HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEPRIVATION IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEPRIVATION IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT: This study explored the problem of human trafficking and its implications on the socio-economic deprivation of victims and their families in Imo state. Relying on the constitutive criminological theory and the phenomenological approach, the study was conducted amongst 70 purposively selected trafficked victims and 6 purposively selected social workers, 4 policemen and 140 family members of trafficked victims. In-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and Questionnaires were the primary data collection instruments. Data analysis involved the use of thematic analysis for qualitative data and simple percentages for quantitative data. Findings revealed that more women are trafficked than men and only mostly younger women between the ages of 14 to 35 are trafficked more. Victims were trafficked mostly into sexual exploitation, slavery, and prostitution across cities in Nigeria and overseas. Victims ’ lived experiences with their traffickers and clients include abuse, objectification, disempowerment and substance use. The study also revealed that trafficking impacts victims and their households as it constitutes labor exploitation, loss of household manpower, reduction in household income, poor health outcomes and social disorganization of family units thereby culminating in deficits in the socio-economic lives of victims and their households. More so, the findings also the family members of victims solely bear the costs of rehabilitating victims and the costs identified include heavy financial costs, use of physical energy, time spent on caregiving to victims, and psychological burdens associated with caregiving to victims. The study hence recommends that while victims need to be rehabilitated to cater for their socio-economic and psychological needs, mass public sensitization campaign on the ills of trafficking should be up-scaled and economic empowerment and poverty reduction programs should be strengthened especially in rural areas to dissuade unsuspecting victims from being trafficked.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Human trafficking has generated enormous public attention from scholars, the media, law enforcement agencies and government around the globe. The problem has received growing coverage in the media as a means of raising the consciousness of the public. Several activisms against anti-trafficking have been built; and most countries have created new policies, laws, and enforcement mechanisms to tackle the problem.

Of the 20.9 million people estimated to be in forced labor or sex trafficking situations, 11.4 million are women and girls, of which 22% (4.5 million) are victims of forced sexual exploitation (ILO, 2012). The highest concentrations of trafficked people are in the Asian-Pacific Rim region (56%) and Africa (18%), whereas the lowest is in the Middle Eastern countries (3%) (ILO, 2012).

Trafficking in human beings covers various forms of coercion and exploitation of women, youth and children. Responses to trafficking have traditionally focused on combating the criminal networks involved in it or protecting the human rights of victims (Nobert and Dita; 2015). Several socioeconomic factors are accountable for the lingering spate of human trafficking and these include a widespread and increasing level of poverty, unemployment and underemployment especially among women, greed, family and communal dislocation, economic transition, globalization, rural impoverishment, accelerates commoditization of sex, economic decline and uncertainties, opportunism, false and fake dream and dramatically deteriorating living standards, low pay, discriminatory labor practice, violence (particularly against women), lack of social and welfare support, lack of educational opportunities, tourism, false or imaginary marriage, declining border controls, governance, constant and increased demand for cheap labor, combined forces of organized crime and governmental corruption, and the receding capacity of the State to provide basic social services (Dryjanska, 2014).

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC 2008) reported that human traffickers prey on people who are poor, isolated and weak. Issues such as disempowerment, social exclusion, and economic vulnerability are the result of policies and practices that marginalize entire groups of people and make them particularly vulnerable to being trafficked. Natural disasters, conflict, and political turmoil weaken already fragile social protection measures. The allure of opportunity, the relentless demand for inexpensive goods and services and the expectation of reliable income drive people into potentially dangerous situations where they are at risk of being exploited.

