Trafficking in persons: Are Nigerian laws enough to fight the menace?

As the world and Nigeria renew commitment to curbing human trafficking internally and externally, YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that implementation of laws and policies against human trafficking and forced labour remains a challenge in the fight to stop trafficking in persons. Experts believe Nigeria has not been able to effectively use the instrumentality of the law to curb trafficking and protect children, who are the major victims of trafficking.

On July 30, the World Day against Trafficking in Persons was commemorated across the globe to raise awareness, encourage vigilance and gain support for prevention of human trafficking which has been viewed as a global problem that crosses borders with few countries being immune to it.

Annually,  thousands of people are lured and trapped into some form of neo-slavery and sex slavery. Some even fall victim to organ harvesters. Indeed, statistics from international agencies have shown that human trafficking has, in recent years, assumed alarming proportions especially in West Africa and in Nigeria in particular where there are huge cases of local human trafficking.

And while there is a lack of accurate data, there is a record that in West and Central Africa,  about 200,000 children are trafficked annually while in West Africa alone, an estimated 35,000 women and children are trafficked every year for commercial sexual exploitation.

As the most populous country, Nigeria has been deemed one of the countries with the highest figure of human trafficking and has been adjudged a  transit and destination point for human trafficking due to factors which include the poverty index, massive devaluation of the naira, illiteracy,  high rate of unemployment,  gender imbalance, civil and political unrest, the quest for greener pastures and cultural beliefs among others are factors responsible for high rate of migration which makes people vulnerable to human trafficking.

Statistics indicate that out of all African countries, Nigeria is the largest single source of trafficked women for forced prostitution to Europe and the Middle East.  Confirming  this during this year’s commemoration, the Network of CSOs working Against Trafficking in Persons, Child abuse and Labour (NACTAL), Oyo State chapter, declared that most communities in Oyo state, as in the case with other areas in Nigeria, are sources, transits and destinations for Trafficking in Persons (TIP), child labour and child abuse.

According to NACTAL, “in Nigeria, these crimes are on the increase as many Nigerians are deliberately or ignorantly engaged in either of these crimes. Some desperate Nigerians leave the country through porous land borders, travel through Niger and Libya enroute Europe in search of better economic prospects.”

In Nigeria, aside being trafficked abroad for cheap labour, a huge number of people trafficked, usually women and children, are internally trafficked for domestic labour, work in farms and and factories or as beggars.”

 

Fight against human trafficking

Child trafficking, child labour, exploitation and other forms of violence against children have spanned decades and across all continents, the menace of  human trafficking is a challenge that has been difficult to manage.

According to International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), an estimated 40 million people are trafficked globally. Out of this number, 20 per cent  or 30 per cent are children.

As a result, diverse instruments of protection; legislations and policies have been adopted over the decades as efforts to protect people from trafficking dates back to years past with the adoption of the League of Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924 and the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 after the Second World War. There were also several treaties and institutional measures that were adopted at international, regional, sub-regional and national levels. But these efforts have not done much in protecting people, especially children, from being trafficked across the world.

 

Nigeria’s laws against trafficking

In Nigeria, the fight against trafficking in persons is a priority as Nigerians make up a huge figure of people who get trafficked. Since 2009, Nigeria has made concerted efforts to tackle human trafficking through collaboration with security agencies, para military, specialised agencies and civil society organisations.

One of the legal instruments available in Nigeria is the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, amended in 2005 and re-enacted in 2015. The law prescribes a penalty of five years’ imprisonment in addition to or with an option of $670 fine for labour trafficking, 10 years imprisonment for the trafficking of children for forced begging or hawking and 10 years to life imprisonment for sex trafficking.

Another law is the 2003 Child Rights Act which is yet to be domesticated in some states,  Nigeria’s Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 and the NANTIP Act

Nigeria’s efforts using the instrumentality of the law has done little to curb the menace

 

Experts opinion

Experts have called for more efforts in the fight against trafficking in persons. Barrister Bolu Aina, a lawyer and child rights activist stated that the laws have not done much in the fight against human trafficking

“It is true that we have various legislations but they have not helped the cause of victims of trafficking as any people especially children and women  increasingly get trafficked, exploited, tortured and subjected to all forms of labour.

“Implementation of the laws should be a major focus because at present, there seems to be a lack of political will to follow through on policy implementation. Also, there is need to strengthen measures to ensure child rights protection in the country,” she added.

A child rights activist, Osunbor Marcus told Nigerian Tribune that the laws seem nonexistent in Nigeria because of poor implementation. He added that “the huge number of victims of trafficking in Nigeria creates a huge doubt about the effectiveness of legal enactments which at present have little or no impact in protecting people from being trafficked.

“The effectiveness of any law depends largely on the political will  by government and other stakeholders to enforce or implement.  Many laws on human trafficking are not being well implemented,” he said.

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