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LABOUR: Nigeria, Benin Join Forces to Fight Child Trafficking
By 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. (END)
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