TRAFFICKING

Trafficking amongst all other social problems has put Africa in a sorry state when it comes to human development. This practice of modern slavery does not only apply to the able bodied adults but in fact, targets a higher percentage of vulnerable children as well. Surprisingly, trafficking does not only expose its victims to hard labour and prostitution but it also brings about their untimely deaths especially where there are “heartless trafficking agents” involved. As much as the United Nations believe that 6 out of every 10 people are being trafficked annually, it is also unfortunate to know that some of the victims get trafficked without even knowing it. This is so because a trusted family member is the disguised trafficker who must have promised the family of the trafficked person a better life in an unfamiliar environment.

However, some people voluntarily allow themselves to be trafficked as a result of their current life situation. In Nigeria for instance, girls are being convinced of getting a better life for themselves and their families in places like Italy, Malaysia, China but to mention few in which some African neighboring countries are not spared only to find out that they had been tricked into a life of misery and agony through sex slavery while most traffickers see this as a full time job, they continue to hunt for and entice these vulnerable children who are usually easier to convince and extort money from their poor families in the name of travel expenses.

 Just last month, a friend of mine who serves the Nigerian Navy aired out his frustrations about this particular menace. He spoke about how some Nigerian citizens numbering up to 1,000 or more took their chances to “risk their lives on a journey with the possibilities of no return”. He said that the Dakar Immigration office had sent for the Nigerian Naval officers to come pick Nigerians who were trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean into either Malaga or Sicily in which these men also held a workshop for the refugees, giving them a reason why they should not risk their lives for “Greener Pastures”. At some other times, they go from Dakar (Senegal) to Tripoli (Libya) where they will now cross over to Spain or Italy by boat which of course is very risky. After the workshop/counseling session, only 200 people or less agreed to go back to Nigeria especially those who were financially stranded. He talked about how there were more of pretty teenage girls and young adults of both sex. There have been recorded traumatic experiences of survivors who escaped a wicked act by traffickers who off-loaded people into the sea when the journey became tough. i.e there might be marine govt. officials on patrol or the traffickers are fake at being a travel agent. Worse case scenarios holds that some people especially children are being transported and treated like cargo in cargo ships as they are being lined up like inanimate objects in a container while on transit for several hours. This is why some of them suffocate to death. And families continue to loose their precious ones to harsh conditions worse than death all in a bid to travel abroad.