women and children they neither feel
at home in the hands of their captives, nor could they escape as the route are
extremely risky. Stories abound on how women and children who are victims of
traffickers have been rescued at border posts. Some rescued from refrigerated
trucks severely dehydrated. Regardless of their age or sex; the women and
children try to survive in a cruel environment. If we believe that children are
the leaders of tomorrow, what type of future do we anticipate for a nation
where child trafficking remains a lucrative business in our country12.
The effects of
trafficking are devastating therefore having negative consequences on our
children. Isolated from their families, as well as communities and culture,
most of these children find it difficult to trace their roots as a result of
long wasted years or the influence exerted by their masters. Those women and
children are denied their rights to in rare cases, some that managed to return
to their villages finds it thorny to adjust to the new environment. The act of
child trafficking is inhuman using our children as objects of transaction and
its effects on the Nigeria include loss of lives, violence and crime, school
drop outs, impaired children, poor national image, massive deportation of
Nigerian girls. This, in addition, has worsened the regions growing AIDS crises
because of the sexual exploitation of the victims13. It seems some parents do
not help the matter as they occasionally
defended traffickers after
the arrest claiming
they have their
consents.
Nigeria is a source,
transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to
trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced
prostitution. Trafficked Nigerian women and children are recruited from rural
areas within the country‟s
borders −
women and girls for involuntary domestic servitude and forced commercial sexual
exploitation, and boys for forced labour in street vending, domestic servitude,
mining, and begging. Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to
other West and Central African countries, primarily Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana,
Chad, Benin, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Gambia, for the same
purposes15. Children from West African states like Benin, Togo, and Ghana –
where Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rules allow for easy
entry – are also forced to work in Nigeria, and some are subjected to hazardous
jobs in Nigeria‟s granite mines.
Nigerian women and girls are taken to Europe16, especially to Italy and Russia,
and to the Middle East and North Africa, for forced prostitution17. Traffickers
sometimes move their victims to Europe by caravan, forcing them to cross the
desert on foot, and subjecting them to forced prostitution to repay heavy debts
for travel expenses. During the reporting period, Nigerian girls were
repatriated from Libya and Morocco, where they were reportedly held captive in
the commercial sex trade18.
The Government of
Nigeria fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking. It demonstrated sustained progress to combat human trafficking
during the reporting period. In 2009, the government convicted 25 trafficking
offenders and provided care for 1,109 victims, increases over the previous
reporting period19. It also continued to undertake strong efforts to raise
awareness of human trafficking. In addition, its National Agency for the
Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) ensured the practice of
interrogating trafficking suspects at the same Lagos facility housing its
shelter for trafficking victims. To better ensure victims‟ rights are respected, NAPTIP formed a committee in mid-2009 to
review victim care policies, aiming to strike a balance between ensuring
victims‟ safety in shelters and promoting
their freedom of movement. The Nigerian government in 2009 pledged over $7
million in annual funds for NAPTIP‟s
operation and activities; all government programs received partial payment
pending budget approval by legislative and executive branches. Due to a
four-month delay in approval of the 2010 national budget, funds were
distributed to all federal agencies in April 201020.
