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Abstract

It is estimated that each year close to one million persons are trafficked across international borders. Nigeria has been identified as a major source, destination, and transit for the trafficking of persons, particularly women and children. The women are trafficked mostly to Europe and the Middle East, as well as to North America for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked within Africa and other parts of the world for the purposes of adoption, for domestic and agricultural labor, and for sale of human body parts. Efforts by the government of Nigeria (including enacting new laws, strengthening existing laws and other social control mechanisms, and collaborating with other countries) to combat trafficking and the sale of humans have not yielded appreciable results. Several factors (inadequate policing, corruption within the policing system, relative deprivation of freedoms, mounting social injustices, lack of conventional social opportunities, increasing conflicting social values, gender imbalances in the provision of education and economic opportunities, and the breakdown of social institutions) cause this impasse. This study examines the nature, extent, and development of this phenomenon and attempts to delineate the factors vitiating against Nigeria’s law enforcement and government efforts in combating this particularly troubling international crime. Two policies are possible. The short term would introduce mass education about the danger of human trafficking and strengthen the legal instrument and the capability of the law enforcement system to deal with the problem, and the long term would address the social and economic conditions in Nigeria which sustains the phenomenon.

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