Human Trafficking in [Nigeria Street Children in [Nigeria] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Nigeria] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Federal
Republic of Nigeria [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Federal Republic of Nigeria is located
in W Africa [map] and is bordered
by the Nigeria is a source, transit, and
destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of
forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Within Nigeria, women and
girls are primarily trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation,
and boys are trafficked for forced begging by religious teachers, as well as
forced labor in street vending, agriculture, mining, stone quarries, and
domestic servitude. Transnationally, women, girls, and boys are trafficked
between Nigeria and other West and Central African countries, primarily
Gabon, Cameroon, Benin, Niger, The Gambia and Ghana, for the same purposes
listed above. Benin is a primary source country for boys and girls trafficked
for forced labor in Nigeria’s granite quarries. Nigerian women and girls are
also trafficked to North Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Europe, most notably to
Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Norway, and Greece.
Nigeria’s Edo state is a primary source area for woman and girls trafficked
to Italy for sexual exploitation. In 2004, Nigeria’s National Agency for the
Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) reported that 46 percent of
Nigerian victims of transnational trafficking are children, with the majority
of them being girls trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. An
increasing trend, reported on widely in the last year by the United Kingdom
(U.K.) and the international press, is the trafficking of African boys and
girls from Lagos to the U.K.’s urban centers, including London, Birmingham and
Manchester, for domestic servitude and forced labor in restaurants and shops.
Some of the victims are Nigerian, while others are trafficked from other
African countries through Lagos. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The
following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Nigeria's
'respectable' slave trade It starts with the promise of a
better life. The parents are taken in.
The children are persuaded. When they leave home they do so willingly, with
some excitement, not trepidation. The
trafficker has promised a good job, a schooling, a regular income. But that
is not how it works out. Nigeria:
Victims of Human Trafficking Contract Aids Head of National Agency for the
Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP),
Kano State zone, Ahmed M. Bello has disclosed that over 60 per cent of
victims of trafficking repatriated to the country tested HIV positive. The victims who are mainly
teenagers, he added, engaged in prostitution overseas. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The country is a source, transit, and destination country for
trafficked children. Children from Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS –
Nigerians were trafficked to Europe, the Middle East, and other countries in Women and children were most at
risk of being trafficked. Boys were trafficked primarily to work as forced
bondage laborers, street peddlers, and beggars, while girls were trafficked
for domestic service, street peddling, and commercial sexual exploitation.
Trafficking in children, and to a lesser extent in women, occurred within the
country's borders. Children in rural areas were trafficked to urban centers
to work as domestics, street peddlers, merchant traders, and beggars. The United Nations Office of Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) reported that individual criminals and organized criminal
groups conducted trafficking, often involving relatives or other persons
already known to the victims. Traffickers employed various methods during the
year. Many were organized into specialties, such as document and passport
forgery, recruitment, and transportation. To recruit young women, traffickers
often made false promises of legitimate work outside the country. Traffickers
also deceived child victims and their parents with promises of education,
training, and salary payments. Once away from their families, children were
subjected to harsh treatment and intimidation. Traffickers subjected victims
to debt bondage, particularly victims forced into prostitution. In some
cases, traffickers employed practitioners of traditional magic, or juju, to
threaten victims with curses to procure their silence. NAPTIP estimated that
90 percent of the girls trafficked through Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [76] The Committee notes with
appreciation the serious and exemplary efforts undertaken by the State party
to combat child trafficking, including establishment of bilateral anti-trafficking
agreements and introduction of joint border controls. The Committee further
welcomes the enactment of the law prohibiting human trafficking in July 2003,
the creation of the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons
(NAPTIP), and the Presidential appointment of the Special Assistant for Human
Trafficking and Child Labor in June 2003. The Committee also notes the
signature of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and
of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 2003, and the
ratification of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2002, by the State party. Nigeria:
Police Rescues 105 Children From Human Traffickers The 'anti human trafficking piracy
special Investigation unit' of the FCT police command has so far rescued 105
teenagers between the ages of five to thirteen years from human traffickers,
in different places in Abuja. He said the children were
trafficked from Nassarawa, Lagos, Kano, Kwara and some villages within the
FCT to be used as sex slaves and child labourers within the Motor Parks,
Markets and restaurants in Abuja, which contravenes section 19 of the
'Trafficking Act in Persons'. Musa disclosed further that one of
the suspects, Amina Adamu actually confessed that she kidnapped the victims
to the FCT for prostitution as well as to be used as slaves, for her to get
money. Nigeria:
Country Leads in Women Trafficking to Europe - Minister The Minister of Labour, Dr. Hassan
Muhammad Lawal, said Tuesday that Nigeria has more cases of trafficking of
women to Europe and Middle East than any other African country. The minister, who disclosed this at the
opening ceremony of the International Cooperation Workshop against Human
Trafficking in Abuja, said most of the trafficked women are forced into
prostitution. Dr. Lawal also expressed concern
that most anti-trafficking programmes focus on trafficking for sexual
exploitation, saying that the campaigns are "too narrow in scope." "ILO estimates further
indicate that 80 percent of forced labour in the African region is for
economic exploitation and only 8 percent for commercial sexual
exploitation," he said. Nigeria:
Human Trafficking - a View From Edo State The phenomenon of human
trafficking in Nigeria has become multi dimensional and multi faceted to the
extent that anybody could fall a victim and no one is safe. Besides
prostitution, marriage, and forced labour, some of these victims are used for
rituals, begging and even for organ transplantation or money laundering.
While most trafficking into the commercial sex trade involves young adult
women, minors including some children under 16 are also exploited. While lots of people blame poverty
or culture as a basis for human trafficking in Nigeria, NAPTIP says other
causes of the outrageous rate of human trafficking in the country are
ignorance, desperation, and the promotion and commercialization of sex by the
European Union (EU). Accused
human trafficker fights extradition It was part of an international
police operation that led to another 19 people being arrested in Britain, the
United States, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Ireland and Nigeria. Dutch officials said the smuggling ring
used fear of voodoo to force dozens of young Nigerian children and women to
work as prostitutes in European countries including the Netherlands, France,
Italy and Spain. They said the
under-age girls were forced to promise a voodoo priest in Nigeria that they would pay off debt. Nigeria:
Victims of Human Trafficking Contract Aids Head of National Agency for the
Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), Kano
State zone, Ahmed M. Bello has disclosed that over 60 per cent of victims of
trafficking repatriated to the country tested HIV positive. The victims who are mainly
teenagers, he added, engaged in prostitution overseas. 95 women arrested for alleged human trafficking www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=08/04/2007&qr Title=95%20women%20arrested%20for%20alleged%20human%20trafficking&qrColumn=NEWS “These teenage girls were
brought into Lagos from the South-South for trafficking to neighbouring Benin
Republic for child labour,” he said.
“Investigations revealed that the trafficked children have been
sexually abused. “They alleged that
their masters used them for commercial sex business in brothels where they
make returns of N1,000 to them per day,” Abubakar said. Lawyer jailed
for human trafficking He said taking all this into
account, Ilori’s crime wasn’t at the highest end of the scale but added that
"it was undoubtedly the case" that he brought twelve Mauritian
nationals into the country knowing they were illegal. Judge Nolan said he accepted that there was
a scheme in place and said that although there were others involved, Ilori
was an actor in it and made financial gains through it. He said that these Mauritian nationals
suffered because they paid out quite a bit of money and left their native
country believing they had work available here. Curtailing
human trafficking in Ebonyi The question bugging the minds of
many remains, is human trafficking on the increase in Nigeria? Who are the
masterminds of human trafficking? Who are most at risk of being trafficked?
What are the methods employed by traffickers to lure/recruit their victims?