The Government of
Nigeria sustained law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking in 2003. The
2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, amended to
increase penalties for trafficking offenders, prohibits all forms of human
trafficking. The law‟s prescribed
penalties of five years‟
imprisonment and/or a $670 fine for labor trafficking, 10 years‟ imprisonment for trafficking of children for forced begging or
hawking, and 10 years to life imprisonment for sex trafficking are sufficiently
stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes,
such as rape. Nigeria‟s
2003 Child Rights Act also criminalizes child trafficking, though only 23 of
the country‟s 36 states, including the Federal
Capital Territory, have enacted it. According to the Nigerian constitution,
laws pertaining to children‟s
rights fall under state purview; therefore, the Child Rights Act must be
adopted by individual state legislatures to be fully implemented. NAPTIP
reported 149 investigations, 26 prosecutions, and 25 convictions of trafficking
offenses during the reporting period under the 2003 trafficking in Persons
Act.21 Sentences ranged from two months to 10 years, with an average sentence
of 2.66 years‟ imprisonment; only two convicted
offenders were offered the option of paying a fine instead of serving prison
time. Together with international partners, the government provided specialized
training to officials on how to recognize, investigate, and prosecute instances
of trafficking. Police and immigration officials, including those who work at
border posts and airports, at times allegedly accepted bribes to overlook
trafficking crimes. NAPTIP dismissed two staff members from public service who
were found to have diverted victims‟
funds; they were made to refund the money back. Nigeria continued its efforts
to protect trafficking victims in 2009. Police, customs, immigration, and
NAPTIP officials systematically employed procedures to identify victims among
high-risk persons, such as young women or girls traveling with non-family
members. Data provided by NAPTIP reflected a total of 1,109 victims identified
and provided assistance at one of NAPTIP‟s eight shelters throughout the country during the reporting
period; 624 were cases of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and
328 for labor exploitation. Various government agencies referred trafficking
victims to NAPTIP for sheltering and other protective services: immigration
referred 465; police referred 277; Social Services referred 192; and the State
Security Service referred nine. Shelter staff assessed the needs of victims
upon arrival and provided food, clothing, shelter, recreational activities, and
instruction on various skills, including vocational training; psychological
counseling was provided to only the most severe cases. While at NAPTIP‟s shelters, 70 victims received vocational training assistance
provided by government funding. NAPTIP estimated the government‟s 2009 spending on its shelter facilities to be $666,000. The
2003 trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act provides for
treatment, protection, and non-discriminatory practices for victims22. The law
specified no trafficking victim could be detained for any offense committed as
a result of being trafficked. During the reporting period, the government took
steps to relocate victims‟
quarters a considerable distance from detention areas for trafficking
offenders, greatly reducing the possibility traffickers could exert undue
influence over their victims. Victims were allowed to stay in government
shelters for six weeks. If a longer time period was needed, civil society
partner agencies were contacted to take in the victim. Officials encouraged
victims to assist with the investigation and prosecution of traffickers, and
victims served as witnesses in all of NAPTIP‟s successful cases. Victims could theoretically seek redress
through civil suits against traffickers, or claim funds from a Victims‟ Trust Fund set up in 2009 through which assets confiscated from
traffickers are transferred to victims. The Trust Fund committee is chaired by
the Minister of Justice and meets four times per year. The government provided
a limited legal alternative to the removal of foreign victims to countries where
they face hardship or retribution – short-term residency that cannot be
extended.
The Government of
Nigeria sustained strong efforts to raise awareness of human trafficking over
the last year. NAPTIP‟s
Public Enlightenment Unit worked throughout the reporting period on national
and local programming to raise awareness. For example, in rural Benue, Kogi,
and Edo States, NAPTIP introduced grassroots programs and held its first annual
race against human trafficking in Edo State with 5,000 runners23. On the national
level, it convened the 2009 Model UN Conference for secondary students with a
theme of combating human trafficking. Furthermore, a nine-state tour was
launched to establish state working groups against human trafficking. The
objective of these and several related programs was to sensitize vulnerable
people, sharpen public awareness of trends and tricks traffickers used to lure
victims, warn parents, and share ideas among stakeholders. Audiences ranged
from 50 to 5,000 persons. NAPTIP worked with Immigration Services to monitor
emigration and immigration patterns for evidence of trafficking. The
long-established Stakeholder Forum continued quarterly meetings in Abuja to
foster collaboration among agencies. In August 2009, NAPTIP held a stakeholders‟ workshop in Kaduna to set program priorities and cost estimates
for implementing the National Plan of Action, which was established in 200824.
Nigerian troops undergo mandatory human rights and human trafficking training
in preparation for peacekeeping duties abroad. The government did not take
major action to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, though officials
moved to shut down two brothels in Lagos during the first quarter of 2010. At
these brothels, authorities rescued 12 females, including six underage victims
of trafficking. One property owner was convicted, sentenced to two years in
prison, and required to forfeit his hotel; his case remained under appeal at
the end of the reporting period. The second brothel owner‟s trial was ongoing and he remained totally free on bail25.
