CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background to the Study
In recent times, trafficking in Persons (TIPs) otherwise referred to as human trafficking has become a global business that affects mostly children and young people, including women in developing countries. The United States government considers trafficking in persons to include all of the criminal conduct involved in forced labour and sex trafficking, essentially the conduct involved in reducing or holding someone in compelled service (United States Department of State, 2013-July 9). Trafficking in persons, according to United Nations (2000), denotes the recruitment, transportation, transfer, labouring or a 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 powers 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, servitude and child labour. Operationally, trafficking in persons is viewed as a modern day form of slavery. It refers to the use of deceit and coercion to recruit and transfer persons either internally within the domestic borders of a country or externally across international borders for the purpose of exploitation. Trafficking in persons differs from abduction in the sense that while TIPs is a modern day form of slavery, abduction is the forceful snatching away of people without negotiating for consent. Victims of human trafficking are young children, teenagers, men and women who are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation, servitude and child labour (Ekpe, 1986). The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF, 1998) indicated that 4000 children were trafficked from Cross River and Akwa Ibom States to various parts of Nigeria as well as other countries. Internal human trafficking is predominant in some States of the Federation that are categorized as endemic. Such States are Lagos, Ogun and Rivers States in the southern part of Nigeria and Kano, Katsina, Benue, Adamawa and Taraba States in the Northern part. Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Ogun States provide outlets for external trafficking in persons to ltaly, Spain, Gabon, Benin Republic and Cameroon.
Considering the causes of trafficking in persons, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (2014) reported that traffickers prey on people with promises of higher incomes to improve economic situations, support parents and families in villages, and escape from war and conflict. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur explained that women and children are the key target group because of their marginalization in many societies, and their limited economic resources. Other key target groups include people from improvised and low income households, ethnic minorities, those with low levels of education and young rounding away from home.
Furthermore, persons in rural communities are motivated to move to urban areas in search for better conditions of livelihood. The differences in available opportunities in rural and urban areas aid migration and results in trafficking in persons. Ebigbo (2002) revealed high population of trafficked children in some locations like Owerri, Part Harcourt, Lagos, Kano and Sokoto. Similarly, Hellanilendu (2005) reported that trafficking camp exist in some sites in Ogun and Akwa Ibom State. According to him, 400 children were rescued in Akwa Ibom State, which is one of the main departure points for Gabon. The National Agency for the prohibition of Traffic in Persons – NAPTIP (2003) reported that between 2003 and 2007, it rescued over seven hundred and seventy six (776) victims of trafficking from various parts of the country. The report further revealed that eighty thousand, six hundred and thirty-three (80,633) trafficked Nigerians were deported into the country between 1999 and 2001 and ten thousand Nigerian commercial sex workers were seen on the streets of ltaly in 2001.
According to Arlacchi (2000), TIPs has re-emerged as a fastest criminal industry in the world. Arlacchi maintained that TIPs is the modern day practice of slavery with the consequences similar to those of trans-atlantic slave trade that affect the victims in the areas of health, economics, education and culture. The victims of human trafficking are forced or coerced into labour or sexual exploitation. Regrettably, the traffickers instill fear in victims and keep them enslaved under lock and key (Ekpe, 1986).
Millions of children and young people are forced out of school by parents and given out to people who eventually exploit them by recruiting them into commercial sex work or forced labours, or sending them into slavery in foreign countries where they are abused in different ways. According to Ehindero (2004), much attention has been given to trafficking in drugs, arms and smuggling of illegal aliens, while trafficking of women and children still remains an issue which an average Nigerian citizen is less familiar with. The idea of TIP as asserted by UNICEF (2007) is a combination of criminal processes and behaviours, culminating in the violation of the fundamental human right of a person. These violations undermine the core humanitarian values upon which UNICEF was founded and operates. The processes of TIP evidently involved the victims being deceived, captured, sold and resold. Ndaguba (2006) revealed that intermediaries or agents who are well-known persons or acquaintances to the children’s parent, families, recruit trafficked children. The agent may be uncle, brother, aunty or sister of the child. The agent who is related to the child’s family makes it easy to conclude transaction involving the child to be trafficked with the family. Most often, the agent appears in a way that seems to convey the he or she is successful and only desires to improve the family status positively, while the parents are not aware of the consequences of the act. He added further that agents thrive on falsehood or deceit in order to convince parents to release their children who are eventually trafficked. The agents make false promises of either sending the child to school or training him or her in a trade or vocation but on reaching the destination, the child is violently exploited without the knowledge of the parents.
