1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUALISATION
1.20. HUMAN-TRAFFICKING IN HISTORY
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Nigeria must begin to properly address the sex- trafficking epidemic that is confronting it. All strategies to this end must aim at making it less easy for citizens to be abducted and transported across state and national borders. The long-delayed national identification system must be made functional without delay. Security procedures should be overhauled to accommodate particularly vulnerable groups like school children, migrant workers and the homeless.
Known smuggling routes must be properly policed, and corruption and incompetence within the immigration service should be harshly dealt with.
The country must also embark on a comprehensive effort to repatriate its citizens who are living illegally in other countries. Instead of simply waiting for host countries to expel Nigerians, the Federal Government must work with them to ensure that they are sent home with as little fuss as possible. The greatest anti- trafficking strategy, however, remains the creation of an economically-vibrant nation whose benefits are freely available to all of its citizens.
The above scenario reveals the hotchpotch of factors governing and dictating the operations of the trafficking business in Nigeria and the nefarious nature of the traffickers themselves. Nigerian women and girls are taken to Europe, especially to Italy, Russia and sometimes, to the Middle East as well as other parts of North Africa after syndicates employ deceit and coercion to prey on these vulnerable youths who they traffic overseas for domestic servitude or sexual exploitation.
human-trafficking is traceable to the time of old Empires and Kingdoms when captives of conquered Empires were taken from their places of origin into slavery and made to serve Kings and Queens in other lands. This practice was later changed to sales of the excess captives to other Kings who are equally powerful. These purchases were said to have been made by Kings who, either were in need of palace wards or simply as a status symbol or appearance of dignity, power and affluence or in some cases, as objects of sacrifices to appease ancestral spirits (Uwa et al, 2014:13).
When early European explorers “discovered” the African continent, the practice of human-trafficking was exploited by the Portuguese sailors who saw a ready market for African slaves in tea and sugar plantations of Europe and America. This formed the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic and Trans- Sahara slave trades which saw millions of black, able- bodied men and women transported as commodity across the Atlantic and the Sahara Desert into slavery. However, when, by the 18th century, the economic interests of Europe slowly shifted from agriculture to industry, with the humanitarian sentiment and movement sweeping across Western Europe and America, global consensus was developed that human-trafficking and slavery are two siblings of the same parent because they both represent similar purposes, if not the same (Uwa et al (2014:13). Trafficking in persons also became more widespread and complex since the end of the Cold War, forming what is described as the dark side of globalisation, with a resultant disproportionate
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impact on third world countries (Parent and Bruckert, 2002:4).
Consequently, in 1926, the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Convention on the Abolition of Slavery and, joined by a Supplementary Convention in 1956, provided a precise definition of slavery and human- trafficking. That Geneva Convention described human-trafficking as a practice which includes the act of capturing, acquisition or confinement of a person to reduce the same to slavery, as well as every act of acquisition or confinement by sale or exchange, and, in general, every act of trading or transport of slaves (Uwa et al (2014;13). This menace of human-trafficking represents a major dehumanising form of human rights abuse that requires urgent attention all over the world. It is therefore pertinent that member states in Africa address the trafficking of people within and across the borders of the continent.
Although, trade in humans has been on the global agenda since the mid- 19th Century, it has, in the 21st Century, emerged as a major issue of public concern (Hubschle, 2010:6). Leaders around the world have placed human- trafficking alongside terrorism and drug trafficking as one of the three “evils”
that affect modern day life. It has also, of recent, become the subject of academic debates, advocacies, policy research and governmental actions.
According to findings by Kempadoo (cited in Hubschle, 2010:6), law enforcement agencies have focused on human-trafficking in an effort to control immigration, organized sex trade and crime through state policies and
interventions and in research and social work among undocumented and bonded labourers.
In her own analysis of the global sex trade, Farr (2005:16) argues that international human-trafficking is carried out by a wide variety of organised networks of different sizes and complexities. She informs further that this industry is simultaneously collaborative and fragmented with its network spanning every region and virtually every country of the world. Consequently, there has been disturbing implications for poor people around the world from diversity of interests, revealing much in the war against human-trafficking (Hubschle, 2010:6). Therefore, in order to combat human-trafficking, problems of poor communities must be addressed and their youths empowered.
1.21. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH EMPOWERMENT AND HUMAN-TRAFFICKING
The African continent has become a major source of trafficked people and if its leaders are interested in combating the human-trafficking plague, they must investigate thoroughly into the phenomenon as well as improve the quality of life in their communities, especially of the continent’s growing youthful population. This thorough investigation into the link between community development, youth empowerment and human-trafficking is important for several reasons. Firstly, human-trafficking often occurs in
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decent job and the right to be protected from torture, cruelty, inhuman or degrading treatments. Poverty is a major reason why non suspecting victims such as women and youths easily fall into the hands of human traffickers as they desperately seek for better lives outside of dysfunctional communities, countries or even continents. Whenever these people hear about the endless opportunities in a foreign country, for example, they are easily persuaded, or deceived, as the case often is. Secondly, when and where human-trafficking occurs, it violates the rights of individuals to be free from slavery, non- discrimination, freedom of expression and participation (Pennington, 2009:3).
For instance, victims of human-trafficking into South Africa are discovered to have been lured with promises of jobs, improved education opportunities and the offer of shelter and care (UNESCO, 2007:76). Human-trafficking is also known as the violation and abuse of the rights of the victims.