Women and children have
become the victims of crimes in many part of the country26. Serious crimes like
sexual violence27, domestic violence against women28, human-trafficking29,
cultural and religious crimes against women30, child labour, unnecessary
killings by different groups31, kidnapping32, etc. Children become vulnerable
to being trafficked for a number of reasons, with the root causes being poverty
and lack of opportunities, corruption and instability and/or armed conflict.
Their parents may pay for them to be taken to another country, in the hope that
they will gain employment and a better life abroad. Alternatively, children may
be sold to traffickers by their parents, or kidnapped by such groups. Street
children are particularly susceptible to becoming trafficking victims, as are
children who suffer from other forms of discrimination. In the Niger Delta,
children who have been stigmatized as „witches‟ are extremely at risk as they are usually rejected by their
families and communities, and often live on the streets with no-one to care for
them33.
However, the unending
issue of human trafficking still exists in the 21st century. Governments,
international organizations and civil society are devoting considerable efforts
to counter it, but there is still an information deficit about the extent of
this tragedy. Only by understanding its depth, breadth and scope can we design
policies to fight it. This understanding still eludes us; efforts to counter
trafficking have so far been uncoordinated and inefficient. The above problems
compelled the current research work to make an analysis of the concept of
trafficking on women and children generally, with a view of providing workable
recommendations to the identified problems.
1.2 The Statement of Research Problem
The problems for study
are as follows:
1. In the last few
decades, humanity has witnessed the emergence of several patterns of crimes of
human trafficking. Nigeria has not been exclusive as it is confronted with pervasive
crime waves, issues of “Boko Haram” officially called “Western Education is
sacrilege or a sin”33, in the North-East and some North-Western states, for
example, attacks by “Boko-Haram” in Baga, Gwoza and other parts of Borno State
that caused massive displacement34, for example, the Book Haram group has
abducted school girls at Chibok. Some of the girls were raped, some were
allegedly sold to unknown persons, while some were forced into compulsory
marriage at N10, 000: 00 dowry. even if the taking away of Chibok girls does
not amount to human trafficking, their constitutional right to education,
personal liberty, right to associate with their family members, development and
right not to be subjected to force labour and or any degrading or inhuman treatment
as enshrined in the Constitution35 has been violated. Loss of thousand of
lives, destruction of houses and taking hostage of student girls, small
children and their mothers, kidnapping in the Southern part of the country,
which has compounded the problem of insecurity in the country. In the cities,
hoodlums unleash terror on unsuspecting citizens, and bandits are reported to
man many Nigeria link roads. There is also the problem of identification of
criminals and those who train, fund, and harbor them. Upon all these criminal
activities there has rarely been an instance where the criminals are prosecuted
by the relevant authorities and the victims of such crimes are left
unprotected. Another problem is also that in many occasions, women and children
who are among the most vulnerable group of the society are mostly affected as
victims of such crimes, whether of a primary or secondary degree, and whether
in time of war or not. Women and children are always victims of sexual
harassments like gang-rape, rape, defilement, all in the course of trafficking.
Women and children are left handicap by the government, by not paying much
attention to their predicaments. Women and children only end up getting meager
donation from both the Federal and States governments, as if there are no laws
or judicial arm to deal with the perpetrators of such crimes.
1. The past and present
military and political leaders lack political will of the states to deal with
the current issues despite large budgetary amount that was earmarked to deal
with the issue of all sorts of criminal activities like human trafficking in
the country36, they are not willing to put an end to the commission of such
crimes and insecurity issues in the country neither are they showing any deep
concern about the current position of the victims of those crimes, despite the
country‟s police, civil defence and
military personnel that are stationed in all angles of the country.
1. The absence of
reliable records in the offices of NAPTIP, various ministry of justice and some
police departments on crimes and victimization has hindered the understanding
of crime pattern and trend of human trafficking in the country. Apart from
identifying human trafficking trends, victim surveys help to elicit a clearer
picture of levels of human trafficking victimization as well as the opinion of
a cross-section of society on matters relating to human trafficking and
punishment, their perception of the criminal justice agencies and the methods
of handling offenders and victims of human trafficking. Such information
collected from victims also covers their experience before, during and after
the offence has occurred. It constitutes a better indicator of the level of
crime than the number of crimes reported to and recorded by the police. As
Mueller37argues, gathering information about crime victims would not only help
analyzing victim-offender relationships, but also in planning crime prevention
and control38.