According to UNICEF (2007), these processes put victims at risk of being abused and exploited in a way that threatens their normal development and their survival. Owasanoye (2002) explained that in such networking, the welfare of the victim is secondary to satisfying the commercial interest of the agents. Long hours of work, without rest in the homes, hotels and mechanical workshops may lead to burn-out, stress and other health problems such as fatigue and headache. In like manner, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matter (NAPTIP, 2003) posited that TIP is the series of multi-stage processes of all acts and attempted acts involved in the recruitment, transportation within or across Nigeria borders, purchase, sale, transfer, receipt or harboring of a person involving the use of deception, coercion or debt bondage for the purpose of placing or holding the person servitude in forced or bounded labour, or in slavery. Trafficking as a process begins with the abduction or recruitment for exploitation during which the victims is forced into sexual or labour servitude in another country.
Ebigbo (2000) noted that TIPs have devastating effects on individual, society and nation. He submitted that TIPs destroys the capacities of its victims to contribute to national development, while also exposing them to face a range and intensity of violence and consequent health problems that are both physical and emotional all of which affect their ability to be productive in the society. According to Ebigbo, trafficking also denies the victims the opportunity to have access to basic education pre-requisite to the acquisition of life skills, empowerment and well-being.
As observed by Buklcy (1992), TIPs victims have anti-social behaviour due to remote and minor incidents in the prevailing situation such as psychological, emotional and behavioural problem as a result of traumatic sexualization, stigmatization, betrayal as well as injuries associated with exotic violent sex, isolation from families and community, social stigma and fear of being deported for lack of valid travel and resident documents.
According to UNICEF (2002) estimate, about 8 million Nigerian children were vulnerable and at risk of being trafficked for different forms of exploitative labour including domestic work, prostitution, street hawking, begging among others. Adepuju (1998) had earlier pointed out that TIP is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world after drugs and arms trafficking. Recently, the International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2008) estimated that globally, 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour. More than 2.4 million have been trafficked; 9.8 million are exploited by private agents, while 2.5 million are forced to work by the estate or by rebel military groups. Adepuju (1995) estimated that 660,000 persons were victims of forced labour in sub-Saharan African and one –fifth are victims of trafficking. UNICEF (2001) clearly stated that while greater percentage of victims are found in the agricultural sector as farm helps, other are recruited as washers, market head loaders, mechanical workshops workers, street vendors, beggars and bus conductors.
The exact number of persons trafficked internally and externally is difficult to obtain due to varied socio-cultural and religious reasons, including the influence of economic development and the level of education of the various ethnic groups in the country. Canvassing this view, Adejide (2003) reported the recovery of seven slave colonies in Ogun, Oyo and Osun States where 400 children between the ages of four and thirteen years were trafficked and treated in dehumanizing condition.
There are elements that can help an individual to determine whether or not a case constitutes trafficking. These elements characteristically defined the intention of the trafficker, process of trafficking, means and goals of the intended trafficking. In order for a situation to be trafficking, it must have at least one of the elements within each of the process variables (recruitment, transportation, transferring, harbouring and receiving), the means variables (threat, coercion, fraud, deceit and abuse of power), and the goal variables (prostitution, forced labour, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and slavery). What is obvious, however, is that TIPs has a pattern.
