Fighting Human Trafficking

Following the
establishment of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related Matters (NAPTIP), in 2003, many believed the issue of human trafficking would be a thing of the past or at least drastically reduced.
Sixteen years down the road, the aim of setting up the agency is far from being  realised. The scourge of trafficking  in persons in Nigeria and its attendant human  abuses is still prevalent in the  country. Nigerian young men and women are constantly  taken abroad and used as money making machines by traffickers.
On the streets of many European countries,  Nigerian girls and girls from other African  countries are easily seen, working as prostitutes.  Many of them  were taken abroad with the assurance of employment, scholarship or marriage, only to end up as prostitutes, working for  traffickers who sponsored their trip abroad.
The  horrific stories from  girls who were able to  make it back to Nigeria from Italy, Libya and other countries abound making people to ask what NAPTIP and other relevant agencies are doing about the ugly situation.
On the local level, cases of  human  trafficking are also on the increase. Recently, a story was told of how a  Port Harcourt based woman  brought her niece from the village, promising to train her  in school, only to turn her to a prostitute. According to the story, the  woman  approached her sister who is a widow  and  mother of eight children and requested that one of the girls be given to  her  so she  could  help train her.
However, on getting  to Port Harcourt, the girl was kept in  a room where she was forced to sleep with men at a price paid to her aunt. Eventually, the girl got pregnant and she was taken to a clinic for an abortion. All efforts by the girl’s mother to see her daughter in Port Harcourt were frustrated by her aunt. The rest is now history.
In various  parts of the country, there are traffickers every where. They take advantage of the high rate of poverty and illiteracy in the country to exploit the people. They recruit people from  the rural areas with the promise of a better life and greener pastures either in the city or abroad.
Some Nigerians are now  specialists in bringing houses-helps for people in the cities. All you need  do is contact  them when you need a house-help,  they will negotiate the salary with you and within  a few days, you have a house-help. But  what many do not know is that a percentage of  the house-help’s-salary  goes to the man who brought him/her.
A quarrel recently broke up between a house girl  from Nasarawa State, and her  “uncle” who brought  her to Port Harcourt. According to the  girl, her uncle  usually collected N15,000.00 salary from her employer, out of which the uncle was supposed to take  N5,000.00 while she took the balance  of N10,000.00. But, for five months  running, her uncle did not  give her  a dime, claiming to be  saving the money for her. Several appeals to the man to release her money yielded  no positive result leading to the confrontation.
So, in as much as efforts are being made to tackle   human trafficking on the international level, we  should not fail to pay attention inwards as the traffickers are greatly  within us. They are not strangers. They are people we know. Even parents traffic their daughters, all in a bid to make money.
Another  new method adopted by traffickers to attract their victims is   through job  vacancy advertisements. These advertisements  are often  circulated without contact address. Instead  interested persons are asked to call certain numbers. It had been  largely alleged that most times, a call to such  members will lead to more calls until the ignorant victims is trapped  and forced to do  some unspeakable  thing which enriched the syndicates.
No doubt,  NAPTIP  has been  working  hard to rescue people  and  prosecute traffickers, but  more should be done, especially  on the local level to rid our society of these criminal elements.
All practices and conducts that subject human  beings to  exploitation including sexual and labour exploitation should  be criminalised and  the law prohibiliting  such practice enforced.
NAPTIP, relevant NGOs, the National  Orientation Agency, the media should  be involved  in sensitising the public especially those in  the rural areas on the dangers of human trafficking, the penalties therein for traffickers  and their supporters.
Our security agencies should wake up to their  duty of ensuring  that the traffickers and their syndicates and fished out and punished irrespective of how highly  placed they  are. A  situation  where the security personnel are alleged  to be in cohort with the traffickers is very  worrisome.
Parents  on the  other hand  should  realise  the harm  they are doing  to  their children, their families and the entire  society  by resorting to such dehumanizing life style. There is no justifiable  reason why parents  should  use their children  to make  money. Rather, they should  rise up to their responsibilities of fending for their children .
Of course, government is  expected to address the harsh economic situation in the country by coming up with better  policies, but  parents should  not rely on that and use their children to make money. Otherwise,  the entire  society will pay for it in future.

Calista Ezeaku