1. Another problem lays
in the lack of enforcement mechanisms in to search arrest and prosecution of
the suspects of trafficking on women and children and deal with them in
accordance with the provisions of the law. For example, Boko Haram abducted
more than 200 Chibok girls in Borno State. But since then, nothing has been done
to deal with the issue apart from propaganda by the authorities concerned in
the Medias.
1. Lastly, parents and
relations of trafficked persons are never interested in helping law enforcement
officials to discourage their children or alert the officers responsible for
the prohibition of trafficking in persons.
The above problems of
study are still in the increase in Nigeria, which needs urgent intervention and
control.
1.3 Objectives of the Research
The objectives of this
research are:
1. To examine the laws
on trafficking on women and children in Nigeria.
1. To examine the
application of the law on the offence of trafficking on women and children.
1. To establish
findings on the application of those laws on the offence of trafficking.
1. to provide
recommendations.
1.4 Scope of the Research
The research examined
international and municipal literatures that are relevant to the offence of
trafficking in Nigeria, with particular emphasis on women and children as
victims, being the most vulnerable groups in the society.
1.5 Justification of the Study
It is justifiable to
conduct research on the topic from time to time in order to provide a current
finding on the above problems. It also improved the existing literatures on the
knowledge of the concept of trafficking on women and children in Nigeria, both
at national and international levels. It further contributed positively to the
legal knowledge of regulations and procedures for the protection of human
trafficking and victims of such crime in Nigeria and at international parlance,
particularly to lecturers and students as well as provided materials for future
research on the topic.
1.6 Literature Review
In order to explain the
meaning, nature and the concept of trafficking on women and children as it
affects the Nigerian populace, study has been made of literary from the
municipal and foreign sources. For example, statutes, case laws, textbooks,
articles, journals, seminar papers, internet sources, etc. were used and
acknowledged. The foundation for the research is based on contributions of
writers on the field of criminology and criminal victimization as well as
victims of crimes in Nigeria. The following existing literatures were used in
the course of this research.
According to Adenekan,
A.39 The phenomenon of slavery, no doubt, dates back to the ancient times when
victorious armies and tribes in Europe and Asia found it more profitable to use
as slave, people they caught in wars than to murder them just like that. In
many Asian countries, likewise in Israel, slaves were bought and used for
various domestic and farm labour. In the 14th century Europe, these unfortunate
men and women caught at wars were known as serfs, a title that classified them
as members of the lowest order and are “owned”, in most cases, by the lords of
the manor. They attended to his mundane wishes, work in farms and depended
solely on him for their livelihood40.
The above author
maintains that going by the history, the Portuguese started kidnapping and
poaching human beings as far back as 1442 in the west coast of Africa
particularly in countries like the Gold Coast (the present Ghana), Togo, Benin,
and Nigeria while in 1517, they encouraged Spain to embrace the “lucrative”
inhuman market. The English
followed in 1553,
France in 1624 and soon after the Dutch, the Danes, and America. Africa, in
1650, had a population of about 100 million (20 per cent of the then existing
world), 90m million in 1800, 95 million in 1850 and 120 million in 190041.
The author further
views that taking into account the high profitability of the illicit trade in
which human beings were the fiscal wares, many crude methods were employed for
the security of the diabolical ventures. Cases were reported whereby houses in
villages and hamlets were irrationally set ablaze in the middle of the nights
just in order to catch hapless individuals including women and children for
sale in open market like common household commodities42. According to the above
author, the illicit trade was always a subject of many crude channels. European
ships were chartered by the merchants to take manufactured goods to the coast
of Africa and on reaching the destination, the commodities were exchanged for
slaves who would be later taken to the West Indies and sold for huge profits.
