THE URGENT NEED TO ADDRESS THE CRISIS LEVEL OF TRAFFICKING OF NIGERIAN WOMEN INTO PROSTITUTION ABROAD

By Zik Gbemre

We are greatly saddened by the fact that virtually on a daily basis, hundreds and even thousands of Nigerians (men and women), especially our younger generation, are either making plans to migrate to foreign countries or dreaming about it and consumed with the desire to leave their father land at the slightest opportunity; all in search of the “better life”. The funny thing is that while a lot of them already abroad are wishing they had remained back home because many of them discovered, often too late that they were deceived; others are there living a life of lies and deceit and would rather do so than to come back home in shame and defeat. Yet despite all this, so many Nigerians, in this case our young women, today are still bent on leaving the country for ‘greener pastures’ abroad that exposes them to all kinds of dehumanizing exploitations.

Recently, United Nations (UN) said 80% of the Nigerian women who came to Italy by boat in the first half of 2016 will be trafficked into prostitution. As a matter of fact, trafficking of Nigerian women from Libya to Italy by boat is reaching “crisis” levels, with traffickers using migrant reception centres as holding pens for women who are then collected and forced into prostitution across Europe,the UN’sInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) warns. According to IOM, about 3,600 Nigerian women arrived by boat into Italy in the first six months of this year, almost double the number who were registered in the same time period last year. More than 80% of these women will be trafficked into prostitution in Italy and across Europe, it says. “What we have seen this year is a crisis, it is absolutely unprecedented and is the most significant increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy for 10 years,” said Simona Moscarelli, anti-trafficking expert at the IOM.

“Our indicators are the majority of these women are being deliberately brought in for sexual exploitation purposes. There has been a big enhancement of criminal gangs and trafficking networks engaging in the sexual exploitation of younger and younger Nigerian girls. Although a thriving sex trafficking industry has been operating between Nigeria and Italy for over three decades, there has been a marked increase in the numbers of unaccompanied Nigerian women arriving in Italy on migrant boats from Libya. In 2014, about 1,500 Nigerian women arrived by sea. In 2015 this figure had increased to 5,633.Already we have seen nearly 4,000 women come in the first six months of this year. We are expecting the numbers to have increased again by the end of this year,” said Moscarelli.

She warned that the current policy of placing Nigerian women in reception centres along with thousands of other migrants was playing to the traffickers’ advantage, with women regularly going missing.”There is little understanding of the dynamics and nature of this form of trafficking. The reception centres are not good places for trafficked women. Just last week six girls went missing from a reception centre in the city of Sicily, they were just picked up in a car and driven away. Nigerian women who are entering Italy among migrants on boats from Libya should be immediately identified and treated as trafficking victims. Instead of being processed in reception centres, they should be placed in specialist shelters where they can be given the advice and support needed to break the chain of sexual exploitation. Most Nigerian women who arrive in Italy are already victims of trafficking, many have been subjected to serious sexual exploitation on their journey. Many are forced into prostitution in Libya,” said Moscarelli. “The women we are seeing are increasingly young, many are unaccompanied minors when they arrive and the violence and exploitation they face when they are under the control of these gangs is getting worse. They are really treated like slaves.”

Salvatore Vella, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor in Agrigento, Sicily, who led the first significant investigation of Nigerian trafficking rings in Italy in 2014, said that the reception centres are increasingly being used as pick-up points by those intending to exploit Nigerian women.The Nigerian women are given a phone number when they leave Nigeria, which they use to inform a contact in Italy that they have arrived. “The mobsters just come to the camp and pick [women] up,” he says. “As easy as going to a grocery store. That is what these women are treated like, objects to trade, buy, exploit and resell and the reception centres are acting as a sort of warehouse where these girls are temporarily stocked.”They wait until the woman has her residence permit or refugee status document and then they just go and pick her up.” The report noted that many Nigerian women arrive in Italy with debts of about £4,000 for their journey from Nigeria to Italy, which they are expected to pay back.Nigerian trafficking gangs are said to use a toxic mix of false promises of legitimate employment and traditional “juju” ceremonies to recruit and gain psychological control over their victims.The women are led to believe that terrible things will happen to their families if they fail to honour their debts. They are then forced into prostitution on streets and brothels across Europe. “Currently the shelters and services we have for those women we manage to identify are at breaking point. We must give police prosecutors the financial resources to tackle the traffickers and improve access to legal services if we have any chance of reducing the numbers coming in,” said Moscarelli.

