Has human trafficking come to replace slave trade' Definitely, human trafficking has become an issue in developing countries, especially Nigeria and even developed countries like the United States of America, The Netherlands, Italy and the rest. Tunde Ogunesan and Rosemary Akano examine how human trafficking could be stopped .THE whole world thought that the 1926 slavery convention organised by the then League of Nations, would be the end of slave trade, but today that dream has become a mirage. Although, Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, explicitly bans slavery, the practice can be said to be still alive.According to the British Anti-Slavery Society, "Although there is no longer any state which recognises any claim by a person to a right of property over another, there are an estimated 27 million people throughout the world, mainly children, in conditions of slavery."Human trafficking has become a cankerworm in our society that almost all countries of the world have one or two links with this phenomenon.Before the abolition of slave trade, nations of the world agreed that it was a trade which allowed the legal possession of human beings. Then; human beings could be legal property of another, could be bought or sold, not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved. However, despite being outlawed, because human beings love to prey on one another, they devised another means of feasting on the disadvantaged ones in the society, trafficking fellow human beings to sustain their own standard of living.It is described by the United Nations as the 'illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labour, or a modern-day form of slavery.'The UN has identified the menace as the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, combating it, however, has continued to prove difficult because it is lucrative. It is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world. In 2004, the total annual revenue for trafficking in persons was estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion.In 2005, Patrick Belser of International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated a global annual profit of $31.6 billion. The United Nations in 2008 estimated that nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries were being trafficked into 137 countries around the world.And just like the days of the slave trade, from Europe to Asia, Africa, America and throughout the world, human trafficking has become a big business. In spite of the various legislations to combat the crime, it keeps on growing.Slavery has a rich history. It was reported to be inseparable with human existence or civilisation. At a point, it was prevalent to the point that it became a normal way of life- there was always demand for it and nobody saw anything wrong in it. In ancient times, slaves were obtained from war fronts and conquests. The owners used them to boost their economic power- working on agricultural farms and even selling them at slave markets where various people who needed them for one thing or the other came for them.Today, human trafficking comes in different forms. Sex trafficking, child labour and trafficking and women trafficking. Nigeria has been identified as a leading nation in human trafficking in the world just as she was during the slave trade era.According to a report from the United States State Department of Trafficking in Persons, 'Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. Within Nigeria, women and girls are trafficked primarily for domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation.Boys are trafficked for forced labour in street vending, agriculture, mining, stone quarries, and as domestic servants. Religious teachers also traffic boys, called almajiri, for forced begging.'As if what the country is facing in terms of corruption is not enough, human trafficking has now become a booming business. Even up till now, there have been several denials over the existence of human trafficking business in Nigeria. But there have been claims and counter claims of a cat and mouse antics between the protection agencies and the practitioners.From Lagos in South West Nigeria to Enugu, Anambra, Akwa-Ibom and Kano States, there have been reports of men of the National Agency for the Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), arresting or detaining suspects over human trafficking.Recently, Nigerian Tribune reported some alleged hanky panky play between the officials of NAPTIP and the operators of orphanage homes in Anambra State. The NAPTIP alleged that some orphanages in the state were purely transit centres, but the operators denied it. At the end of the day, the whole show pointed in one direction, that indeed such centres existed in Nigeria.Nigeria has served as a transit centre for children from Benin Republic and other African countries where some are forced to work as domestic workers, prostitutes, or in other forced labour conditions. Also, Nigerian children are trafficked internally and to West and Central Africa for domestic labour and street hawking, and to Europe for commercial sexual exploitation.When NAPTIP was clamping down on bringing children from neighbouring countries in Africa to Nigeria, Nigerians devised other means of generating 'materials' for their business. They established baby factories in the countries. At these centres, young pregnant girls were housed to put to bed in disguised orphanages, nursed and then exported for their intention. Nigerian Tribune gathered that the operators of these illegal centres are 'big', rich and influential people in the society.Investigation also revealed that despite various legislations by government and international bodies to prevent human trafficking, the crime network industry is worth an estimated $7-10billion. The US State Department in 2004 revealed that between 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked annually, putting it at 80 per cent of women, 50 per cent as minors and just 2 per cent as male while the UNICEF said that about 1,200,000 people are trafficked annually.According to a research work entitled, 'Human Trafficking in Nigeria: Root causes and Recommendations' by a team of researchers, it gives a figure of 1,800,000 orphans living in Nigeria. The report said these children are vulnerable to trafficking. The report mentioned 'domestic help, 'Diya' or blood money, begging and