Human Trafficking And Its Perverse Nature In Today's Modern World







The rates at which human trafficking thrives in today's world is becoming more worrisome and disheartening, Blessing Bature seeks to investigate government's efforts in combating this ungodly trade .

Humans are born free and equal with rights common to all and exclusive to none. in spite of the clear and express prohibition of slavery, trafficking in humans stands at an astoundingly and eerily high level, eclipsing all other ereas. In other words, with 30 million people, mostly women and girls, currently being exploited and violated in the sex/human-trafficking trade at this precise moment, there have never been more people enslaved in global history.

The conversation surrounding human trafficking has remains necessary and particularly popular one, but Human trafficking thrives on the secrecy and shadow of unawareness, which currently pervades. This increasingly disturbing human rights violation is linked to forced prostitution, street crimes, domestic servitude, child labour and many other forms of exploitation. Human trafficking is not only about individuals: it has a mass effect on our social fabric, economic stability and more abstractly reflects on our common humanity.

A huge part of addressing this immense problem starts with finding individual efforts, organising in communities and organisations to brainstorm and implement, working with and through governments and intergovernmental organisations and international organisations to stop this problem! The question is, what are the way to champion human trafficking whether you’re working alone, in community, or at the national or international level. Let’s make a difference!

In Nigeria, human trafficking has been a source, transit, and destination country for women and children including forced labor and forced prostitution. Trafficked Nigerian women and children are recruited from rural areas within the country's borders which involves involuntary domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, and boys for forced labor 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 purposes. 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 Europe, especially to Italy and Russia, and to the Middle East and North Africa, for forced prostitution.

The work of ending human trafficking requires incredible amounts of infrastructure and work that ultimately carries a huge financial burden, While young people, particularly girls, are extremely vulnerable to human trafficking, they can also be key agents in this fight. The Not for Sale Campaign has created a free school curriculum for both high schools and colleges which, when paired with its Student Abolition Movement, can be very effective in transitioning students from learners to activists!

In an era of corporate irresponsibility where companies may be part of supply networks that lend to human trafficking, partnerships with companies to break this cycle are essential, Governments and businesses organisations should combine their resources to address human trafficking. A huge part of ending the modern-day injustice of human trafficking involves demanding more of our governments and holding accountable companies that directly/indirectly support human trafficking.

These efforts are challenging, however, as there is no one way to address the variations in trafficking across the world. Differing cultures, economics, and religions all make laws complicated to implement, and corruption, cultural interpretations, and different systems of justice make them even more difficult to enforce. Another thing that should be noted is that many of the laws worldwide focus on sex trafficking as opposed to labor trafficking (which is more widespread), partially because sex trafficking is talked about in the media more.


Between the year 2017 and 2019 NAPTIP had made tremendous efforts in curtailing the menace, Under the year in review, One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Ninety (1890) victims were rescued, Out of the total number, Four Hundred and Twenty Nine (429) victims, representing 22.7% of the number, were rescued under the Procurement for sexual exploitation or Prostitution externally case, making it the highest. Following it is the Procurement for Foreign Travel which Promotes Prostitution and Child domestic labour, with Three Hundred and Seventy-Four (374) and Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine (299) cases, respectively. The least number of victims rescued were gotten under Wandering and Missing Child cases, with a victim each.

Nigerians were mostly trafficked to Libya, which had a total number of Seventy (70) victims, representing 47.0% of the One Hundred and Forty Nine (149) victims trafficked out of the country for various reasons.
The least country where Nigerians were trafficked to was Mali, with a total of four (4) victims, representing 2.7%, of the total number.


Under the period, the total cases received by the Agency was Eight hundred and Seventy-Six (876), Out of the 876 cases received, a total of One Hundred and Forty-Eight (148) cases, which represents 16.9%, were investigated fully.
The most reported cases, from the investigation came from Foreign Travel which Promotes Prostitution, Employment of Child as domestic worker and inflicting grievous harm and Procurement of Persons for Sexual Exploitation with 217, 161 and 120 cases respectively, while the least number of cases came from Procurement or Recruitment of Persons for Use in Armed Conflicts, Procurement or Recruitment of Persons for Organ Harvesting and Trafficking in Slaves with one (1) case each

A total of fifteen cases were referred to other Agencies by NAPTIP, as they were not within their jurisdiction. The Nigeria Police Force had the highest amount of cases referred to them, with a total of 10 cases, Nigeria Immigration Service had just one case referred to it, making it the least Agency cases referred to while a total of Six hundred and Forty One (641) traffickers were apprehended in the year 2017, with 363 being males and 278, females. The highest number of suspected traffickers came under the case of Foreign travel which promotes prostitution or sexual exploitation, with a total number of 139, representing 21.7% of the number, 75 of whom were males and 64 females. Following the Employment of a child as domestic worker and inflicting grievous harms, with 100 suspected traffickers, 36 of whom were males and 64 are females.

The Legal Department of the Agency received a total number of Two hundred and Fifty Six (256) cases for legal opinion. Procurement of persons for sexual exploitation had Forty (40) cases for legal opinion, making it the highest number of cases received by the department. The least number of cases came from Recruitment of persons under 18yrs for pornography or brothel and Recruitment of persons for organ harvesting, with just a case each.

