Nigerians, Major Contributors To Human Trafficking -
US
By: Abiodun Oluwarotimi
on July 12, 2013 - 3:18pm
terseer adamu (Review)
The United States
government in its 2013 Reports on Human Trafficking, has described Nigerians as
major contributors to the trafficking of human beings, noting that little was
being does by the federal government to curb the illegal act.
The report which was
presented by the Secretary to the US government, Senator John Kerry at the
Department of State yesterday, noted that Nigeria was a source,
transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to
forced labor and sex trafficking.
It went further to say
that trafficked Nigerians were recruited from rural and, to a lesser
extent, urban areas within the country; women and girls for domestic
servitude and sex trafficking, and boys for forced labor in street
vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, and
begging. It added that Nigerian women and children were taken from
Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, as well as to South
Africa, where they are exploited for the same purposes.
The report said:
"Children from West African countries – primarily Benin, Ghana, and
Togo – are forced to work in Nigeria, and many are subjected to hazardous
labor in Nigeria’s granite mines. Nigerian women and girls – primarily
from Benin City in Edo State – are subjected to forced prostitution in
Italy, while Nigerian women and girls from other states are subjected
to forced prostitution in Spain, Scotland, the Netherlands,
Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden,
Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Greece,
and Russia.
"Nigerian women and
children are also recruited and transported to destinations in North
Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where they are held captive in
the sex trade or in forced labor. Nigerian women are trafficked to
Malaysia, where they are forced into prostitution and to work as drug
mules for their traffickers"
The report also
disclosed that Nigerian traffickers relied on threats of voodoo curses to
control Nigerian victims while forcing them into situations of
prostitution or labor, noting that Nigerian gangs trafficed large numbers
of Nigerian women into forced prostitution in the Czech Republic and
Italy. It added that the European Police Organization (EUROPOL) has
identified Nigerian organized crime related to trafficking in persons as
one of the largest law enforcement challenges to European
governments.
The 2013 US Reports on
Human Trafficking berated the government of Nigeria for not fully complying
with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, though, it
stressed that during the reporting period, the government demonstrated a
modest increase in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts through the
conviction of 25 traffickers and the provision of specialized
anti-trafficking training to officials by various government ministries
and agencies.
"The National
Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related
Matters (NAPTIP) received a slight increase in funding in 2012. Despite
these efforts, the government has yet to pass draft legislation that
would restrict the ability of judges to offer fines in lieu of prison
time during sentencing and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) continued
to experience difficulty identifying trafficking victims. The
Ministry of Labor did not make any new efforts to address labor
trafficking during the reporting period" the report noted.
The report
recommended that the government must ensure that the activities of NAPTIP
received sufficient funding, particularly for prosecuting trafficking
offenders and providing adequate care for victims. It also said the government
should vigorously pursue trafficking investigations and prosecutions of
trafficking offenses, and impose adequate sentences on convicted
trafficking offenders, including imprisonment whenever appropriate just
as it urged for proactive measures to investigate and prosecute government
officials suspected of trafficking related corruption and complicity in
trafficking offenses.
"The Government of
Nigeria demonstrated modest progress in its anti-trafficking law
enforcement efforts during the year. The 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law
Enforcement and Administration Act, amended in 2005 to increase the
penalties for trafficking offenders, prohibits all forms of human
trafficking.
"The law
prescribes penalties of five years’ imprisonment or a fine not to
exceed the equivalent of approximately $645 or both for labor
trafficking offenses; these are sufficiently stringent, but the law
allows convicted offenders to pay a fine in lieu of prison time for
labor trafficking or attempted trafficking offenses, resulting in
penalties not proportionate to the crimes committed.
The law prescribes
penalties of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking offenses
and a fine of the equivalent of approximately $1,250, or both. For
sentences that include only a fine, penalties are not sufficiently
stringent. In 2011, NAPTIP introduced amendments to the anti-trafficking
law, which would give prosecutors more authority and restrict the ability
of judges to offer fines in lieu of prison time during sentencing; this
amendment was awaiting approval by the National Assembly at the end
of the reporting period"
Source: http://leadership.ng/news/120713/nigerians-major-contributors-human-trafficking-us
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