LABOUR: Nigeria, Benin Join Forces to Fight Child Trafficking

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Oct 8 2003 (IPS) - Barely two weeks after 116 children were returned to neighbouring Benin, another set of 120 children kidnapped from that country have been rescued by the Nigerian police.

They are victims of child trafficking and forced child labour.

They will be handed over to Beninois authorities, according to the Nigerian police.

"The Nigerian police is ready to arrest those involved in child trafficking and rescue the trafficked children. There will be no hiding place for those behind this nefarious act," says a senior police officer in Lagos.

Nigeria’s police chief, Tafa Balogun, handed over 116 Beninois children aged between four and 13 years, rescued from slave masters inside Nigeria to the Beninois authorities at Seme, a border town between Nigeria and Benin, on Sep. 26.

The children, all males and malnourished, were part of the inmates of about seven child-slave camps discovered in the western Nigerian States of Ogun, Oyo and Osun, in a major breakthrough by security operatives fighting cross-border crimes, especially child trafficking and forced child labour.

"With this breakthrough in the arrest of the child traffickers and the handing over ceremony, we have succeeded in complying with the agreement contained in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed on Aug. 14 with Benin Republic," said an elated Balogun.

Six Beninois traffickers, among the nine persons arrested for the trafficking offence, were handed over to the Beninois authorities along with the rescued children. Three of the arrested traffickers are Nigerian accomplices who will face the law in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s human trafficking law, signed recently by President Olusegun Obasanjo, prescribes life jail for persons who traffics in human being or forces such a person into prostitution within the country or elsewhere in the world.

The arrest of the traffickers followed the discovery of slave colonies in the three states after a report that two Beninois children aged five and six years died, while being smuggled into Nigeria. The death was reported to the leader of Egun Community (Egun is an ethnic group which straddles Benin-Nigeria border).

Immediately, the Egun leader sought the assistance of Bose Akinola, co-ordinator of a non-governmental organisation – Voice of Women in Nigeria. They discovered the existence of a slave camp in the region and reported their findings to the police which swung into action, arresting the traffickers and rescuing the children.

The traffickers confessed that the children were smuggled into Nigeria in sacks which they pass for goods from Benin at the border. Most of the children are said to be on the list of missing persons compiled by the Beninois authorities. Preliminary police reports showed that at least 13 such trafficked children died in the last three months.

The children were camped in the bush without any shelter and were made to sleep on bare floor in the open. They were used as slaves to crush granites and stones at quarry sites in the camps for peanuts.

A joint Nigeria-Benin task force, which raided one of the camps in a jungle near Mawuko village, about 18 kms from Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, some 80 kms north-west of Lagos, succeeded in rescuing 60 of the children. They were returned to Benin in August.

Sikirou Soule, a Beninois diplomat in Lagos, said the traffickers handed over by Nigeria, and the parents of the children, would be prosecuted in Benin.

"Parents who are able to identify their kids among the inmates would be prosecuted for negligence. We have carried out aggressive enlightenment campaign, publicity, publications and the pasting of posters in Benin indicating that child trafficking had become a heinous crime. Anybody who is still in the business will be dealt with accordingly because our law prescribes a minimum of five years imprisonment for anybody convicted for the offence," he said.

As part of efforts to check trans-border crimes especially armed robbery, drug trafficking as well as human trafficking across the Nigeria-Benin border, the two countries in August signed a Memorandum of Understanding following Nigeria’s closure of their common border to force Beninois authorities to cooperate in the fight.

Under the accord, both countries agreed that criminals identified in future shall be returned immediately to the appropriate authorities in the requesting country. They also agreed to identify, investigate and prosecute agents and traffickers as well as protect victims of human trafficking and return them promptly to their countries of origin.

The problem of child trafficking and forced labour is not just a problem between Benin and Nigeria but it also cuts across international boundaries.

Despite efforts by the government and non-governmental organisations in the last decade to fight the menace, child trafficking and forceful child labour still thrive within Nigeria’s borders.

Ekori and Nko in Cross River states, southern Nigeria, have recently been identified as centres where children aged between 12 and 18 years are trafficked especially to the western states of Ondo and Ogun for cheap labour in the rubber plantations.

At least 50 children of that age bracket are abducted yearly from the two communities to work in rubber plantations in Ondo or Ogun state, according to human rights groups.

Thomas Ukagu, a local government official in Cross River State, says the children are often taken away without their parent’s consent.

The situation, Ukagu says, has subjected parents to psychological torture which have led to some untimely deaths in the region. The abducted girls are forced into prostitution, according to him.

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) blames poverty and lack of education for child exploitation in Nigeria.

"More than eight million children are now trapped in exploitative child labour. Besides, thousands of them are being trafficked to other countries to be sexually exploited," says a UNICEF report.

Eki Igbinedion, founder of the Idia Renaissance, an NGO, helps to rehabilitate and integrate victims of human trafficking and prostitutions, most of who were deported from foreign countries.

"The clandestine nature surrounding human trafficking hinders the effectiveness of the universal measures and legislations to eliminate the vice and associated activities," she says.