A Re-interpretation of the Trafficking of Women and Girls in South-eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The issues bordering on human trafficking have, over time, attracted much attention from academics, human rights organisations, and law enforcement agencies. Overall, human trafficking has consistently grown and proliferated across national borders of nations. Unfortunately, because it has remained nearly unchecked, especially in Africa, human trafficking has taken form through an illegal network of syndicates that deceive and force vulnerable people into forced labour, prostitution and rampaging criminal activity commonly known as a baby factory. Consequently, human trafficking have always been viewed from an outside-in perspective, forgetting that internal trafficking is equally existent and even more dangerous. This research seeks to re-interpret human trafficking from an inside-out perspective. The research explores the nature, causes and consequences of the trafficking of women and girls in South-eastern Nigeria. It adopts Abraham Maslow's Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs to explain why women and girls in South-eastern Nigeria the worst victims of trafficking are often. Through an ethnography informed by personal and in-depth experience and knowledge of South-eastern Nigeria, coupled with physical interviews of thirty (30) participants, newspaper reports, NAPTIP and NGO reports, we collected relevant evidence that aided the production of this qualitative study. The research finds that ignorance, poverty, unemployment, greed, and lack of parental care are the primary factors that aid the trafficking of women and young girls in South-eastern Nigeria. It calls on the region's people, communities, governments, and stakeholders to collaborate and work together to ensure the curbing of the menace.