Looking exhausted and pale Jenny (not real name) gradually lowered herself into a worn-out chair by the entrance to her one-room apartment, before going on to narrate details of a harrowing journey as a trafficked person.
The Architecture graduate from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology is still traumatised after being sexually abused and tortured on her way to Europe, to accept a ‘juicy’ job offer that turned out to be a snare and a scam.
The mother of one, who agreed to speak with PUNCH Healthwise, only if her identity would be shielded to avoid stigmatisation, revealed that she was tricked into travelling in 2021 for a job in France, but ended up being forced into prostitution, alongside two of her cousins, in Agadez, Niger Republic.
“We never made it to France, we went through hell,” she in a barely audible voice.
The Delta State indigene recalled how the perilous journey through the Sahara Desert, left her with recurrent infections and constant pelvic and abdominal pains.
Sharing her experience with PUNCH Healthwise, the 33-year-old, who is still battling with depression, said she is still haunted by images and scenarios from her harrowing experiences, especially in the place she described as the ‘desert of death’.
Jenny recounted, “In March 2021, my auntie came to our house and told my parents that she came across an opportunity to send some girls in the family abroad. My dad had reservations about the idea, but he felt better when told that it would be an opportunity to work and study at the same time.
“I was told by the people that my aunt later introduced me to that my travel documents were ready, only for me to later discover that everything about the documents was fake, apart from my passport photograph on them.
“I, my cousins, and some other ladies were told that we would travel by air, only to be made to embark on a terrible journey by land journey. It was when we got to Abuja that it dawned on us that we were to travel by land. By then, there was nothing anyone of us could do again. By the time we got to Kano, it became scary.
“They moved us from hand to hand on a bike. About 36 of us, at one point, were parked inside an 18-seater bus. I was among the unfortunate five people to sit in the boot.
“Everything wasn’t going as expected but we didn’t have a choice because we were in a place we barely knew. From Kano, we got to Agadez in Niger Republic. It was a three and half day journey.
“At Agadez, I met other girls and it was then that it dawned on me that I have been trafficked. Some of the girls were already aware of what they were going to do, and who their bosses were, but I didn’t have a clue about what was happening despite my educational background.”
Tricked into prostitution
Mesmerised by the allure of grandeur abroad, in contrast to the misery at home, vulnerable Nigerian girls including minors continue to leave the country in droves, only to be hit by a bitter fact – they have become victims of human trafficking.
PUNCH healthwise gathered that at least, 700, 000 persons, majorly women and children, are trafficked within or across international borders yearly and it is increasingly perpetrated by organised criminal enterprises.
Human trafficking is a serious problem plaguing Africa, especially Nigeria, and it is evident that it has turned into a hydra-headed monster that needs to be tame by the relevant authorities.
Daily, otherwise, naïve persons are trafficked into other parts of the world such as Western Europe and the Middle East.
According to Edo State Zonal Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Mr. Nduka Nwawene, over 20,000 trafficked Nigerians young girls and boys are currently stranded in Mali.
In June 2019, the NAPTIP decried the fact that about 20,000 girls, mainly from Edo and Delta states, were engaged in prostitution in Mali, which is a major transit centre for human trafficking gangs.
A 2018 report by the Global Slavery Index, ranked Nigeria 32 out of 167 countries where persons are trafficked, IOM said there are about 1.4 million victims of human trafficking in Nigeria.
Lured by sweet promises
Based on reports, most trafficked victims, who are captivated by stories of employment in Europe, also end up finding themselves in places like Ivory Coast, Niger and Chad, which was what happened to Jenny.
A survivor and the founder of Female Returned Migrants Networks, Chylian Azuh, told PUNCH Healthwise that some members of the syndicates are positioned at the destination countries and would have made specific demands on the type of girls they want.
She said, “Traffickers primarily target women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by poverty, lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of economic opportunities in their countries of origin,”
Azuh part of the antics of the traffickers include luring victims into their networks by false promises of decent work conditions with relatively good pay.
“They are promised jobs as nannies, maids, dancers, factory workers, restaurant workers, sales clerks, or models, only to be forced into prostitution and remittance made to the sponsors.
“After getting the necessary documents and they travel, the victims would have to start remitting a certain amount of money to cover what the traffickers spent on the trip to the ‘slave’ land. The victims work at a neck-breaking pace to offset whatever the imposed debt is, in order to regain their freedom,” she said.
Sexually exploited by security agents
Further narrating her ordeal, Jenny said having realised the precarious situation she was in, she reached out to a security official, who ended up taking advantage of her helplessness and abused her and others sexually.
