Human trafficking in Nigeria

Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons including forced labour and forced prostitution.[1] The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017.[2] Trafficked people, particularly women and children, are recruited from within and outside the country's borders – for involuntary domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, street hawking, domestic servitude, mining, begging etc.[3] Some 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 purposes. Children from other 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. Europe, especially Italy and Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, are prime destinations for forced prostitution.[3] Nigerians accounted for 21% of the 181,000 migrants that arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean in 2016 and about 21,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Italy since 2015.[4][5]

Human trafficking in Nigeria is due to population boom and unfavourable economic conditions that aggravate unemployment, underemployment and insecurity which prompt citizens to seek for better opportunities in other countries. These opportunities include education, decent jobs and higher income. About 15 million Nigerians reside outside Nigeria as a result of demand for access to quality education and jobs.[6][7][8][9] Human trafficking remains a major challenge to the global community[10] because it is a threat to human and the causes of crimes in the world at large. Since 2009, Nigeria has made efforts to tackle human trafficking through collaboration with the Police, customs, immigration, Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour(NACTAL) and National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP).[3] Specifically, the Public Enlightenment Unit of NAPTIP, with focus in remote areas of Benue, Kogi, and Edo states, partners with Devatop Centre for Africa Development to create awareness and had educated over 5000 women, teenagers, educators and youth on human trafficking prevention. In 2015, they initiated "The Academy for Prevention of Human Trafficking and Other Related Matters (TAPHOM)", a pilot project to train anti-human trafficking advocates to combat human trafficking in their communities. Between 2015 and 2016, the project have trained 120 people from 6 states.[11]

Through these programs, two brothels in Lagos were closed, with 12 females and 6 underaged rescued in the first quarter of 2010. In February 2020, the police also recovered 232 sex trafficking victims and forced labour in the capital city of Niamey.[3][12] These recovered victims and the likes are usually provided shelter at any of the NAPTIP's eight designated shelters, alongside food, clothing, recreational activities, psychological counselling and vocational training depending on the needs of the victims at any point in time. In such cases, victims stay in the provided shelters for six weeks and are moved to civil society agencies for longer duration. In 2009, Government's expenditure on NAPTIP's shelter facilities was estimated to be $666,000 and vocational training support had been provided for 70 victims as well.[3]

The provision of welfare for human trafficking victims is a requirement of the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, amended in 2005, and re-enacted in 2015 by former Nigerian president GoodLuck Jonathan. This law prescribes penalty of five years' imprisonment and/or a $670 fine for labour trafficking; 10 years imprisonment for the trafficking of children for forced begging or hawking; and 10 years to life imprisonment for sex trafficking.[3] Child trafficking is also recognized as a criminal offence in the 2003 Child Rights Act enacted in only 23 states in Nigeria.[3] In line with the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Act, NAPTIP have recorded 26 prosecutions and 25 convictions of trafficking offences out of 149 reported investigations, with sentences ranging from two months to 10 years and only two defaulters offered the option of fine payment.[3]

  1. ^ "Strengthening the policy framework and response to human trafficking in Nigeria". www.unodc.org. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  2. ^ "Trafficking in Persons Report 2017: Tier Placements". www.state.gov. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 Country Narratives -- Countries N Through Z". US Department of State. 17 June 2010. Archived from the original on 17 June 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2023. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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  10. ^ "NAPTIP to partner security agencies, traditional rulers in fight against trafficking". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 13 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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