Slavery Now Has a New Name, It’s Called “Human Trafficking”

The story of human trafficking and illegal migration in West Africa

We begin the story of exploitation from the most populous black nation in the world. Nigeria.

According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index report, Nigeria ranks 32 out of 167 countries with the highest number of slaves (1.38 million people).

At least one million people are trafficked every year in the country.

In West Africa, Nigeria is regarded as the source, transit, and destination hub of human trafficking, with Benin City (the capital of Nigeria’s Edo State), internationally recognized as the country’s ‘nucleus of sex trafficking.’

The story of Anna and her friend Precious (not their real names), told by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), describes how the two girls were brought from Nigeria to Okah, in northern Côte d’Ivoire, under the pretense of finding attractive jobs. But on arrival, Anna and Precious soon found themselves being trafficked.

In Okah, these girls were forced to have sex with multiple men to pay a ‘$2,600’ travel expense debt for their trip to Côte d’Ivoire. For the period of two years, Anna and Precious were reported to have had sex with at least 11 men each night for as little as $2 per client.

It pains me to say this, but the story of Anna and Precious is all too familiar in West Africa.

Men, women, and children from all corners of the world are deceived and coerced into sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The UNODC reveals that in West Africa, women and girls make up 70 percent of trafficked victims, with girls constituting two out of every child victim.

Understanding the Concept of Human Trafficking

Trafficking in persons, as a concept, is very difficult to pin down, because of the controversy between traditional practices and modernization. This implies that the definition of human trafficking in Western democracies may be different from that of Africa.

Let’s look at it this way.

In the west, a child hawking goods in public could be seen as a form of exploitation, but in some Western African societies, it could be part of the routines of the child in order to assist his or her parents.

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which came into force in 2003, defines Trafficking in persons (human trafficking) as:

“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

An Overview of Human Trafficking in West Africa

Human trafficking is indeed a serious global issue. Truth is, in Africa, statistics on the extent of the crime is hard to prove. But recent anecdotal reports suggest that it is on the rise.

In reality, the problem of trafficking often does not begin with the traffickers, but with the circumstances that force victims to seek better living conditions in environments that make them vulnerable to abuse. Contrary to popular belief, the initial decision to migrate is often a conscious one.

The trafficking business thrives in West Africa due to a range of different factors. These factors are broadly grouped into two – the push and pull factors.

When circumstances drive or force people into accepting demands that render them susceptible to trafficking, the push factor is at play.

Poverty, political instability, corruption, and lack of employment opportunities are some of these circumstances.

If the victim is influenced by others (including parents, friends, relatives, and the traffickers) into accepting such dehumanizing offers, then the pull factor comes to play.

Parents, often deceived, send their children away in the hopes that they will get a better opportunity in life. The sad reality is that some of these traffickers are related to the victims.

How Human Trafficking Is Perpetrated

In most parts of the world (especially Africa), human trafficking is of two forms – Internal and External trafficking.

Internal or domestic trafficking takes place within a particular country. The country serves as the source, transit, and destination for trafficking operations.

Kids from rural areas are taken to urban areas for various exploitative activities such as prostitution, forced labor, drug peddling, pick-pockets, among several others.

Trafficking carried out between two or more countries is referred to as ‘external trafficking.’ And it’s in two forms – cross-border and cross-continental trafficking.

In cross-border trafficking, children from West African countries like Benin, Ghana, and Togo – where the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) allows for easy entry within neighboring countries, are forced to work predominantly in Nigeria or any other suitable location.

Cross-continental trafficking is the ‘high risk, ‘ ‘big money kind’ of trafficking. Victims from the various Western African States are taken to Europe via North Africa for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. This often involves traveling long distances through the Sahara desert.

The market for this criminal trade is enormous, owing to the lucrative nature of the business.

The total annual global revenue accrued from human trafficking is estimated to be between 5 and 42 billion dollars. But there’s more.

A New Form of Human Trafficking

Recently, the issue of human trafficking in West Africa has taken a new dimension.

‘Baby-factories’ or ‘baby farms’ is what it’s called.

This new wave of human trafficking involves setting up locations (baby factories), where young ladies (sometimes teenagers), are harbored and deliberately encouraged or forced to become pregnant.

After delivery, their babies are taken away from them and sold to clients, or couples in need of babies, sometimes with or without the consent of the victims.

These so-called ‘baby-factories’ are not uncommon in Nigeria.

In 2018, a baby factory was raided in Nigeria. 160 children were rescued. Girls aged between 15 and 28, had been lured to Lagos (Nigeria’s most populous city), where they were held as commodities and raped.

Final Thoughts

Although counter-trafficking measures have been put in place in various West African countries, these have been regrettably ineffective.

You see, the factors of human trafficking are rooted in a country’s socio-economic, cultural, and political setting. If these factors are not individually addressed, I’m afraid trafficking in persons will continue to grow.

In truth, these victims left their homes believing that they will at least bring their families out of poverty, but in the end, it is another story entirely, the story of exploitation.