From the above highlights, it would suffice to state that human trafficking, like other crimes, has become a debilitating concern of contemporary human rights abuse and violation of the sanctity of human dignity. Several international and local laws, protocols and conventions which Nigeria is a signatory to, have emerged to address the cruelty of trafficking on the victim(s) around the globe, yet the pervasiveness is a recurrent decimal to the livelihood security of persons in Nigeria.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

The incidence of human trafficking in Nigeria are increasingly becoming alarming in recent times. Several reasons have been espoused by scholars to account for the alarming rate of human trafficking in the country. The reason range from poverty, economic hardship and increasing vulnerability (Aderanti, 2014; Ajagun, 2012). Similarly, diverse studies have been conducted to address the implications of human trafficking in the country. For instance, the study by Onyige (2017) on economic globalization, poverty and human trafficking in Nigeria, argues that global economic inequalities facilitate trafficking in persons in Nigeria. In another study, Garba, Mu’azu, and Kamal (2016) reported that economic hardship is among the primary drivers of child trafficking in Nigeria. Okodudu and Akpoghemeh (2017) examined the effects of socioeconomic status of trafficked persons in southern Nigeria where they reported that socioeconomic deprivation is a predictor of human trafficking. Similarly, Cecilia (2016) focused on the potential role of relative deprivation in engendering risk-seeking behaviors and putting women and their children at greater risk for exploitation. The results speak to the interaction between inequality and risk-tolerance, and how economic and social forces have fostered perceived deprivation and increased vulnerability. While a number of existing studies including those highlighted above have adduced that incidence of human trafficking in the country is largely associated with socio-economic deprivation and poverty, little has been researched on how human trafficking is impacting the status of the victims. Thus, this study examines the impact of human trafficking on the socio-economic status of rural households of trafficked victims in Imo state. In it, we argued that the impact of human trafficking is not just borne by trafficked victims alone, but their households as well.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. Determine the recent trends in human trafficking in Imo state
2. Explore the impact of human trafficking on the household of trafficked victims in Imo State
3. Examine the impact of human trafficking on the socio-economic nature of the victim’s households
4. Examine the impact of rehabilitation cost of victims on the victim’s households

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

1. What is the recent data on human trafficking in Imo state?
2. What is the impact of trafficking on households of trafficked victims?
3. What is the impact of human trafficking on the socio-economic nature of victim’s households?
4. What is the impact of the rehabilitation cost of victims on the victim’s households?

1.6     Significance of the Study

Theoretical Significance

The information gathered about human trafficking is of great benefit to the government and policymakers. If the findings, conclusion, and recommendations of this research are implemented by the relevant stakeholders, there will be a reduction in human trafficking in Nigeria.

1.7 Scope of the study

The study covers human trafficking and socioeconomic deprivation of households in Southeast Nigeria. Specifically, fieldwork was undertaken in selected communities in the Southeast. This was delineated from government data on trafficking and socially deprived persons from the National Shelter in Enugu from which communities representatives of the three senatorial zones of Imo State, Nigeria, namely; Okigwe, Orlu, Owerri of Imo state was drawn from. The literature scope covered recent studies on the following: concept of trafficking in persons, the empirical literature on trafficking, socioeconomic deprivation in southeast Nigeria, causes and effects of trafficking, the views of socioeconomic programs and its impact on rural deprivation. Socioeconomic capital deficit and erosion of values of human dignity.

The scope of materials review was limited to relevant scholarly articles gathered from online journals and books. This also deals with reviews of methodological approaches, theoretical issues and quantitative and qualitative researches. Literature from other related disciplines that are related and relevant to this study was also deemed necessary to be reviewed.

Specifically, fieldwork was undertaken in selected communities of the southeast. This was delineated from government data on trafficking and socially deprived persons from the national Shelter in Enugu from which communities representative of the three senatorial zones of Imo State, Nigeria namely; Okigwe, Orlu, and Owerri of Imo State was drawn from. The literature scope covered recent studies on the following; the concept of trafficking in Persons, empirical pieces of literature on trafficking, Socioeconomic deprivation in south-eastern Nigeria, causes and effects of trafficking; reviews on socioeconomic programs and its impact on rural deprivation; socioeconomic capital deficit and erosion of values for human dignity.

The scope of materials reviewed was limited to relevant and scholarly articles gathered from online journals and books. This also dealt with reviews of methodological approaches; theoretical issues; and qualitative or quantitative researches. Literature from other related disciplines that are related and relevant to this study was also deemed necessary to be reviewed.

1.8     Operational Definition of Terms

Human Trafficking: This refers to recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Socioeconomic Deprivation: The process through which individual(s) or groups of persons in a society are relatively or absolutely in lack of fundamental social and economic capital for their survival.