HUMAN TRAFFICKING

SS3 CIVIC FOR WEEK 9

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purpose of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. The main agents of human trafficking are the traffickers and the trafficked persons.

CAUSES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

1. POVERTY: There is massive unemployment in the country. The standard of living is very low. There is failure to meet the health, food and security needs of the people.

2. PROSTITUTION: Women and girls generally constitute the largest percentage of those trafficked and forced into prostitution. These prostitutes generates a lot of money for their traffickers.

3. DOMESTIC HELP: People are trafficked from place to place to serve as domestic servants or domestic help.

4. BEGGING: Begging is a type of trafficking that is common in Nigeria. Physically challenged people like the lame, the blind etc are hired on regular basis for begging with a small sum of money. The traffickers can only release the trafficked person when he has made sufficient profit.

5. POLITICAL FACTORS: Leaders neglect their roles towards the masses. They protect their own interest alone. This makes human trafficking to increase.

6. MORAL DECADENCE: Many people do not see the evil in human trafficking. They allow themselves to be trafficked or engage in trafficking others. Many parents abandon their children. The children have no choice than to fend for themselves.

7. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PRACTICES: Some social and cultural practices discriminate against girls and women. In some places boys are sent to schools while girls are denied that opportunity. This exposes them to traffickers.