‘’As Commonwealth nations, developed countries (within the body) need to evolve an integrated political approach to fight the scourge of trafficking in persons; share useful ideas and come out with time-tested solutions,’’ Abubakar said at a session of the Commonwealth Peoples Forum yesterday.

Abubakar, wife of Nigeria’s Vice President described as tragic, the situation in Africa where many parents, driven by extreme poverty, greed and ignorance, voluntarily offered their children as cheap labour and prostitution in the hope of augmenting the family income.

‘’The issue of cross-border trafficking deserves special attention if we are truly determined to combat the scourge of human trafficking in Africa’’.

Apart from greed, ignorance, rural - urban imbalance, and low education levels, other factors which caused trafficking were porous borders and the use of islands as slave depots where trafficked victims were put to various exploitative labour.

At the same meeting, Em Babandede, head of investigation and monitoring of the recently established National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) called on Commonwealth member-countries to accept a common defination. ‘’There should be a common definition of trafficking which involves women, children and adults’’.

‘’In Europe, which is the destination of these victims, trafficking has been separated from smuggling which represents a problem because a lot of our men arrive Europe and the British authorities say they are being smuggled but not trafficked,’’ he noted.

Babandede accused Britain of not doing enough on the issue of human trafficking and urged her to cooperate with her Italian counterpart in combating trafficking. ‘’Let there be a little bit of bilateral cooperation on this issue’’.

He also wants the Commonwealth to set standards in terms of investment in the rehabilitation of trafficked victims, so that they can be properly taken care of and resettled in their native countries.

During the plenary session there was a general agreement that political instability, unemployment, poverty and lack of economic opportunities in developing countries were responsible for the increased spate of human trafficking and warned that eradication would only be possible through the empowerment of people and through cooperation between countries.

Pascal Affo, First Counsellor, at the Embassy of Benin, whose country has been particularly affected by human trafficking, said the origin of child trafficking and labour started as a result of African extended family system. People would send their children to relatives living abroad as domestics in return for an education or to learn a trade. Unfortunately, the practice evolved into a commercial venture.

Affo said Benin had become a source and destination of the heinous crime. ‘’Benin Republic has been having problems because the borders are very porous and whenever a family is affected by poverty, they think the solution is to send their children to Nigeria where they believe they can make money to help the family’’. The border between Benin and Nigeria stretches 770 kilometres making it difficult for effective policing.

Some schools in Benin had closed because of low attendance due to child trafficking to Nigeria. Hundreds of children from Benin were mid this year discovered in some parts of Western Nigeria where they were being used for labour in a quarry.

Between September and November, 200 such children were rescued by the Nigerian Police and handed back to the authorities in Cotonou. Two others were taken back to Cotonou only Wednesday (yesterday) while another 30 are expected to be handed over in Lagos to Benin today (Thursday), according to a source at the on-going CPF meeting.

Affor said the returned children were being re integrated by non governmental organizations and the government. “The NGOs in the country are doing their best to put them back in school or empower them through skill acquisition programme. We are also educating their parents on the evil of child trafficking’’.

WOTCLEF was founded in Nigeria in 1999 to build community awareness against abuse of the rights of women and children.

Through its efforts, the anti-human trafficking law has been instituted and a National Agency for Traffic in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration has been established to coordinate matters connected with trafficking. Offenders risk life jail.