The Agency had Seventy (70) cases charged to court, under the year in review. The Seventy cases had a total of 113 persons charged to court, out of whom Fifty-Seven (57) were males and Fifty-Six (56), females.
Procurement of persons for sexual exploitation had the highest number of cases charged to court, with Twenty-Two (22) cases and Twenty-Seven (27) persons charged to court were forced labour/slavery outside Nigeria, Escape or aiding and abetting escape, Attempt to commit an offence under this Act and Child Kidnap had just a case, making them the least cases charged to court, with 1, 5,2 and 1 persons charged respectively, secured convictions in a total of Twenty-one (21) cases, with Twenty-Six (26) convicted persons, eighteen (18) of the persons being males and Eight (, females.

The highest number of convictions came from the Recruitment of persons under 18yrs for prostitution/sexual exploitation, with Twelve (12) cases won, and Fourteen (14) people convicted, Twelve (12) being males and Two (2) being females.

However in the year 2018, a total of One Thousand, One Hundred and Seventy Three (1,173) victims were rescued. There were One Hundred and Ninety (190) males and Nine Hundred and Eighty Three (983) females, highest numbers of victims were received from the following cases; Procurement for Foreign Travel which Promotes Prostitution, with Two Hundred and Twenty Two (222) victims and Procurement for sexual exploitation or Prostitution externally, with One Hundred and Seventy Two (172) victims, the Agency received a total of One Thousand and Seventy Six (1076) human trafficking and other related cases, out of which Two Hundred and Six (206) of the cases were fully investigated, representing 19.1%of the total cases reported.
The total number of suspects apprehended from the various cases reported is Eight Hundred and Twenty Three (823), out of which Four Hundred and Fifty (450) are males and Three Hundred and Seventy Three (373) are females.
Table I: No. of cases received, investigated and no. of suspect apprehended

The Legal and Prosecution Department received Two Hundred and Twenty Seven (227) cases from the Investigation and Monitoring Department during the year out of which Seventy Five (75) of the cases were charged to court including some outstanding from 2017. Cases Received by the Agency won Thirty One (31) cases in the year 2018, and lost just one case. Fifty (50) persons were convicted from the various cases, of which Twenty nine (29) are males, and Twenty One (21) are females. The highest number of convictions came from Procurement of Persons for Sexual Exploitation, which had Eight ( cases won.

Recently the Director General of NAPTIP , Dame Julie Okah-Donli said that since inception in 2003, NAPTIP has secured 403 convictions with over 14,000 victims rescued and rehabilitated and reintegrated back into their various communities. Adding that the agency has further strengthened the existing collaborations with various partners as well as formed new alliances on all fronts to boost the fight against human trafficking in Nigeria and beyond .
And that NAPTIP has successfully inaugurated state task force recently to fight against human trafficking in Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states in addition to the existing taskforce in Edo state and promised to replicate this in all the 36 states of the federation, as it aims at getting the states and local government to take proactive steps towards the combat of human trafficking in their domains.

The Government of Nigeria has not fully met the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated significant efforts during the reporting period by disbursing significantly more funding to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP); supporting the signing and implementation of a UN action plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children by the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF); with an international organization, beginning a screening and sensitization campaign to identify and prevent sexual exploitation and abuse of IDPs; and prosecuting three suspected traffickers for child forced begging, although judges ultimately acquitted them. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period.

All these attendant challenges gives reasons to findout the root causes of human trafficking in Nigeria which are; poverty and high unemployment rates particularly in rural areas, low levels of education and literacy, corruption, and lack of information on humantrafficking. For example, the majority of the Nigerian population lives below the income poverty line on lessthan one (1) dollar per day. Poverty levels are higher in rural areas, making people from these areas morevulnerable to human trafficking. Traffickers may be more successful in “recruiting” such victims, inciting themwith false promises of jobs or money in exchange. The lack of education and low levels of literacy alsocontribute to the poverty problem, since they limit women’s and children’s opportunities to get better rewardedjobs in the future. ILO report showed that the desire of Nigerian potential victims to migrate is exploited by offenders to recruit and gain initial control or cooperation, only to be replaced by more coercive measures oncethe victims have been moved to another State or region of the country, which may not always be the one towhich they had intended to migrate (Adepelumi, 2015). Traffickers entice their victims with promises of receiving education and acquisition of skills.

However with all these attendant challenges, its crystal clear that combating this inhuman crime demands a corporate efforts, all hands must be on desk to curtail this, individually, government, NGOs Civil society organisations and religious groups must take deliberate efforts to fight against the scourge.

thanks for information
people don't have to be treated as a thing!!!
human trafficking have to be stopped!!!

Agree, this is a big problem that affects all countries in the world. The violence of the human trafficking industry continues every day and our vigilance in helping victims and survivors must never stop. I think that every person can find something that he can do in order to help. There are many non profit organization that are working to find the solutions to eradicate exploitation and are engaged in the sex trafficking advocacy. Very often such organisation search for volunteers or people who are ready to work together in order to fight against human trafficking. Also you always can help these organisations with a small donate.