What inhuman and unjust conditions are victims subjected to? What impact has
the creation of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons
(NAPTIP) made in efforts to combat these ugly development, as well as the
National Assembly? It is worthy to note that despite
the effort being made by the Federal Government to stem the rising tide of
human trafficking, the menace has not abated. Nigeria
Intercepts 62 Suspected Child Laborers The Nigerian police intercepted a
truck in the country's south carrying the potential child laborers to
Cameroon and Gabon. The children included a three-year-old girl. Oraukwe says
some suspects have been arrested and would soon be prosecuted. "We have secured 12
convictions; we have not lost any case since this thing started," said
Oraukwe. "We cannot let this matter go down like that, especially when
it is not just Nigeria. What my boss is doing is to try to reach out to those
countries that have their citizens here, to take custody of their citizens
while we prosecute the traffickers."
Child trafficking is punishable by a maximum 10-year jail term in
Nigeria. Rescued human
trafficking victims go on hunger strike One of the victims, Mr. Godfrey
Ayima, said since they were brought in by the police, they had not been fed
or allowed to take their bath, saying they were detained with hardened
criminals and the girls made to pass the night in the same cells with boys. Media onslaught against child trafficking www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=07/10/2007&qr Title=Media%20onslaught%20against%20child%20trafficking&qrColumn=FEATURES In a remote jungle of Ondo State
reside three able-bodied teenagers. They have been labouring away for two
years in an expansive cocoa plantation.
They can neither read nor write except to communicate in their native
Cross River dialect. The teenagers speak pidgin English as well. They neither own the farm nor any other
property, or even aspire to; the boys only live from the handout offered by
their ‘master’ who has arranged for their departure to the ‘Promised Land’. “Now the land is cursing us, and
we want to return home, but it is becoming increasingly difficult,” says one
of them, amidst sobs, through an interpreter.
These hapless children, adored in the African tradition and seen as a
great asset to the family and the community, have been trafficked internally,
becoming labourers in another man’s empire. Trafficking
of African women is thriving In January Italian police smashed
several human trafficking rings involving African and eastern European
females and netted some 800 suspects.
Nigeria is the worst culprit in human trafficking where "peddlers
work quietly and in the open" unfazed by law enforcing agents, said
Ndiaye. She said young girls were lured
with fraudulent offers of jobs in Europe, only to end up being violently
forced into prostitution. Gooday Akhimiona is a juju or black
magic priest, accused of helping traffickers by instilling fear in human
trafficking victims, mostly girls between the ages of 12 and 25. GOODAY AKHIMIONA, JUJU PRIEST: Presenting my power. If I say
something, (inaudible). PUREFOY: Victims say they're forced
through bloody and degrading juju rituals, and made to swear oaths of
secrecy. One victim, rescued by her cousin while on her way to Europe,
wishing to keep her identity hidden, explained what happened to her. Court jails father
of five for human trafficking A court in the southern Nigerian
city of Benin has jailed a 31-year-old father of five for human trafficking
in what human rights activists consider a significant victory against a
growing problem. Justice J.A. Acha of
the city's high court jailed Constance Omoruyi for two years in addition to
fining him 150,000 naira (US $1,171) on charges related to trafficking two
women to work as prostitutes in Europe. Human
Trafficking on the Rise in Nigeria Despite the effort being made by
the Nigerian government to stem the rising tide of human trafficking, the
menace has not abated. Police
authorities disclosed on Sept. 24 that two people who offered to buy a
six-year-old girl for 600,000 Nigerian naira (U.S.$4,680) were being
questioned in Maiduguri, state capital of Borno, in northeast Nigeria. This disclosure followed the
arrest of six people, including a medical doctor, for alleged involvement in
the sale of children. Nigeria/West
Africa: Human trafficking With increasing incidence of
trafficking in children, particularly girls for sex and domestic work, the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that the incidence of child
