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Human Trafficking Between Nigeria and the UK: Addressing a Shared Challenge

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Human Trafficking Between Nigeria and the UK: Addressing a Shared Challenge Human Trafficking Between Nigeria and the UK: Addressing a Shared Challenge Cover Photo: Devatop Centre for Africa Development Team with Delegation in Abuja on the 16 February 2018 Credit: Devatop Centre for Africa Development Contents Introduction 2 The Journey to Europe 4 The UK and Trafficking from Nigeria 7 The Challenges of Returning 9 Responses and Key Institutions 12 Recommended Approaches to Support Anti - Trafficking Efforts 19 Acknowledgments 2 1 Appendix: Nigeria APPG Visit Itinerary 2 2 1 estimate d that approximately 1 .4 million Introduction Nigerians, or around 0.7 per cent of the country’s total population , 1 are living in a state of modern In February 2018 , a delegation of the All - Party slavery. Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Nigeria visited the country on a fact - finding mission to examine Most of those affected are found in Nigeria and initiatives to combat human trafficking from in countries where there is a settled Nigerian Nigeria to the UK , and explore areas of current diaspora . The country’s rapid population growth , and potential cooperation. The visit aimed to a struggling education system and a lack of youth increase UK parliamentary understanding of employment opportunities are contributing human trafficking from Nigeria, to highlight the factors to the problem . issue in both countries , and to further cement According to United Na tions data, Nigeria’s link s between parliamentarians and their population in 2017 was 191 million . 2 By 2050, coun terparts in the National Assembly of the UN projects that that figure will reach over Nigeria. 400 million, behind only India and China . 3 The APPG d elegation visited Benin City and Accurate unemployment figures , particularly of Abuja , Nigeria’s capital, from 11 to 17 February the young, are difficult to ascertain due to the 2018 . The delegation undertook meetings with informal nature of much of Nigeria’s economy. government officials at the state and federal However, approximately 40 per cent of the levels, and met with repr esen tatives from the country’s working age population is either private sector and civil society organi z ations unemployed or underemployed , 4 and this figure (CSOs) to discuss human trafficking and the work is likely to be much hi gher among the country’s being done to prevent it . youth. Nigeria’s projected demo graphics will Nigeria is a n increasing concern as a source, only intensify the urgent need for job creation destination and transit country for human and educational opportunities in the coming trafficking. A lthough accurate data is difficult to years. come by, the 2018 Global Slavery Index 1 Th e Global Slave Index (2018), Country Data: Nigeria, 3 Ibid. p. 30. https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/data/countr 4 Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics, Labor Force y - data/nigeria/ (accessed 19 Feb. 2019). Statistics (2017) Vol.1 Unemployment and Under - 2 United Nations Department of Economic and Social employment Report , Q1 – Q3 2017, p. 5, Affairs, Population Division (2017), World Population https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/download/856 Prospe cts: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables , New York, United Nations, p. 29, (accessed 2 Mar. 2019). https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP 2017_KeyFindings.pdf (accessed 19 Feb. 2019). 2 However, Nigeria faces substantial institutional As a result, Nigeria’s young adults face severe hurdles . It ranked 157 th 5 out of 189 countries in economic hardship and many feel desponden t the 2017 Human Development Index , 145 th 6 out about the future. The country’s young people , of 190 in the World Bank’s 2018 ease of doing and particularly those from Edo State and the business index , and 14 4 th 7 i n Transparency surrounding states, often believe that International’s C orruption P erceptions I ndex. undertaking a perilous journey to Europe is the ir Nigeria’s ongoing development challenges are only opportunity to improve their also a symptom and a consequence of the circumstances . country’s beleaguered public education system . 8 From primary to tertiary levels, the federal government spends approximately 7 per cent of the national budget on education. The low level of education investment is demonstrated by the fact that u niversity graduates tend to find that, even when scant opportunities arise, their qualifications are often considered meaningless. A young Nigerian graduate told the APPG delegation that despite having a degree in computer science, he is unable to write a single line of code. 5 United Nations Development Programme, Human 7 Transparency International (undated) , ‘ Corruption Development Indices and Indicators 2018 Statisti cal Perceptions Index 2018 ’, Update , New York, United Nations p. 48, https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018 (accessed 1 http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_d Mar . 