Child trafficking merits tougher measures

AS the global community observes the 2024 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons today, there is a need for concerted efforts at the national and international levels to tackle the heinous crime. Indeed, the theme: ‘Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking,’ resonates with many victims of trafficking. States must, therefore, prioritise child protection, bolster legislation, and allocate more resources to combat child trafficking.

First observed in 2014, July 30 was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as the date to renew the move to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, which includes “the recruitment, transportation, harbouring of persons using threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, of abduction, fraud, of deception, having control over another person for exploitation.”

A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the UNODC estimated that children are twice as likely as adults to face violence during trafficking. These children are subjected to forced labour, crime, street begging, illegal adoption, sexual abuse, and the online dissemination of abusive images, and some are recruited into armed groups or prostitution rings.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said detectives from the Oko-Oba Division busted a child trafficking ring at the weekend. Five suspects involved in the crime were arrested and a two-month-baby was rescued.

In June, at least 10 Nigerian girls were filmed narrating how they were trafficked to Ghana for prostitution. According to a viral video clip uploaded on social media, the girls were aged between 15 and 18.

Similarly, in April, the Benin Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons confirmed the arrest of a 40-year-old woman who was described as a fake reverend sister, Maryvianney Ikejimba, for allegedly trafficking 38 children in Delta State.

That same month, a four-month-old girl and an 11-year-old boy who were suspected to have been trafficked by their relatives in the North were recovered from Abuja and Lagos, respectively, by NAPTIP officials.

A report by the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria cited that about 12 million Nigerian children are forced into labour, and it could be roughly estimated that about 80 per cent of Nigerian children in forced labour are victims of trafficking.

The report added that many Nigerian children are predominantly recruited from states “such as Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers and trafficked mostly by sea to Gabon, Cameroon, and Guinea to work on farm plantations. Children are also recruited from Saki in Oyo State and trafficked to Guinea, Mali, and Ivory Coast to work as hawkers and domestic servants.”

Sadly, most of these children are from poor family backgrounds and mostly from rural communities. They are also trafficked to European countries and the Middle East for prostitution and sexual exploitation, with the masterminds of these crimes deploying political connections to evade detection, arrests, and prosecution.

According to the United States Department of State 2023 report on trafficked persons, the Nigerian government “identified 1,634 trafficking victims, including 841 sex trafficking victims, 543 labour trafficking victims, and 250 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking; compared with identifying 935 victims the previous reporting period.” Individuals, the government, and other stakeholders must effectively tackle this alarming menace.

To reduce children’s vulnerability, more efforts should be made to target root causes like poverty and inequality, and child protection systems should be strengthened across the 36 states. Perpetrators need to be held accountable and apprehended regardless of their status.

Civil society organisations, the private sector, and communities have a vital role in raising awareness and strengthening the efforts to identify trafficked children in religious schools, Internally Displaced Persons, and children in domestic service.

States should work with international NGOs to stem the ugly tide, create agencies like NAPTIP and intensify their anti-trafficking drive to investigate and prosecute traffickers.