labour in Nigeria for persons aged 10 to 14 years is approximately 12
million. "In the South-West, a greater
number of girls and women end up in prostitution, while in the East, the
problem affects mainly boys who find themselves trafficking into
agricultural, domestic, trading and apprenticeship jobs," the report
said. Also 60 per cent of women
trafficking victims for commercial sex in Italy are Nigerians. Nigeria - Evils of Human Trafficking Clara, 13, was picked up by her aunty
having agreed with her parents that she will work as a house help somewhere
in Lagos on a salary of N7,000 and this money is to be sent to her parents in
the village. Unknown to Clara and her
relatives, the aunt, who is involved in human trafficking, will hand her over
to a syndicate. By the arrangement of her aunt, whose plans were not
disclosed to her relatives, Clara will continue her voyage to an undisclosed
destination as soon as she arrives. As agreed, Clara was handed over
in exchange for money, part of which was sent to her parents as salary for
two years. Soon after the deal was sealed, Clara began her journey to Italy
where she was forced into prostitution. Eight child traffickers are
already serving jail terms ranging from three to seven years in different
prisons across the country for child trafficking offences. Head, Investigation and Monitoring Unit of
the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP),
Mallam Mohammed Babandede, said this in his paper at a one-day workshop on
Public Awareness Campaigns and Advocacy on Trafficking in Women and Children,
organised for Journalists in Osun, Kano and Cross River by WOTCLEF. Babandede said women and children
trafficking are now serious offences since 2003, when NAPTIP was
established. He said 20 people are now
behind bars, while 25 cases are still on-going in various courts. State
leads in child trafficking and prostitution Akwa Ibom State is now leading in
human trafficking and child labour, beating Edo State to the second
place. Executive Secretary, National
Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters
(NAPTIP), Barrister Carol Ndaguba, identified the type of trafficking in
AkwaIbom State to include, internal trafficking for sexual exploitation,
child trafficking for labour exploitation and child abuse. 27 human trafficking victims get vocational training1 The girls, between the ages of
five and 16 years were among the 40 trafficked children intercepted by the
Nigeria Police in a containerized truck in May 2005 from Edati en-route Lagos
for the purpose of domestic labour. Immigration
service to sensitise Bayelsans on human trafficking The comptroller expressed dismay
over the rate at which parents and guardians in rural areas gave out their children
and wards to unsuspecting relations and other individuals to serve as
helpers. He explained that the
relations and others who took these children to the urban centres to help
them often ended up enslaving them.
“Some of the relations even sell the children out to other countries
without the consent of their parents and guardians,” he said. Jonathan tasks govt on human trafficking1 Bayelsa State government
yesterday, said the current battle against human trafficking and child labour
would continue to be a mirage without effective partnership on all fronts.
Governor Goodluck Jonathan who made the remark while declaring open a two-day
workshop on anti-human trafficking and child labour in Yenagoa enjoined
government at all levels to summon strong political will and ensure that
anti- human trafficking laws are enforced with a view to apprehending and
bringing to book the traffickers and their cohorts. Africa tackles evils of modernised slave trade A source close to the policeman
said that the modus operandi of most of the prostitution rings is the
same. Usually they would approach natives of some villages near Abudu
in Edo state and offer to send their female children abroad. Such parents would be told that their
children would secure good jobs. NASS amends Human Trafficking Law The 2003 law on human trafficking
has been amended by the National Assembly to allow for the prohibition of
domestic labour in Nigeria. Nigerian
ladies rescued from prostitution syndicate’s den in Burkina Faso Tony was said to have promised to
take Rita and Lovina to Germany, to meet their elder sister who resides in
that country, but the journey ended up in Burkina Faso where he told them