In this place, their merchants used their money to buy commodities like sugar,
coffee and tobacco which would be later taken back to Europe. Since the
ultimate intention of the trade is to make huge profit, the ship captains
loaded as much as healthy slaves for the lowest possible price. They normally
had a system whereby the captains would bring a fewer number of slaves in their
ships so that the chance of disease and death would be reduced to the barest
minimum. It is quite apparent that hundreds of thousands of African men, women
and children are forced by ever worsening environmental, economic and social
circumstances into situations of labor and sexual
exploitation both
within and outside the continent every year. Trafficking in persons – the
modern day slavery is evidently a serious threat to human security and
development. Right now, awareness of trafficking increases gradually because of
the vigilance on vehicles conveying child laborers to markets and plantations in
different places. In Nigeria for example, an International Labour Organization
(ILO) report found that 40% of the street children and street hawkers were
victims of trafficking. In March 2002 for example, it was said that eight
million Nigerian children undergo the worst forms of child labour serving as
domestic servants, street beggars, hawkers, agricultural laborers and
prostitutes.43He maintains that at least 60% of foreign prostitutes in Italy
are from African countries with the most of them from Nigeria. Nigerian and
Italian authorities estimate that there are from 10,000 to 15,000 Nigerian
prostitutes in Italy alone. Trafficking of foreign women into South Africa for
commercial sexual exploitation from other areas of Africa, Europe and South
East Asia is not only growing but appears to be controlled by organized
criminal gangs from Bulgaria, Russia, Thailand, China, and Nigeria44.
It is very clear that
without serious and sustained political will at the top levels of governments
and throughout societies; intervention will remain limited compared to the
scope and magnitude of the problem. Traffickers will continue to victimize
African men, women and children, depriving them of their basic human rights,
depriving countries of critical human capital to compete in the global economy
and also governments of the ability to establish law and order within their own
borders.
According to Ricco,
V.45 and Attoh, F.46 majority of the people trafficked, ranging from children
to girls, young women and men are usually engaged in forced labour. Such
assignments include: domestic services, agricultural activities, prostitution
and extraction of some parts of their body such as kidney and at the extreme,
using them for rituals. The implication of this is that the human capital
strength of the country is jeopardized as the resources in human persons are
being wasted sometimes very prematurely47. It is germane to note that even at
the local and international fronts; victims of human trafficking are mostly
subjected to carrying out odds jobs. These include assignments like; nannies,
house helps and some other domestic works as well as street trade (hawking)
which would never allow them to develop any reasonable low manpower skills, let
alone middle or high level manpower skills and knowledge. Thus the people
trafficked are usually under-developed while, it would also amount to Nigerian
nation remaining at the developing stage. Ricco48 simply sees human trafficking
as a modern or contemporary slavery. Such victims are forcefully or
deceptively, collected and sold to others whom in most cases; mutilate their
bodies in the name of branding or guarding against possible escape of such
persons, and engaging them in all sorts of inhuman jobs including prostitution.
Perhaps the basic distinction between the traditional slavery and the
contemporary “human trafficking”, could be the sophisticated means of
transportation and communication systems which the latter utilizes in the
delivery of trafficked human beings to various destination ports49.
Attoh50 defines human
trafficking though, with emphasis on the female sex as “the illicit movement of
young women across international borders for certain exploitative purposes.”
She affirms that such unlawful movements usually take a bottom-top dimension.
That is, it involves the exploitation of victims from the developing and
underdeveloped countries to the developed nations. Which ever angle one looks
at trafficking in persons, it is quite glaring that it has to do with taking
people or someone away from his or her environment to a different location to
do some work and other very odd things which ordinarily he or she would not
accept doing. Whether the consent of such a person was sought and approval
given before the said movement is immaterial. What most likely qualifies a
victim as a trafficked person is that the fellow would be in another
environment where he or she would be subjected to doing things against his or
her volition. In other words, the fundamental rights of freedom of movement,
association and even expression may have been denied such victims in question.
Awopegba, P.51 opines
that Nigeria remains under-developed partly because of unplanned efforts
towards the development of human capital; it could be argued further that, the
state of under-development in the country may be attributed to the reduction of
the human beings who ought to have been developed as human capital through
trafficking in persons.