Pattern, according to Luthan (1985), stands for a regular way of doing something. Similarly, Hornby (2001) defined it as a regular way in which something happens or is done. Pattern of TIPs is therefore conceptualized in the present study as the demographic characteristics of trafficking of victims as well as the time and space involved in such trafficking. Andrew, Pride, More and Spivax (2003) classified patterns into three forms: demographic, temporal and spatial.
The demographic pattern refers to a pattern that is concerned with such demographic variables as age, gender, level of education, marital status, socio-economic status and location, as well as race of those trafficked. On gender, Akpan (2000) noted that more females (women and girls) than males moved from poor rural communities to urban centres to be forced into domestic services or other forms of exploitative labour including sexual exploitation. A substantial number of Nigerian children (92%) being trafficked were aged between 16 and 20 years (Ebigbo, 2000). Ebigbo continued that the victims of trafficking in Nigeria had low level of education, not yet married, and were located mainly in rural areas. The present study utilized all the variables earlier identified, except socio-economic status and race because the victims of TIP in Akwa Ibom State seem to be of common race, and also seem to come from poor socio-economic background. The International Labour Organization –ILO (2006) observed that most of the trafficking victims are usually children between the age range of six and eighteen years. Tribune (2005) reported the trafficking of 67 children (boys and girls) between the age range of six and twenty in Ogun State and remarked that, poverty, ignorance, greed and bad governance are the root causes of TIPs. Okeahiaham (1994) also stated that large family size is another important demographic index, which has been shown to relate to trafficking in persons.
The temporal pattern, on the other hand, relates to variables such as season, months, day of the week, public holidays, and national holidays. In the context of the present study, temporal pattern stretches further to include climatic conditions, rainy and dry seasons, specific social occasions such as naming ceremonies, wedding, funeral ceremonies and so on. All these periods could influence TIPs in one way or the other. According to Okeahiaham (1994), the climatic and topography conditions, including thick rain forest, convey great TIPs potential in Nigeria. Agricultural season (April to September) also encourages wide range and forms of exploitative agricultural labour for trafficked children. However, the present study utilized only few variables, namely age, sex, location, season, ceremonies, holidays, days of the week, months of the year and quarter of the year the favour trafficking in persons.
Finally, the spatial pattern refers to geographical location in relation to the occurrence of a given dependent variable. Operationally, spatial pattern refers to geographical location (urban, rural, border and riverine areas) and availability of markets for purchase and sale of victims, among others.
Describing pattern of TIPs from the spatial perspective, NAPTIP/UNICEF (2007) stated that TIPs could be classified into internal and external. Internally, victims are migrated or moved either inter-state or intra-state to their respective destinations. Intra-state movement of TIPs is the movement of victims within the same geographical location in which case the victims are not allowed to move out of their state of origin. Such movement is restricted to the victims’ local government area, communities or families. On the other hand, inter-state movement of TIPs, as the name implies has to do with the physical movement of the victims from one endemic state to another either by air, water or land. In addition to studying the patterns of TIPs, the present study also sought to identify the factors sustaining TIPs in Akwa Ibom State.
According to Ojomo (2005), several factors are associated with trafficking in persons in Nigeria. These include ignorance, low level or lack of formal education, poverty, large family size, and lack of effective law enforcement against TIPs. Poverty, according to him has different interpretation to include intellectual and material poverty. Often, it is material poverty that the public perceives to be the rote cause of trafficking and intellectual poverty reflected in ignorance, low level or lack of education, and other education related factors are mostly the rote cause of trafficking than material poverty.
Ojomo also emphasized on large family size which is the combination of ignorance and certain religious beliefs and traditional practices including polygamy which transformed women into baby factories. When this situation takes place in rural setting and among illiterate families who are also poor, then, the inability to cater for the resultant large number of children facilitates the traditional placement and debt bondage. Other factors that sustain TIPs include globalization of sex industry, cultural stereotype, and weak immigration policies. According to Raymond (2002) male “customers” have become the most invisible factor in promoting prostitution and the trafficking of women for prostitution worldwide.