2019) . evelopment_statistical_update.pdf (accessed 1 Mar . 8 BudgIT (2018), Public Education Financing: Issues and 2019) . Recommendations , BudgIT, Lagos p. 3, 6 World Bank Group (2018), Doing Business 2018 - http://yourbudgit.com/wp - Equal Opportunity for All, Washington, p. 4, content/uploads/2018/04/Public - Education - Financing - http://w ww.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/global - Issues - and - Recommendations.pdf (accessed 20 Feb. reports/doing - business - 2018 (accessed 1 Mar . 2019) . 2019). 3 During the visit to Benin City, the delegation The J ourney to Europe observed severe poverty and conspicuous Edo State wealth adjacent to one another . While most in the city live in very simple accommodation , Edo State is a landlocked area in Nigeria’s numerous mansions, complete with high walls southern Niger Delta region . The state capital, and razor wire, dot the city’s suburbs . S ome Benin City, is 315 kilometres from Lagos and 470 streets in the city bear the names of prominent kilometres from the federal capital Abuja. Edo is brothel owners, or madams. a minor oil produc er and ranks among the top 10 of the country’s 36 states for GDP . Despite this While there is evidence that some Christian wealth , much of the population of Edo State is pastors are complicit in human trafficking , a n desperately poor and a n entire economy has important aspect of the thriving trade in this part built up around the trade in humans . While the of Nigeria is the prevalence of traditional beliefs slave trade in the region dates back centuries, among communities. These traditional beliefs the trafficking of migrants began in earnest in are take n advantage of by human traffickers, the 1980s. At that time i nternational travel was who will often take g irls and young women to more straightforward with less stringent border meet a juju priest , a practitioner of a local form control s . F rustrated by a dearth of opportunities of ‘ witchcraft ’ . The juju priest will collect in Nigeria, many young women travelled to personal items from the girl such as fingernails, Europe with fake trav el documents seeking pubic hair and blood, and perform a ritual to employment, often to sell gold and beads. 9 ensure that the young victim will obey their 11 Many ended up on the streets of European madam and re pay a substantial debt for their capitals engaging in sex work. In Italy, in travel and upkeep costs . Should they fail to repay particular, men using sex workers often the debt or if they inform the authorities about preferr ed new arrivals from Nigeria over their the madam or the ritual, the victim will often be Italian counterparts , many of whom had drug told that she and her family will die for addictions, due to the fear of aids in t he 1980s . 10 disobeying the oath . Debts are often exorbitant, r eaching as much as $60,000 . 12 9 Nwaubani , A. T. (2018), ‘ A Voodoo Curse on Human he - desperate - journey - of - a - trafficked - girl (accessed 20 Tr affickers ’, New York Times , 24 April 2018. Feb. 2019). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/opinion/sun 11 Madams are often women who were previously day/voodoo - curse - human - traffickers.html (accessed trafficked themselves and now engage in the trade. 20 Feb. 2019). 12 European Asylum Support Office (2015), Nigeria: Sex 10 Ben Taub (2017), ‘ The Desperate Journey of a trafficking of Women , EASO Country of Origin Trafficked Girl ’, The New Yorker , 10 April 2017, Information Report, pp. 20 – 22, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/t 4 The situation is different for boys and young girls and young women are loaded into buses men, who will make their own way to Europe and are driven to ‘connection houses’ in and are not bonded by a juju oath. During the northern Nigerian cities such as Kaduna , Kano APPG visit, the delegation heard personal stories and Sokoto. They are then driven across the of young men who felt returning home was not border into neighbouring Niger . 14 an option because their families had spent a vast Agadez proportion of their income to get their children Typically, victims are then brought by to Europe . ‘connection men’ to Agadez, a dusty city on the T he economic desperation of people in the state edge of the Sahara D esert, where they will has result ed in dependence on remit tances from assemble in ghettos before embarking on the abroad, so family members are willing next leg of the journey. There is very little participants in illegal trafficking from Edo State. comfort, and shortages of food and w ater are There is widespread evidence of girls attempting common. Girls and young women are subjected to make the perilous trip across the Sahara and to abhorrent abuses while in transit , and rape beyond with the encouragement of both their and beatings are the norm. One interviewee told immediate and extended families .
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