Human Trafficking

By TESSY OKWUDI

DESPITE the fight by the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic In Person (NAPTIP), human Trafficking seems not to be abating.

The issue of human trafficking has become something that everyone should frown at as the menace it has caused cannot be overemphasized.

Many of our girls between the ages of 16 – 21 have been abused and some of these girls are convinced into travelling abroad with all the promises of comfort and to amass wealth for whoever is sponsoring the journey.

If we want to tell ourselves the truth, these girls are not far from us. They are our daughters, relations, friends neighbours, e.t.c.

These innocent girls travel abroad, not having idea of what they are going to do there, only for them to get there and see something they never bargained for. This is because some of these girls are promised responsible jobs like sales representatives over there. Some sponsors even connive with the parents or guardians of these girls to deceive innocent girls by convincing them that travelling abroad to make money is easy.

A lot of these girls who are victims of pitiable circumstance (poverty) are living a frustrated life. They are not happy because of the kind of life they have lived.

A friend of mine called Mabel (not real names) who travelled out to Italy some years ago, was repatriated last year. She came back with nothing. All the money she sent while she was abroad was not properly utilized. Her family wasted her money, she attempted suicide because of frustration. She drank and smoked not minding the consequences of smoking. No education, no skill, nothing at all. Anytime I see Mabel, I always ask myself, what is left of Mabel?

Imagine a situation where a young, intelligent girl, full of life, energy, hope and a promising future will be deceived into travelling out to prostitute. This is a girl that has boasted: “I want to be a lawyer”, worked hard in schools, always coming out with excellent grades, all of a sudden the girl chose to travel out for prostitution instead of proceeding for her study.

A lot of times, these girls are abused and humiliated over there all in the quest to amass wealth. Some of them don’t enjoy the fruits of their labour and some die while travelling abroad. We shouldn’t forget in a hurry what happened in Libya last month. You can imagine how many of our promising young girls were involved. This is horrible.

Their relatives are not even helping matters. They see it as an opportunity to enrich themselves by extorting money from them at the detriment of these girls’ lives and future.

I wonder what will be left of these girls when they are repatriated like Mabel. I wonder how they can put their lives together again. How can they move on? Some of them come back infected with a lot of dangerous diseases like HIV/AIDS and host of others venereal diseases.

Quite a lot have little or no tendency of giving birth as a result of contraceptives they have taken to prevent pregnancy.

Could it be that we are too scared, or that we don’t believe in God anymore? or that the situation of our families (poverty) has gotten to the extreme that we choose to make these innocent girls suffer by sending them abroad for prostitution so that we can amass wealth? This is unpalatable, it is agonizing and devastating.

Why are we despondent about our future? Our problem is that we are too anxious over money, we are too greedy, our quest for money is inexplicable, we no longer put the future of our children into consideration. We don’t want to be patient and wait for God. Why the hurry? Vanity upon vanity is vanity.

Whether we like it or not we are involved directly or indirectly. We shouldn’t behave as if it is not our concern. People who are involved are our friends, neighbours, cousins, nieces, sisters and daughters. So we must do everything we can to see this human trafficking which has become an epidemic in our country die.

It’s not the fault of these girls who are victims of such pitiable circumstance, (poverty), a lot of them were deceived. Even though the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) is doing its best, concerned citizens should put their hands and heads together to form a formidable force against Human Trafficking in our society.

We all should be a voice against it, including the government, head of schools, parents e.t.c. There should be a seminar on the danger of human trafficking in our schools most especially, at the secondary level.