they were brought to the country for prostitution. Story that touches the heart : Why prostitution rate is rising She said at the age of 16, her aunt
came from Lagos and said she has found her mother in Lagos that she should
follow her to meet her mother. When she got to Lagos, she discovered that the
woman did not know her mother’s where about. The woman now told her that she
should join the other sex workers and begin to do what they are doing in
order to pay her back the money she used to transport her to Lagos. Dream
of freedom turns to prostitution nightmare "Two people working in an
apparently-normal travel agency arranged my journey. But once we arrived in Trafficked
Women in Italy Retain Faith Despite Exploitation Women smuggled into Help Sought to Combat Nigeria Sex Trade Maria's case illustrates one of
the least understood corners of the sex slavery underworld: gangs using the
perceived potency of native West African voodoo and hexes to hold women in
their grip. Recently, however, an unusual alliance has started fighting back. Nigerians
Held For Trafficking Human trafficking and the sale of
human body parts are rampant in NIGERIA:
Fighting The Many Heads Of The Child-Trafficking Beast "While the challenge of women
and children being trafficked to Europe remains in the limelight, a big
problem is the children being used as domestic help in big cities and towns
within Children's Rescue
Highlights Nigeria's Battle With Trafficking It was a refrigerated truck, normally used for shipping
frozen fish, that a police surveillance team stopped in Child
Trafficking: Police Go After Victims' Parents Police in London
Witchcraft Murder Traced to Africa Child Trade In September 2001 a gruesome discovery was made in Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Container kids 'to be sold as slaves' Nigerian police found more than 60
children packed into a shipping container in Lagos, and a police said it was
believed they were to be sold as slaves or servants. The children were in a container
normally used for carrying fish, said police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo in
Abuja, the capital. “We are trying to
find out what they would be doing with children aged five to 14,” said
Ighodalo. “We are thinking maybe they are using them for slaves and house
boys.” Human
traffickers from Nigeria The market in Benin City sells
just about everything: ladies' pants and bras, plastic bags, padlocks and
second-hand clothes known locally as fairly used. But this city in south-eastern
Nigeria also thrives on a less wholesome trade: people-trafficking. Those who
are trafficked are mostly young, female and destined to work as prostitutes
in Europe. No one knows how many are shipped
out each year, but everyone in Benin City knows someone who has gone. The
most popular destination appears to be Italy, where Nigerian girls in tight
jeans can be seen lolling on many a street corner. Nigeria's
'respectable' slave trade It starts with the promise of a
better life. The parents are taken in.
The children are persuaded. When they leave home they do so willingly, with
some excitement, not trepidation. The
trafficker has promised a good job, a schooling, a regular income. But that
is not how it works out. [August 27, 2004]
In Nigeria 120 boys and then later another 116 all from Benin
were rescued from labour camps in the South Western states of Oyo, Osun and
Ogun. The boys some as young as 4
years old were found working in granite quarries, sleeping out in the open
and malnourished. Young boys from Togo
were recruited to work as agricultural workers in Nigeria in return for their
school fees. The boys ended up
working 13 hours a day and were beaten if they complained or did not work
hard enough. After 1 to 2 years they
were given bicycles and told to peddle home.
Many never made it whilst others were robbed. The long road to freedom http:/www.freespeechradio.net/april2004_part2.html Thousands of young Nigerians are
sold into slavery every year. Sue MacGregor made a hazardous journey to meet
the victims of this brutal trade, and the campaigners fighting against it. Each year, more than 200,000
Nigerian children are forcibly taken from their homes to be put to work. Some
go with the permission of their parents, and some do not. Many, especially
boys who may be as young as five or six, end up as household slaves far from
home, or as agricultural workers on smallholdings or in quarries, where they
break large lumps of granite with heavy iron hammers and earn little more
than a few cents a day. The dust they inhale will do them lasting damage.
