On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNOC, in its 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, reported a 25 percent increase in detected human trafficking victims globally in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
The report noted that globally, the number of victims trafficked for forced labour surged by 47 percent in 2022 over that of 2019. It further reported that detected child victims increased by 31 percent, with the number of trafficked girls rising by 38 percent.
It analysed data from 156 countries, revealing that women and girls constituted 61 percent of trafficking victims worldwide in 2022. Of the girl victims, 60 percent were trafficked for sexual exploitation
Trafficking for forced criminality, including online scams, showed a sharp rise, growing from one percent of the total detected victims in 2016 to eight percent in 2022, according to the report.
On the way out of the menace, the UNODC Executive Director, Ghada Waly, called for strengthened criminal justice measures to hold top perpetrators accountable, enhanced cross-border collaboration to rescue victims, and increased support for survivors.
The report has raised concern in Nigeria, particularly among the migration experts.
This is expected because the issue of human trafficking in Nigeria has been a thorn in the flesh of the government.
It is one of the topical issues in Nigeria; a major social ill, which has attracted both local and international attention.
Despite the concerted and collaborative efforts by the governments at all levels, the civil society groups, the media and the international agencies, like the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, to stem the growing tide of trafficking in human persons, as well as irregular migration of Nigerians, mostly the youth population, to Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East, the trend has continued unabated, even assuming a disturbing dimension.
The patrons or kingpins have continued to adopt different strategies to beat the security agents in their illicit trade.
Apart from those who are trafficked to Europe and America, there are hundreds of other Nigerians who are taken to the Middle East, Asia and even African countries, with mouth-watering promises of a better life.
They have always been deceived to believe that the pasture is greener in those foreign countries.
This has led to the untimely and avoidable deaths of many productive youths, either in the desert of the Sahara or in the Mediterranean Sea, as they tried to escape through the North African countries of Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, to Italy and other European countries.
Others have died in various torture camps in countries like Libya and other Arab countries.
A few months ago, the social media space was awash with the report of 10 Nigerian teenage girls, aged between 15 and 18, who were trafficked to Ghana and forced into prostitution.
Cases of Nigerians, who have also been trafficked to countries like the United Arab Emirate, Turkey, Dubai, Libya, Europe, America and even African countries, where they have been subjected to prostitution, forced labour and slavery, have been on the increase.
So, the UNODC’s report, even though it is looking at the global trend, has only highlighted what is happening in Nigeria, which is the significant increases in child trafficking, trafficking for forced labour, and forced prostitution during the period.
Reacting to the report, a Migration Consultant and National Secretary, Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour, NACTAL, Nigeria, Osita Osemene, said the report should only reinforce the need for the government and the nongovernmental organizations to redouble their efforts in the fight against the scourge, but shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody.
He noted that the scourge cuts across all ages and sexes, but agreed that young girls and boys mostly fell victims.
On what should be done to stem the tide of the ugly trend, he said “the awareness is there but it is still not enough as more enlightenment needs to be carried out, particularly to educate parents on the danger of human trafficking.”
“For some time now, the government has embarked on some kind of awareness campaign against the scourge.
“However, I think that there should be an increase in awareness all the same, and the government’s seriousness in entrenching our value system in families should also be improved upon.
“This is because many families have lost our value system. Parents are involved in this mess.
“If you check very well, you will be surprised that most parents are aware that their wards are embarking on these kinds of journeys. But, what they don’t know is what the children are going to do over there.
“So, I think there should be an intentional increase in the level of the enlightenment campaign to create more awareness in some of these areas, particularly for the parents,” he told CITYNOBS
Osemene, who is also the founder of Patriotic Citizens’ Initiative, an organisation that is actively involved in the rehabilitation and reintegration of returned migrants, also emphasized the need for increased collaborations and partnerships between law enforcement agencies and governments of various countries.
“The civil societies also need to cooperate on a regional basis. There should be a proper investigation to know those that are involved in perpetrating evil because we are aware that some people are always behind the crime.
“Somebody would initiate it and carry it out, and such persons should be made to face the wrath of law,” he said.
Also commenting, a migration expert, Mr. Solomon Onavi said greed was a serious motivating factor for some of the victims.
He said he realized how deep the mess was in the course of his job as a migration counselor with a nongovernmental organization, Seefar.
“When we started our campaign against irregular migration, I didn’t know that very young girls were involved until about 100 girls below the age of 18 were intercepted on their way to Libya. That was when I started going to secondary schools to campaign.
“So, a lot of young girls want to get rich at all costs and this is because of the situation in the country.
“Girls as young as 13 and 14 years old are already chasing money through prostitution. I think it is also caused by greed.
“So, a lot of girls want to make money, irrespective of the means. It is not as if they are always forced or deceived.
“If anybody is telling you that it is their parents that force them into that, I want to tell you that it is not always true.
“Most often, they just decide on their own to do what they want. It is a personal decision by most of them. All I need to tell young girls is to be careful and be smart in their relationship with men and women at all times,” she said.
In his contribution, a community leader, Chidiebere Adum, agreed with the UN agency’s report on the global increase, using Nigeria as an example.
He noted that the level of moral decadence in the society was a contributory factor to the rising trend of human trafficking in Nigeria.
He lamented that corruption was also a contributory factor, noting that some security agents were even collaborating with the barons because of monetary inducement.
He also noted that most often, those arrested for their involvement in human trafficking got off the hook, without any punishment.
He also blamed it on poor parenting and bad governance, saying, “This basically stems from loose parenting and abysmal failure of successive governments in Nigeria.
“If we blame it on social media menace or misuse of social media, whichever way in our contemporary world, we are spot on. Blame it on dysfunctional governance, you are right.
“Blame it on the gullibility and/or innate zeal in the girl child to exploit her world, you are not also wrong”.
“However, the buck still stops on the table of the government.
“If for instance, the government provides the youngsters with the basic and functional education, there could have been a paradigm shift from these disgusting social frivolities to more productive engagements.
“Over time, our successive governments have failed on their own part of the social contract of governance with the citizenry
“Come to think of it, do these children disappear to thin air here in Nigeria and down the line, reappear in Europe, America or Asia?
“Of course, they always pass through our porous borders, either bribing their way through or getting the better part of our security agencies due to negligence,” he further told CITYNOBS.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
