Human Trafficking II: Key Players & Causes – SS3 Civic Education Lesson Note (Second Term)

Human trafficking is the luring or forcing of people from their home countries, moving them across international borders and enslaving them.

Behavioural objectives

1. Describe the chain of source, transit and destination in human trafficking.
2. Identify the main players involved in human trafficking.
3. State the activities victims of human trafficking are forced into.
4. List at least five causes of human trafficking.
5. Explain how any three causes make people vulnerable to traffickers.

What are the main features of human trafficking?

Human trafficking is the recruiting and moving of people by deceit or force so that others can exploit them for profit.

• Recruitment: the victim is found, tricked or forced to leave home.
• Movement: the victim is carried from one place to another, usually across borders.
• Exploitation: the victim is made to work or serve for the gain of others.
• Deceit or force: false promises, threats or violence keep the victim under control.
• Internal trafficking: victims can also be moved from one town to another within the same country.

What are the key players in human trafficking?

There are five key players in human trafficking: traffickers, recruiters, victims, corrupt officials and exploiters.

• Traffickers: people or groups who plan, organise and profit from moving victims.
• Recruiters or agents: people who approach victims with false offers of jobs, school or travel.
• Victims: people who are lured, deceived or forced into the trade.
• Corrupt officials: officers who take bribes and let traffickers pass.
• Exploiters: people who use the victims for work, sex or begging and pay the traffickers.

What is the chain of human trafficking?

The chain of human trafficking has three stages: the source country, the transit country and the destination country.

1. Source country: the country where the victims come from.
2. Transit country: the country the victims are taken through. Victims there may be left with no option other than prostitution.
3. Destination country: the country where the victims end up and are exploited.

How do traffickers operate?

Traffickers usually follow a set order of steps, from choosing a victim to exploiting that person.

1. The trafficker or recruiter picks a target, often a poor, jobless or uninformed person.
2. The recruiter makes a false offer of a job, school place or travel abroad.
3. Travel is arranged, sometimes with bribes to corrupt officials.
4. The victim is moved through one or more transit countries.
5. At the destination, the victim is handed to an exploiter.
6. The victim is held under threat and told to repay a large “travel debt”.

What are victims of human trafficking forced into?

Victims of human trafficking are forced into five main activities: prostitution, debt bondage, servile marriage, begging and forced labour.

• Prostitution: forced sex work, with the earnings taken by the trafficker.
• Debt bondage: working to repay a huge “travel debt” that never ends.
• Servile marriage: being forced into marriage and treated as a servant or property.
• Begging: being made to beg on the street, often by children, for the trafficker’s gain.
• Forced labour: unpaid or poorly paid work under threat, such as domestic work or farm work.

What are the causes of human trafficking?

There are ten main causes of human trafficking, listed below.

• Poverty: traffickers target poor people, who easily believe fake promises of a better life.
• Greed: the uncontrollable desire for money, a house, a flashy car and fashion drives both traffickers and the trafficked.
• Low self-esteem: lack of confidence in oneself, from economic, physical or psychological causes, makes people easy to deceive.
• Corruption: some traffickers succeed by bribing corrupt law enforcement officials.
• Lack of employment opportunity: jobless and desperate people are lured because they want to leave the country by all means.
• Bad economic system: a weak economy makes citizens want to travel abroad for a better standard of living.
• Profit: the money traffickers make from the trade encourages them to continue.
• Search for greener pastures: some people believe that travelling abroad is the only way to make ends meet.
• Lack of education and information: victims are mostly uneducated and uninformed, so they fall easily.
• Lack of public awareness: the danger of trafficking is seldom publicised, so many people do not know about it.

How do these causes make people vulnerable to traffickers?

A person is vulnerable when a weakness or need makes it easy for a trafficker to deceive or control that person.

How do push and pull factors explain trafficking?

Push factors drive people away from home, pull factors attract them to another place, and enabling factors let traffickers work freely.

• Push factors: hard conditions at home that make people want to leave.
• Pull factors: promised benefits elsewhere that attract people.
• Enabling factors: weaknesses in society that let traffickers operate without being caught.

Who fights human trafficking in Nigeria?

Government agencies, schools, the media and community leaders fight human trafficking in Nigeria.

• NAPTIP: the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons investigates and prosecutes traffickers.
• Nigeria Immigration Service: checks travel documents at the borders and airports.
• Nigeria Police Force: investigates reports and arrests suspected traffickers.
• Public awareness: schools, media and community leaders teach people the dangers.

Evaluation

1. Name the three stages in the chain of human trafficking.
2. What is a transit country?
3. List four activities that victims of human trafficking are forced into.
4. Explain how poverty makes people vulnerable to traffickers.
5. Give an example of how corruption encourages human trafficking.

Assignment

1. Explain any four causes of human trafficking.