Recalling her ordeal, she said, “From Agadez, we moved to Libya. I spent a month, two weeks and four days in the desert. The desert experience was filled with violence and people took advantage of us, especially the security agencies.
“At a point, I decided to go back home because I saw people dying from thirst, heat waves and exhaustion in the desert due to no water. At some point, girls were forced to sleep with total strangers just to get drinking water. We stayed days without bathing. At a point, I told my cousins that it is better to return home and I prayed for God to spare my life because of my son.”
“The Army official that I thought would help, took us to a place where many Nigerians were being held captive.
“The house was a collection centre for all the victims brought from Africa. It was a hut but has an open field in the middle for people to stay.
“They were many of us there. I couldn’t count the number of people there, but we were mixed. Nigerians were more than any other African country. Cameroonians were there and a few Ghanaians.
“That very night, about 10 Hilux trucks arrived and carried about 30 persons each to Libya. A man took me and three other girls to his house, fed us and gave us water to bathe. Still that same night, he assembled us and said each of us must pay him N300, 000, and that we should start selling our bodies to men for him to recoup his money.
Sex with different men
“Working for him meant having sex with all types of men in exchange for money, which I refused. We were meant to pay into a Nigerian account but I told the man that I don’t have any money to pay. He called those that brought us and they eventually settled him and we left.
“Somebody else took us to his apartment, where my suffering worsened. He frustrated us and I couldn’t sleep at night. He was mean and evil and would randomly pick any of us to sleep with.”
Jenny said from there, her life trajectory took a downturn, as different men took advantage of her and paid her traffickers.
The mother of one said she lost count of how many times she was brutally raped and left for dead.
She recounted, “He would always threaten to sell us to the Arabians if we don’t comply. So, with that threat, we complied. The man raped us and gave us out to many sex-starved men. It was a horrible experience.
“You will cry but no one cared because we were seen as less human and treated like mere commodities.
“Despite all the horrible happenings, I kept saying I wanted to keep moving, that I was going to France and not Libya. Even when they were telling me that the road was dangerous, I insisted on leaving. I just wanted to leave that environment. No girl deserves the kind of inhuman treatment we were subjected to.”
Jenny said she was able to pay the man his money and set off for France through the Italian Sea Coast.
However, she was arrested and thrown into jail by the France authority, until luck shone on her and she was released following intervention by the International Organisation for Migration.
With a smile on her face, the young lady said, “We were arrested and thrown in prison for three months before we were released and sent back to Nigeria. I thank God because I would have become a prostitute if I had made it to France. “
Likely afflicted by sickness
For Jenny, her ordeal is far from over. Aside from being traumatised, she nurses the fear that her body is being gradually ravaged by sickness, even though she was yet to carry out comprehensive medical checks to confirm.
She said while fumbling with her hands, “Recently, I have been reflecting on the challenges I faced as a female migrant when it comes to my health. It is not easy for me to admit, but I realise now that I am not as okay as I want to believe.
“I have been so traumatised that I have not conducted HIV and other abdominal tests to ascertain what my current health status is. I have been so scared to do so, but I know that I am not fine. I am afraid because a number of us came back with HIV, damaged wombs and permanent health challenges.
“While I cannot openly express this, the pain continues to haunt me, keeping me awake and causing tears to flow down my chicks uncontrollably all the time.”
Asked how she was able to avoid getting pregnant despite having unprotected sex, she said, “It was God really. However, I know about water and salt, so every little opportunity I had, I will drink salt and water. The men that slept with us don’t know what a condom is, they do it raw.
“I can’t stop imagining what happened there. We packed faeces with bare hands in prison. Our young girls should be wise.”
Tricked, trafficked by a pastor
Another trafficked victim, Florence Abu, told PUNCH Healthwise she left the shores of Nigeria on a planned journey to Russia, a country she was made to believe held great promises and fortunes for her.
Florence, an indigene of Delta State, said as soon as she got to Russia, she found out that she had been deceived and would have to work as a sex slave to offset what she purportedly owed.
The hairstylist alleged she was lured to travel abroad by a pastor in her local church in Edo State, who claimed that he saw a vision of her prospering outside the shores of Nigeria.
She said the pastor promised to bankroll the trip and only asked her to procure an international passport.
Florence recounted, “At first, I refused the offer but the fake pastor told me that I don’t have a choice because God showed him in a revelation that my destiny is not in Nigeria; that my destiny is outside the country.
“He said for me to achieve that aim, I would need to leave the country so that I can earn better money and help my family by taking them away from poverty.”
Strange travelling pact
However, PUNCH Healthwise learnt that before leaving for Russia, Florence claimed the pastor instructed her to give his mother her pubic hair and fingernails, which she later learnt was used for a fetish oath to ensure she does not abscond whilst abroad.
