Against Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration

  By: -Kayode Oyeniran (originally published on the 21st of February, 2019)

Adesua is a sixteen year old girl with a promising future who would later fall victim of circumstances. She has just finished her secondary school education and she has continued to nurse the ambition of becoming a Doctor, an ambition she has nursed right from her primary school days when she lost her father to meningitis. While she had watched her father being snatched from her by the cold arms of death, she only wished she could at least save him from dying. But that won't happen as her most dreaded enemy (death) took him. Right from that tragic day, her resolution was to renew hopes by saving lives.  

Her Uncle had taken up her welfare since the death of her father and now he has just promised her a university education abroad, one she perceives as a path to fulfilling her dreams. Sadly, her Uncle had merely sold her to a travelling agency that specializes in using young girls for prostitution. Unknown to her, she was shipped to Italy where she would serve as a commercial sex worker. Her Uncle cared less as he had received his own share of the bargain. Her future is crumbling, her hopes are failing and her world is crashing right at her face.

Bankole has just finished his National Youth Service in Kano after he had bagged an HND in Business Administration from the nation's premier institution, Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech). Sadly for him, his struggle to make head way in life had just begun as he would have to search for job in the same economy where unemployment rate has not cease to rise. The same country where the common wealth has no wealth--and public infrastructures lack real structures. No thanks to the political class that has failed to invest in his future. Amidst frustration and displeasure comes a ‘life changing’ offer albeit, dicey and illegal, he is ready to do anything to ‘japa’. In the least--"this country has nothing to offer me", he concludes.

The previous narratives typify the existence of human trafficking and illegal migration. According to Article 3, paragraph (a) of the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, it defines Trafficking in Persons as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of 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.” It further says that “exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation or 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." On the other side, illegal migration can either be illegal immigration or illegal emigration.

 While illegal immigration involves "the illegal entry of a person or a group of persons across a country's border, in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country, with the intention to remain in the country, illegal emigration refers to a person moving across national borders in a way that violates emigration laws. Such a person may legally go abroad and refuse to return when demanded by the country of origin. Special cases are when one flees a country as a refugee escaping persecution or, after committing a crime, trying to escape prosecution."

The implication of human trafficking and illegal migration is overarching. Hence, like Adesua, many, women and young girls alike have fallen victims of human trafficking and have consequently been denied the right to achieve to full potentials. Also, just like Bankole, a number of Nigerian youths have resorted to seeking greener pastures to where they are guaranteed jobs and better living conditions--although through illegal migration and without thoughts of the consequence. One salient question that boggles the mind is that "why will a young and agile man seek ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere?", after all, he has not stopped to hear that the land is green here and full of natural resources that can help him thrive. It is no gainsay that he is faced with poverty and unemployment--the social realities (problems) that continue to limit his potentials and also create a false consciousness in him that he can only make headway on the other side. This reality pressurizes him to set out in search of a better life on the other side, but sadly, he is bent on achieving such feat whether by crook or by hook.

Reports have shown that even after the end of legal slave trade in the 19th century, Nigeria has continued to be a source, transit and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons including forced labour and forced prostitution. Estimates by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals that 51% of identified victims of trafficking are women, 28% children and 21% men, 72% people exploited in the sex industry are women, 63% of identified traffickers were men and 37% women, 43% of victims are trafficked domestically within national borders. The effects of these ordeals on the trafficked are enormous and far reaching. Young girls are deceived, manipulated and subjected to inhuman treatments against their wishes. No doubt, the humiliation and emotional trauma they undergo is yet untold and consequently, for every trafficked Adesua and Bankole, the potential of a glorious future is forever lost.

One may wonder how these anomalies have continued to thrive despite national and international laws and regulations that prohibit them. It is no gainsaying the government has failed in its responsibilities. According to an annual report issued by the U.S. state department's office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, Nigeria is ranked in the "Tier 2 watchlist" in 2017. The tier 2 watchlist specifies countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s(Trafficking Victims Persons Act) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:

 a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; or

b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or

c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

Furthermore, according to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Nigeria was tagged to be one of the leading African countries in human trafficking with cross-border and internal trafficking. Studies have found over 10,000 Nigerian prostitute in Italy subjected to human trafficking. All of these merely mirror the failure of the Nigerian government and its agencies especially the Immigration Service, who have continued to frustrate government policies and laws by collecting tips from traffickers thereby waving the law aside.

In conclusion, there is an urgent need to salvage the future as most of the victims of human trafficking and illegal migrations are young persons who are apparently the future of this country. Government should as a matter of urgency provide enabling environment such that poverty and unemployment are reduced. Priority should be placed on human capital development in our education system as against mere regurgitation of facts. Also, the level of awareness and sensitisation on the laws (The 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, the 2003 Child Right Law, etc.) and dangers of engaging in human trafficking and illegal migrations should be stepped up especially in rural areas. There should also be proper training, remuneration and a holistic cleansing of the agencies of government saddled with responsibilities that resonate with human trafficking and illegal migration.