According to the author trafficking in persons mostly, takes place from the
South (developing countries) to the North (developed countries) and makes way
for the transfer of human resource elements from the under-developed and
developing countries to the developed countries of the world. This could be
further explained as a conscious attempt by the North to further under-develop
Africa and some other nations in Asia and other continents of the world. Some
people may also contend that trafficking in persons satisfies their utilitarian
needs since, they can afford to make immediate financial gains but the long
term effect would always be felt by the dearth of human capital in Nigeria. The
number of Nigerians trafficked to Europe since the late 1990s were only able to
generate fund for the traffickers to invest in other illicit trades and activities
like drug trafficking and other mafia related businesses such as oil bunkering
and exportation as well as importation and proliferation of arms and
ammunitions. One may describe human trafficking as a cyclic process of evil
against the development of human capital of Nigeria and many other nations
where it thrives. Even when such victims are exposed to good education and
other forms of training, they would only be withheld to make them use their
skills and knowledge within their countries of destination. Furthermore, the
monies made by the traffickers are sometimes used to import illegal arms and
ammunitions which are used by politicians and criminals to eliminate some group
of people within the country. Consequently, this gesture reduces the number of existing
human capital in Nigeria and creates tension by eliminating people or group of
people.
As pointed out by
Dave-Odigie, C.52 “human trafficking deprives Nigeria of her human resources.”
Although, she observes that majority of those trafficked are semi-literate and
non-literates, the point remains that such people would have become part of
human capital base of the country, were they conserved, educated and trained.
The author further explains that human trafficking also reduces the population
of human resource to death. For example, a good number of the trafficked
persons especially, those who are used for prostitution, are more often
vulnerable to the contraction of HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (STDs) because they are compelled to engage in unprotected sex. This
in most cases results in premature death of such victims. Ironically, those who
patronize the prostitutes too, become prone to the contraction of HIV/AIDS and
subsequently face sudden deaths, even though they were not direct victims of
human trafficking. Regrettably, trafficking in human beings certainly reduces
the life expectancy of both the victims of the illicit business and that of
normal persons in Nigerian society. This affects the country‟s human capital base adversely. However, apart from pushing
talents and human resources out of Africa through human trafficking as he
submits, the locally consumed trafficked victims are subjected to personal
under-development and further reduction in human capital development of Nigeria
and other affected nations of Africa and the World in general.
Jegede, S.53 suggested
that a nation should have at least 65 per cent literacy level in development.
Thus, there is need to shift a pragmatic attention to the promotion of literacy
programme or even design further programmes in that direction so as to reduce
the high percentage of illiteracy in Nigeria and that of other developing
African countries. Since illiteracy leads to poverty and poverty escalates
human trafficking, which ostensibly jeopardizes the development of human
capital in Nigeria, there is an urgent need to objectively, implement all the
policies that relate to the advancement of Adult literacy and Non-formal
education programmes and improve the general standard of education in the
country.
According to Dalaker,
J. and Proctor, B.54 farmers are more likely to be victims of poverty than
people who live and work in cities. As a result, since the greater percent of
Nigerians reside in the rural areas and engage in farm works, poverty is more
pronounced there. This makes the poor people in the rural areas more prone to
trafficking. Even in cities, there is the “underclass,” that is, the
persistently poor, unemployed and dependent people who dominate the inner city.
This class of individuals can voluntarily surrender themselves to be
trafficked. Young girls are compelled to joining trafficking due to the
inability of families to meet their primary responsibilities.
Butegwa, F.55 capture
unemployment and poverty, as the major push for women participation in
trafficking in persons. The authors maintain that trafficking in women in
Nigeria is necessitated by unemployment, low socio-economic status and perhaps
ignorance of the long term effect of the act on victims and society.
