TWENTY-SEVEN EXCLUSIVE FACTS ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING


TWENTY-SEVEN EXCLUSIVE FACTS ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Simply put, human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of exploitation; a modern-day form of slavery. It is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and has overtaken the illegal arms industry as the second largest, after the drug trade. Below are twenty-seven (27) facts (exclusive but not exhaustive) about human trafficking;
1.      Human trafficking is Modern Day Slavery.
2.      There are more slaves in the world today than has ever been in history. (B. E. Skinner, 2008)
3.      Nigeria serves as a source, transit and destination country for Human Trafficking and indentured labour.
4.      There are more Nigerian girls, who are involved in exploitative sex trade, in Italy than any other place abroad.
5.      The Illela and Kamba Border areas in Sokoto and Kebbi respectively, are known to be the most popular routes used by human traffickers in Nigeria. The traffickers use the routes to get into Niger Republic from where, they head on to Libya and then Europe.
6.      The trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ harvesting exists in Nigeria and is gradually gaining momentum.
  1. There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking. (UNGIFT 2010).
  2.  Approximately 75% of human trafficking is for sexual exploitation (Polaris Project, John Hopkins University, USA, 2010)
  3. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labour, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting.
  4. Human trafficking is one of the greatest human rights challenges of this century, both in the United States and around the world. (US Dept of State, 2011)
  5. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be sold repeatedly. (UNODC 2010)
  6. Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years. It is primarily men who are driving human trafficking, specifically trafficking for sex.  (UNODC 2010)
  7. Sex trafficking plays a major role in the spread of HIV. (De Stefano Anthony, 2007)
  8. The AIDS epidemic in Africa has left many children orphaned, making them especially vulnerable to human trafficking. (UNICEF)
  9. Human traffickers are increasingly trafficking pregnant women for their newborns. Babies are sold on the black market, where the profit is divided between the traffickers, doctors, lawyers, border officials, and others. The mother is usually paid less than what is promised her, citing the cost of travel and creating false documents.
  10. In approximately 54% of human trafficking cases, the recruiter is a stranger, and in 46% of the cases, the recruiters know the victim. 52% of human trafficking recruiters are men, 42% are women, and 6% are both men and women. (UNODC 2010)
  11. An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24, and some are as young as six years old. (US Dept of State 2009)
  12. A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year. (B. E. Skinner, 2008)
  13. Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children. (B. E. Skinner, 2008)
  14. According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the Taliban buys children as young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers. The price for child suicide bombers is between $7,000 - $14,000.
21.  Children are often recruited and used as beggars in parts of Nigeria where, they are trafficked to earn money for others; they are sometimes maimed by traffickers to attract sympathy and greater charity.
  1. 300,000 children younger than 18 are currently trafficked to serve in armed conflicts worldwide. (UNICEF)
  2. The largest human trafficking case in recent history occurred in Hawaii in 2010. Global Horizons Manpower, Inc. USA, a labor-recruiting company, bought 400 immigrants in 2004 from Thailand to work on farms in Hawaii. They were lured with false promises of high-paying farm work, but instead their passports were taken away and they were held in forced servitude until they were rescued in 2010. (ABC News, December 26, 2010)
  3. Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that is fueled by poverty, ignorance, gender discrimination and greed, among others.
25.  The National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic In Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP), the Anti-Human Trafficking Agency of the Nigerian Government, has since its inception till this moment have convicted over one hundred and twenty (120) persons involved in human trafficking activities, and other related offences.
26.  NAPTIP consolidated it Tier One status in the 2011 Annual Global Trafficking In Persons Report released by the US Department of State in July, 2011. By Tier One Status means NAPTIP fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
  1.  Sex traffickers often recruit children because not only are children more unsuspecting and vulnerable than adults, but there is also a high market demand for young victims. Traffickers target victims on the telephone, on the Internet, through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs. (FBI, 2009)
NOTE:
Human Trafficking in a worrisome development and the perpetrators are everywhere, nobody is above being trafficked as the vulnerability trait is not restricted to any one characteristic. Human trafficking and other forms of slavery, is an affront to the dignity of human beings. We must put an end to it.

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