baby harvesting as purposes people engage in human trafficking while it said various factors are responsible for it.In Nigeria, trafficking still flourishes despite an anti-trafficking legislation enacted in 2003: The Trafficking in Person Law Enforcement and Administration Act 2003. That is due to the weak judicial system, although some people have been sentenced. Apart from the weak legal system, just as is the case in Anambra State, traffickers have, at one time or the other, accused anti-trafficking agency officials as collaborators in their illicit trade.But NAPTIP Head, Communication and Media, Arinze Orakwue in a telephone interview with the Nigerian Tribune said that was not true. According to him 'before now the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) rated Nigeria among top eight countries where human trafficking was high, but today the country's rate has dropped to an appreciative level. NAPTIP has brought integrity to the fight against human trafficking in Nigeria. The US Department of States in the last three years has rated Nigeria well. This could only be possible where there is total commitment, dedication and loyalty by workers, that NAPTIP officials have demonstrated,' Orakwue noted.He added that the illegal act was beyond Nigeria because 'there is a global crime network for it.' According to him the demand for people in Western Europe has encouraged the network to always make supply available.'There is an expansion market for human trade in Western Europe especially in Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria. Because there is always a market for it, people will always make supply available. In Nigeria, states like Edo, Delta and Ogun are known for external trafficking while Cross River and Akwa Ibom are renown for their internal activities.'Successfully curbing human trafficking is everybody's task because according to Orakwue, 'it goes beyond sending little children abroad. It is exploitation in whatever form-skill, sexual or using people for begging against their wish.'Corroborating Orakwue, Mrs Florence Adeniyi a civil servant, said, 'if what we're now hearing is what they call human trafficking, then we're all guilty. In the sense that one way or the other, we have maids at home or shops, which ordinarily to people like me, is a means of easing my headache about home chores or in the shops. I had a maid who helped out in my home while my children were younger, she helped with washing, their school uniform, cooking and went on some errands and picked them from school. But now that they are grown ups, I only made provision for a maid in the shop only.'But in reality, I don't know how that has become human trafficking because we negotiated on how much to pay and I don't think it was against her wish,' she noted.Nigerian Tribune's investigation revealed that most Ni-gerian housewives like Mrs Adeniyi do not see anything wrong in employing a poor girl to assist them in house hold chores.Most of them, who do not want their names in print, said coping with their jobs and fulfilling their obligations as wives these days required the use of 'house helps', and they did not see that as human trafficking.Nigerian Tribune was also informed that hardly could an average Nigerian family, which marriage is under 10 years, not need one form of assistance or the other. The assistance could come from paid house helps, brothers or sisters, cousins, nephews, people from religious settings who are unable to make ends meet and are being taken care of by either a big brother, sister, mummy or daddy, who in turn assists these classes of 'sponsors' in one house chore or the other. From driving to dry cleaning, ironing, cooking, office and house assistance and so on.In his views, Mr Musiliu Ashir, a cleric, said, 'It's a crime of the 'big' people who are exploring the poverty level of the poor masses to their own advantage. Have you seen a poor Nigerian or person involved in the business' It is only the big people who know where they can sell human beings and how it can fetch them more money abroad. Those average people who are involved are doing so because of poverty, they are desperate to make ends meet, simple.'Mr Ashir said if government was ready to stop human trafficking it would enforce its anti-human trafficking laws.According to him, 'we're living in a society where the same laws are interpreted differently based on the status of who commits such crime. If people like me steal now, I know they will sentence me but if na dem dem, it is plea bargaining. They will say bring some amount from what you have stolen! Is it someone like me who does not know anywhere abroad that will be selling our girls to them in Italy' Let the government enforce the laws that will stop the act.'Though Nigeria is the first African country to enact such a law and establish a specific agency to implement it through the enactment of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2003, which also created the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP). Both Ashir and the chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora, Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa said there is a need to really fight human trafficking in Nigeria.Dabiri-Erewa said "NAPTIP's problem is not money, it was law. We need migration policy. We need to review NAPTIP laws to strengthen it. We need to domesticate trafficking laws. We need to unmask the cabal and break its ring."With the traffickers' network cutting across even the developed countries according to Orakwue, who said the type of trafficking-sex, labour, child, girl or woman, which differ from countries, governments and other anti-trafficking bodies are not leaving any stone unturned in bringing down the networks. And for the first time in one of the leading European countries in human trafficking, The Netherlands, an entire human trafficking ring was recently uncovered and brought to trial. Women from Nigeria were abducted and taken to Amsterdam, where they were distributed across Europe as sex slaves.The NAPTIP executive secretary, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Egba said, 'the magnitude of this phenomenon and its consequences are considerable and call for concerted action by government and civil society." Until that is done, war against human trafficking might be far from being won.
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