According to Aghatise,
E.56 Poor implementation of laws that apply to the issue of human trafficking
appears to be a contributing factor to the rapid growth and development of the
illicit trade. For example, how many of the traffickers and their agents caught
are prosecuted, let alone giving appropriate punishment? Thus, human
traffickers tend to take undue advantage of the gap in the judicial system to
perpetrate such heinous crimes against humanity and society. The author states
that the law enforcement agents in Nigeria investigated 209 trafficking cases
and convicted 23, the figure remains very infinitesimal when compared with the
rate at which people are trafficked as reported in the media. High rate of
illiteracy in developing countries is also responsible for people becoming
vulnerable to human trafficking. It is quite easy to deceive illiterates into
being trafficked than the educated persons. At least, an educated person would
be conscious of getting involved in the crime unlike the illiterate who is more
likely to believe false stories without asking logical questions.
Joseph, U.57 maintains
that Juju is another major factor that “lubricates the wheel of human
trafficking” in Nigeria. From the accounts of repentant traffickers, it was
revealed that victims are usually mandated to seal their agreement with oath in
shrines of voodoo or juju priests. The fear of loosing their lives to oaths
compels them to conceal the identities of traffickers from authorities. This
claim is evident in the assertion of Abdulrahim Shaibu58, The Deputy Director
of NAPTIP‟s Prosecution and Legal Services,
who maintains that the agency had problems prosecuting traffickers because
victims are afraid of coming out in court to expose the supposed culprits due
to the juju oaths they were forced to take.
John Egwu a retired
Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration Service, as quoted by Nwagbo, N.59
states that, “victims of human trafficking are the main reason why the business
thrives”. In his words, “the people who are being trafficked are willing tools
and they are never willing to cooperate with the officials”. According to him,
parents and relations of trafficked persons are never interested in helping law
enforcement officials to discourage their children or alert the officers
responsible for the prohibition of trafficking in persons. In the case of
people trafficked into Nigeria from other countries, the retired Assistant
Comptroller General of Immigration maintains that officials of those countries
do not cooperate with Nigerian Immigration officials in most cases.
Kidnapping is another
form of trafficking that affects the development and well being of women and
children in Nigeria. According to Hiscox Insurance Group, as quoted by Pharoah,
R.60, in Nigeria, kidnapping for ransom started in 1992 with a single incident.
By the end of 1999, the figure had grown to 34, but government did not raise
alarm until 26 February 2006 when the Niger Delta militants kidnapped foreign
oil workers to press home their demand. Since then kidnapping has become
ubiquitous and a commercialized venture. It has spread from the Niger Delta to
virtually all nooks and crannies of the country, with some states of course
being hotspots. Kidnappers now make victims not only of foreign oil workers but
also of Nigerians suspected to be closely related to the wealthy including
parents, grandparents, and toddlers from whom they hope to get some ransom.
Those behind the recent wave of the despicable act have also changed from being
exclusively Niger Delta militants to dodgy elements from different walks of
life - armed robbers, unemployed, fraudsters and gangsters. In a survey report
rendered by Eboh, C.61, more than 1,500 persons were said to have been
kidnapped in Nigeria in 2009. This was against 512 persons in 2008 and 353 in
2007. The growing incidence of kidnapping in the country suggests its
profitability. Kidnapping can be classified into two: criminal and political.
While criminal kidnapping has the motive of obtaining ransom from the family or
business of the victims, political kidnapping has the objective of furthering
the political aim of the group or movement. In this case, a monetary ransom is
demanded for the group to fund their activities. This type of kidnapping
differs from holding individuals against political ends, such as the release of
comrades from prison. Judging by this differentiation, one can conclude that
most of the kidnapping in Nigeria are criminally motivated. When the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), started kidnapping foreign oil
workers in 2006, the emphasis was largely political: to gain a share of the
region's wealth. Presently, many criminal gangs have taken to kidnapping and
have made ransom payment their main source of income.
The above literatures
used in the course of this research are found resourceful to this study. The
literatures reviewed above have addressed topical issues of concern on
trafficking on women and children. However, this research aims at contributing
current findings and recommendations.
1.7 Research Methodology
One principal method was the use of data and information. The
doctrinal method of research was used, using library materials such as books,
articles, journals, periodicals, seminar papers, as well as internet/websites,
etc.
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