ILO (2005) reported that most of the victims trafficked externally are engaged in commercial sex work or prostitution especially in Italy and other European countries because of the increasing demand for commercial sex and the inability of the countries to enforce legal framework against sexual exploitation. However, Owasanove (2002) maintained that poor scholastic achievement by a child may push the child into labour where the parents are unable to sustain payment of school fees and educational levies, which is a fundamental right for children and a sine qua non for poverty reduction and sustainable development. However, the victims of TIPs usually suffer devastating consequences and inhuman treatment, yet the available government legislations against TIPs do not seem to solve the problem.
ILO (2005) remarks that provisions were made for offences related to trafficking in persons in the criminal and penal codes and other early international conventions seeking the total abolition and prohibition of all forms of slavery and similar practice. Other key conventions that Nigeria became party to are the Universal Declaration of Human Right, convention for the Suppression of the traffic in persons and of the exploitation of the prostitution. These conventions abolish and prohibit all forms of slavery and related customs like debt bondage and force marriage. In a report by UNICEF (2002), antislavery conventions were integrated into Nigerian Legislations, specifically the penal code and criminal code of the Northern and Southern Nigeria. He reaffirmed that both codes took inspiration from the conventions and created offences similar in terms. The offences ranges from the defilement and prostitution of a minor, trafficking in men and women, slave leading to abduction and kidnapping. The penal codes and other laws in use were inadequate when the Federal Government took the decision to enact one of its most comprehensive pieces of legislation to date. The anti-trafficking in persons (prohibition) law enforcement and Administration Act 2003 which came into effect on the 4th of July, 2003 as a Federal Law prohibiting and prescribing punishment for any one engaged in the act of trafficking in persons. The victims usually have bad international image, poor national development and negative socialization, which is detrimental to the society and national development. Understanding the underlying factor, as earlier indicated enhances the evolution of empowerment against TIPs.
Regarding empowerment against TIPs, Oke (2005) noted that education is fundamental to TIPs eradication in Nigeria and help sustains as well as accelerate overall development. The present study therefore, among other things, will investigate stakeholders’ perception of this and other needed empowerments. Fatusi (2001) defined empowerment as the processes by which young people gain inner power to express and defend their right and gain greater self-confidence, self-identity, self-esteem and control over their lives. In this context, empowerment is the process through which young people are assisted to develop self will and gain innate power to express and defend their rights and have control over their personal, social and economic lives. Empowerment is expected to transform the unequal power relations to equitable power sharing in favour of the less powerful. This is the reason why we hear phrases such as women empowerment, gender equality and equity, convention on the Right of the Child, convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The phrases points to the reality that some groups in the society are at receiving end of unequal power relations among which are the youths or young people. Empowerment of young people against TIPs involved awareness rising on their rights and adverse effects of TIPs. This will provide them with the knowledge and skills required for their increased inner power to express and defend their rights against abuse, and gain control over their own lives. This therefore becomes the critical issue for young people to improve quality of life. Perception denotes the way an individual think about something and his idea of what it is like. This study is aimed at assessing individuals’ understanding concerning appropriate ways of empowering susceptible individuals against involvement in TIPs. Empowerment strategies designate a planned series of actions for helping individuals to achieve appreciable economic status. Empowerment strategy is conceptualized as an envisaged strategy that would be effective in improving or sustaining the personal, social and economic lives of people that are prone to trafficking in persons. Such strategies would likely give the individuals more control over their own life or situation, thereby discouraging their involvement in TIPs. Several theories concerning TIPs have basis of anchor on the present study. They include human capital theory, social learning theory, sociological model of child abuse and trans-theoretical model. Each of these theories explained the process of TIPs in different perspective, and further agreed that TIPs is influenced by extrinsic factors. The theories helped to explain the pattern of TIPs and offered bases for development of interventions.
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