“It was when in Russian that the pastor started demanding $46, 000. He said that the money would guarantee my freedom. I was told that once my payment is completed, I can decide to do whatever I wanted. The woman that received me in Russia threatened to kill me if I try to prove smart.”
Florence said she went through hell on the streets of Russia as a prostitute and eventually contracted a disease that defied all treatment options and was brought back to die in Nigeria.
Just like her, other trafficked survivors who spoke with PUNCH Healthwise shared similar ugly experiences.
Trafficked for fortune
According to the 2020 White House fact sheet on the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, the illegal trafficking of people for exploitation or commercial gain is worth $150 billion globally.
The US fact sheet revealed that two-thirds of this figure, $99 billion, is generated from commercial sexual exploitation, while another $51 billion results from forced economic exploitation, including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe revealed that the average woman trafficked for forced sexual servitude generates $100, 000 in annual profit anywhere (from 100 per cent to 1,000 per cent return on investment).
Also, the United Nations said the smuggling route from East, North and West Africa to Europe alone generates $150 million in profits yearly, while $35 billion is generated globally.
Regrettably, human trafficking is often aided by official corruption in the countries of origin, transit, and destination, thereby threatening the rule of law.
According to the UN, approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the international sex trade, often by force, fraud, or coercion.
A 2016 UNESCO report identified poverty as the major reason women and children are vulnerable to being trafficked, saying that the sex industry had rapidly expanded over the past decades.
Burden of trafficking
According to the IOM Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Franz Celestine, the number of people being trafficked in the country and across the globe had been on the rise, and Nigeria being a country of origin, transit and destination, has a high number of victims, who have been subjected to very inhumane treatments.
He identified the demand for cheap labour and commercial sex as the major drivers for trafficking rings scattered across borders and within countries, noting that they are taking advantage of the economic, social and political vulnerabilities to exploit their victims.
Celestine called on stakeholders to look into the plight of children, women and men exposed to gross human rights abuses from traffickers with the aim to give them a voice in society and make them agents of change.
“In 2018, the Walk Free Foundation estimated that almost 1.4 million individuals were living in modern slavery in Nigeria. Research also shows that two-thirds of Nigerian victims of trafficking are victims of domestic human trafficking. Criminals of such a highly profitable business model have devised ways to hide their traces and increase gains.
“IOM is concerned about the severity and dimension of the issue. We call upon our partners to put victims and survivors at the centre of our collective responses, learning from their stories and gaining inspiration from their courage and resilience,” he added.
NAPTIP secures 624 convictions
On efforts being made to stem the tide of human trafficking in the country, NAPTIP the Director General, Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, said the agency has so far secured 624 convictions since 2004 of which 80 were secured last year.
She said Nigeria has a very comprehensive Act enacted in 2003, known as the ‘Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Enforcement and Administration Act’, which provides for 22 different punishments covering issues of sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, child labour, trafficking of persons for organ removal, debt bondage, slavery and all slavery-like activities, among others.
“In terms of our criminal justice system, I will say NAPTIP has secured a total of 624 convictions since the first conviction was secured in 2004 and just last year, we were able to secure 80 convictions, which is the highest in any single year since the inception of NAPTIP.
“As of today in 2023, we have already secured 48 convictions and counting. So in terms of laws and policies, I will say that Nigeria is very well placed in dissuading traffickers and would-be traffickers, but then, when you think of the enormity, I think we can do more in terms of prosecution and convictions. We secured the extradition of a high profile trafficker to Italy to serve out her 13 years jail term,” she said.
Prof. Waziri-Azi said as part of the efforts to address the scourge, the agency is collaborating with Facebook to expose, sensitise and swiftly tackle any emerging incidence of human trafficking online.
Survivors’ voices key to developing strategies to prosecute perpetrators
The 2022 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, themed, ‘Victims’ Voices Lead the Way,’ highlighted the importance of listening to and learning from survivors of human trafficking.
According to the founder of Female Returned Migrants Networks, Azuh, “Sadly, often unheard, victims’ and survivors’ voices are key to developing and implementing strategies, policies, and measures to prosecute perpetrators. In the worst cases, they face re-victimisation and punishment for seeking help against the crimes they were forced to commit by their traffickers.”
More so, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Matthias Schmale said this year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons aimed at raising awareness of disturbing developments and trends identified by the latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.
According to the report, “The 2022 report informs us that 41% of West African victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation and 57% for forced labour. Nigerians represent by far the highest number of identified Victims of trafficking in West Africa.”
It stated that a lot is being done in terms of stringent punishment for human trafficking offenders but it is not a fight for one, but for all, hence the importance of global cooperation.
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