It is funny how other countries concerned have identified this problem, and are making frantic efforts to address it. Whereas, Nigerian authorities, that are supposed to be more concerned, are seen to be doing little or nothing to address this crisis-situation of human trafficking that is painting the image of Nigeria – very bad in the international community. For instance, Kevin Hyland noted Britain’s responsibility to act and called for an immediate response to the crisis before it worsens.There are up to 13,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK, according to Government estimates. Nigeria has consistently been one of the top countries of origin among victims identified here, Mr. Hyland said.

Separate figures indicate that 5,633 Nigerian women and girls reached Italy by sea last year – nearly four times the level recorded in 2014. Estimates suggest that close to four in five are trafficking victims who criminals plan to force into the sex industry across Europe.Mr.Hyland said: “Simply put, this is now one of world’s major human trafficking crises. It has been going on for a number of years, and a failure to act has allowed the criminals to take advantage of the current migration crisis.The rise in the numbers is staggering. Nigerian women and girls are enslaved and sexually exploited here in the UK. We must act now.”

Last month, new British Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced a new 33 million pounds (£33m) International Modern Slavery Fund. Mr. Hyland argued preventing trafficking from Nigeria at source must be one its core focuses.Describing Edo State in the south of Nigeria as the country’s “trafficking hub”, the former Metropolitan Police detective said: “Unless we bring focus to this region, criminals will simply continue to move huge numbers of women and young girls into Europe to be exploited and profited from, as if they were a mere commodity.”

Gangs are feared to be targeting women and girls and deceiving them with promises of a life of opportunity in Europe.

Mr. Hyland added: “These vulnerable people, many of whom are young girls, have no understanding of the conditions under which they will ‘work’, the violence and threats they will receive, the size of the debt they will incur and the brutal exploitation they will suffer.The bait is taken, and so too is their freedom. This needs to stop. These victims are exploited here in the UK and we have a responsibility to act.I have visited some of the local rural communities targeted by the traffickers. Often the young people there are very vulnerable to deception. But many of the community leaders do want to act to stop this trade, and we should help them.”

We cannot even imagine the risks these young Nigerian women and men face just to seek for so called greener pastures abroad. Some months back, the Italian media reported that Nigerian migrants were among several dozen people who drowned off the coast of Libya, while attempting to cross into Italy. Thirty-one migrants, including nine women, drowned off the coast of Libya during an attempted crossing to Italy according to survivors who managed to complete the Journey. It happened that a dinghy carrying 53 migrants capsized and witnesses said 31 of those who had been thrown off it drowned in the accident. The twenty-two survivors, who came from Nigeria, Gambia, Benin and Senegal, said the dinghy (small open boat) had capsized after three days at sea. They were rescued by a passing merchant ship and taken to Lampedusa Island.

Reports have revealed that since 1999, more than 270,000 people have arrived on Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than Italy making it, along with the Greece-Turkey border, one of the biggest gateways for “undocumented migrants” and refugees into European Countries. That is just one scenario. Recent revelations have shown that the number of Nigerians in foreign prisons worldwide has greatly increased. Nigerian Minister of Youth Development, disclosed some months back that a large number of Nigerians are currently languishing in Chinese Prisons. Records from the Nigerian Embassy in China show that 360 Nigerians are serving various jail terms in China, with their sentences ranging between 10 years and suspended death sentence. The records further show that 320 of them were sentenced for drug-related offences, while the remaining 20 were jailed for other offences, including fraud, kidnapping, armed robbery and rape. Many of them, who were charged w ith either murder or drug trafficking which goes within the circle of trafficking gangs, and have been sentenced to death without the option of appeal. That is the story in many other countries across the globe.

Despite these reports, it is therefore surprising to observe many Nigerians striving every day to leave the country, with or without visas; whether fake or real. As sad as this may sound, many young Nigerian women and men believe that unless they travel to a foreign land they cannot achieve their desires in life. But, in most cases, these Nigerians end up being worse off than their counterparts that choose to remain at home. Aside the reports on those languishing in foreign prisons, those exposed to a life-long prostitution and drug-pushing, there are also reports of ‘racist attacks’against foreigners, especially in the United States of America (USA) and Europe and lately South-Africa, which have continued unabated. A larger proportion of Nigerians, as with other citizens of other developing nations, who travel abroad in search of a greener pasture have had sadder tales to render than we have had good tales. So why do Nigerians, especially our young women sti ll move in droves to foreign countries despite all the risks it portends? How come, rather than the ugly trend reducing, is increasing yearly?

