Fight poverty to win war against human trafficking -Ozioma Onyenweaku

By Ozioma Onyenweaku

Last week my son walked in and said dollar had hit 500 Naira at the black market; and that should one dollar go above 500 Naira that would spell doom for the people. He expressed hope that something could hold it down at 500 and not allow it go beyond that. I asked him the outcome he feared; he said more hunger in the country and increased poverty; and people not being able to acquire certain things so long as their income is in Naira. I admire the fact that despite being science inclined, he shows great interest in the economic and finance world. He knows how certain indices affect the economy and the standard of living of the people.

Just two days ago one Dollar went for over 500 Naira. I thought of the hunger in the country, and the abject poverty and their resultant consequences. Then my concern for our girls, the females got heightened. I remember the paper I delivered at the International Conference on Trafficking in Women and children in October 2013. I remember that my paper was titled POVERTY AS A ROOT CAUSE OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSON: A FULLER UNDERSTANDING. In that paper I identified poverty as what powers and grows trafficking in person.

Yes, poverty drives the trade of trafficking in person. The war against trafficking in person cannot be won unless poverty is addressed. Like I mentioned earlier I have concern for our females as poverty grows in the country.
The males are also trafficked especially now with the organ harvesting ventures. But the fact still remains that the females are more the target of trafficking in person more than the males. Estimates released in July 2018 by the Global Slavery Index shows that there are over 40 Million victims of modern slavery worldwide. The UNODC’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2020) puts the estimate of children in slavery at 30% of all the global victims; while women and girls form 79% of those trafficked for sexual exploitation. ILO, in its own Report (2020), states that 99% of the 4.8 Million victims of commercial sexual exploitation in 2016 were women and girls.

Why are the females more of the target?

It is not debatable the fact that the feminine hands are the preferred ones in the Massage Parlours.T he best domestic hands are those of the females; the strip shows by females are more entertaining and enticing; without the females, pornography would lose its appeal, and pornography industries would close up; so also brothels and street prostitution would lose flavor and close up. And of course, these are the areas that boost the trade of the trafficker.

The notorious area of trafficking is trafficking for sexual exploitation. Kofi Annan, a former UN Secretary General , called this ‘an outrage and a world-wide plague’. One other factor that grows this sex exploitation trafficking is men’s insatiable desire for sex without commitment and emotional attachment; and also their desire to see women sexually dominated and stripped of their dignity. For these reasons females remain the potential victims of trafficking.

It is a notorious fact that all over the world, the most trafficked people are women and children of low socio-economic status. Traffickers always search out for their victims from areas where poverty has ravaged the people and left them with limited choices if any. The traffickers search for their victims in areas where there is discrimination against women in education, in skill acquisition, and employment. Such areas create a pool of potential victims for the traffickers. Incidentally, people with such low and deprived background naturally and rightly dream of better lives either in the city or in foreign lands thereby making them vulnerable to trafficking. These traffickers would come with promises of job opportunities, marriage even love.

So when we grow poverty in the land, we are incidentally growing potential victims for traffickers. When we create gender inequality and discrimination, and maintain the system that sees the female gender as inferior and second-hand citizen whose needs would be met only after that of the male; then we are creating a a system that makes our females vulnerable victims for the traffickers.

The government plays a major role in impoverishing the populace economically and socially when it denies itself the willpower to curb corruption, and to implement functional gender policies.

If the economy is left biting this hard, and the government fails to improve the quality of life of the citizens, the government creates an enabling environment for trafficking to thrive. The government must work hard to improve the living condition of the citizens if we must successfully wade off traffickers. Poverty is a favourable condition for the trafficker’s business to boom. We must fight poverty to win the war against human trafficking.