Some, especially the younger ones, die as a result; others end up with
terrible scars, both physical and psychological. The girls who are taken may
end up in domestic service, but many become prostitutes, perhaps in Ivory
Coast or Gabon, but increasingly in Europe, particularly in Italy, where a
well-organised criminal network distributes them to major cities like Rome,
Florence and Turin. The
lost children of Nigeria's sex trade Voodoo is used to control children
sold into slavery by their parents. Rita’s eyes opened wide as she
described the voodoo ceremony intended to condemn her to a life of
prostitution. “The witch doctor took
some of my nails, and hair. He cut the heart of a chicken into small pieces
and mixed it all into a potion with a local gin brew. I had to drink it,” she
whispered. “I was so frightened. I knew death would come if I betrayed the oath.” Rita, then 15, was told that she must never
run away from her “sponsors” or go to the police. “If I did, the Gods would
take advantage of me, or my parents,” she said. Her mother had taken Rita to the
ceremony. After paying for her daughter to be taken to Europe for a “better
life”, she wanted to safeguard her investment. About 200,000 children such as Rita are
taken from their homes in West Africa each year and are sold into domestic
slavery, prostitution or worse, according to UNICEF UK. Slavery
fears for 'lost' children There are fears that large numbers
of children may be trafficked into Britain after police discovered up to 30
had been "lost". Campaigners fear thousands of
children are being used as domestic slaves after being brought into Britain. 'AUNTS' AND 'UNCLES' - The vast majority of the
children were from Nigeria, which is well known among law enforcement
officials as being the main source for trafficked children into Britain. "For years these children have been
arriving at Heathrow and we've been sending them through without having a
clue where they were going to," said a source familiar with the
investigation, who declined to be named. Scale
of African slavery revealed The report, which covers 53
African nations, says children are the biggest victims in what is a very
complex phenomenon. It describes how
they are forced into slavery, recruited as child soldiers or sold into
prostitution. And the trade is often in both
directions. Nigeria, for example, has
received trafficked people from 12 African countries, but trafficked
Nigerians have been found in a dozen countries too. COMPLICITY - Much of this trade in children
often has the tacit collaboration of the victims' own families where it is
seen not so much as criminal activity but as a way for a large family to
boost its poor income. Slavery
abounds, U.N. 'remembers' The book also contains interviews
with Arab slave traders, who sustain that the sharia (Islamic law) authorizes
them to enslave children and relatives of men with whom they are at war. They
state that they sell slaves to Arabs in other countries. Despite concerted efforts by the
Women Trafficking and Child Labor Eradication Foundation to curb the growth
of traffic in persons, it continues to boom with large numbers of victims and
suspects deported to Nigeria daily. On this date in 2003 116 Black
African boys were rescued from a slave labor camp in Nigeria. Police rescued
the boys as young as 4 years old who had been put to work in the granite
quarries in southwest Nigeria. This initial intervention stemmed
from increased international attention to child labor. The attention includes
boycott threats of Ivory Coast cocoa, often harvested with the help of
trafficked children. Their parents had put them in the hands of labor
traffickers for as little as $35. 120 child workers
repatriated to Benin Nigeria sent back to Benin on
Wednesday 120 children who were smuggled into the country to work as slave
labour, breaking stones at quarries, Benin government officials said. The children were aged between four and 13
and had been kidnapped from their parent, they told IRIN. This was the second batch of child
workers to be repatriated from Nigeria to Benin since the two countries
established joint border patrols in August to crack down on smuggling and
banditry. A first group of 116, aged
between 10 and 12, was repatriated on 26 September. Child labor on
cocoa farms 'tip of the iceberg' Young Togolese boys told Human
Rights Watch they could not afford to pay school fees and so agreed to do
agricultural work in Nigeria. They said they cleared brush, planted seeds and
plowed fields for up to thirteen hours a day, getting beaten if they
complained of fatigue. Some were forced to use machetes to cut the branches
of trees and wounded themselves seriously. After eight months to two years,
they were given a bicycle and told to pedal it home to Togo. Life
Sentence for Human Traffickers More than 45,000 Nigerians are transported
to Europe every year and forced to work in brothels. The lucky ones, who
reach their destinations safely, often do so after encountering untold
hardships on the way. 1. The linked article has been taken down, moved or
restricted All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Nigeria Street Children in [Nigeria] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Nigeria] [other countries]