Some of the reasons why young Nigerians travel abroad by all means necessary in Nigeria includes the obvious; abject poverty, high rate of unemployment, the country’s exchange rate, higher education for better job opportunities, and even sheer ‘greed’ to be like their mates that have supposedly made it big abroad, etc. But with the above described situation of human trafficking for prostitution, we can see that majority of these young girls are simply ‘deceived’ with promises of a better life and job abroad. Way back in the 70’s and 80’s, travelling overseas was not a common phenomenon among young persons. That period was the early days of oil exploration in Nigeria. As a result of this, the country witnessed an unprecedented astronomical growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the overall Standard of Living of the common man. Not so any more. Right now in the second decade of the third millennium, Niger ians are so poor that the vast majority of the commoners live below a dollar a day.

In fact, the first and second generation of University graduates from Nigerian and indeed the African continent, were educated in Great Britain and the United State of America (USA), while the rest went through the University of Ibadan. And after their studies abroad, these Nigerians and Africans came back home to their countries to contribute towards nation building. But today, all of that has changed as most Nigerians/Africans who travel abroad for one thing or the other often do not come back home. And the number of those seeking to travel abroad has increased astronomically, with many of them in the United State of America (USA) and Canada living as ‘illegal migrants’ that have overstayed their welcome in these countries. In fact, Nigeria is said to top the list of people applying for the popular US lottery Visas and that of Canada. But who would blame them, since the Nigerian past Governments, especially in the last sixteen years, have been very ‘reckless’ and unaccountable in the management of the nation’s abundant resources under their care for the collective good of all. But regardless of anything, the practice of young Nigerians going abroad to get the quality education they can, should be sustained and encouraged. But they should always endeavor to come back home to contribute their quota towards nation building, no matter the discouraging factors we have in the country today.

Let us also reiterate the fact that years of misappropriation/mismanagement of national wealth, particularly the high levels of corruption and governments recurrent spending, have all contributed to bringing us to our present deplorable status. This is also the same story in other Sub-Saharan African countries. In most cases too, hunger, famine, war and natural disasters seemed to have triggered waves of migration to Western Europe, the United States of America and Canada. And like we said, the unemployment rate in Nigeria and most Sub-Saharan have risen astronomically. Most young school leavers find it extremely difficult to get paid employment. So, the lifeline for them is to follow the line of least resistance by migrating to Europe, USA and Canada to eke out a living. In the Nigeria of today, instant employment after your higher education is a mirage and a privileged reserved for only those who have “connection” and know influential people in the cou ntry. With the rate of unemployment increasing annually and new university graduates pouring in yearly; unsure of being gainfully employed to improve their financial status, many persons are daily seeking for opportunities to travel abroad, and that is how many of them, particularly our young women, fall victims of human trafficker gangs who deceives them with promises of jobs in Europe, USA and Canada.

The bottom line is that this trend of Nigerian young women and men migrating to other foreign lands (most times by any means necessary), is becoming something that many people think can never be corrected. It is reported that an average of 500 Nigerians or more leave this blessed country every day to either Europe or the USA for greener pastures; only to get there and meet situations that are even worse than the very ones they ran away from at home. The situation has resulted in them participating in activities that do not make a good reputation of Nigerians abroad. However, for this ugly trend to reduce; the Nigerian government must come clean and start honestly and judiciously using the nation’s wealth and resources to improve the standard of life of Nigerians and the country’s economy. Nigerians cannot be living in abject poverty while its political leaders and those in government circles at all levels are wallowing in stupendous wealth and splendor that even their generations unborn cannot expend.

Aside engaging in an aggressive campaign to enlighten our young women not to be deceived by anyone with promises of jobs abroad, there is need for parents and family members of our young women not to allow this search for greener pastures abroad by their children/wards. However, we believe the best way to address this problem and reduce this ugly trend is for the Nigerian government at all levels to wake up from their slumber and start improving the Nigerian economy. So that young Nigerians would not have any excuse to travel abroad for whatever reasons. We equally charge the Nigerian Youths, both men and women, especially those seeking for greener pastures in Europe, USA and Canada; to stay in their country, make due with whatever they have and contribute their little quoter to the development of their country instead of risking their lives searching for ‘unreal greener pastures’ through illegal ways.

Zik Gbemre, JP.

National Coordinator

Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)