Human trafficking rising in Edo, Delta, Kano- US REPORT
The US government has said the majority of Nigerian trafficking victims in Europe and other parts of the world are from Edo, Delta and Kano States.
The State Department in a report, titled, “Trafficking In Persons Report June 2021”, chronicling the menace of human trafficking globally in about 200 countries across different continents, said the federal government was yet to fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
It, however, noted that the Federal Government was making efforts towards developing its anti-trafficking capacity.
The report stated, therefore, that Nigeria was upgraded to Tier 2 in 2021 from Tier 2 watchlist in 2020.
Additionally, officials noted that Abia, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Imo and Kogi states are common origins for trafficking of victims to West Africa and Europe.
“Cases of labour trafficking involving domestic workers to the Middle East and Golf States, as well as men coerced into sexual exploitation and drug running to Europe, increased during the reporting period, according to an international organization.
“In 2019, the media and an international organization reported that networks consisting of illicit actors profiting from human trafficking and smuggling recruited women and girls from IDP camps in North-East Nigeria for ostensibly legitimate jobs in Europe but exploited them for commercial sex in the Northern Nigerien city of Agadez, North Africa, the Persian Gulf, and Europe.
“Primarily in Cross River and other southern states, as well as from IDP populations in the north, illicit actors, including some church leaders, operate “baby factories”, which which the government and NGOs describe as a widespread criminal industry in the country, experts state the phenomenon is driven by poverty and lack of opportunity for young girls, as well as the demands of the illegal adoption market and cultural pressure for large families in Nigeria.
