Human trafficking, described by Pope Francis as “an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ, … a crime against humanity”, continues to mutate in strategies and its perpetrators are unrelenting. The clarion call therefore is that we brace up for action, always ready to outsmart the traffickers in their evil game, so as to save humanity.
Reminiscing on the events that shaped my field work experience on the fight against Human Trafficking in Oyo State, the poignant cry we heard was the need for a massive “Awareness Campaign against Human Trafficking in the State” and this became a project. It was one of the key findings of the research we conducted in collaboration with the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, between 2020 to 2021. This project conducted between 2022 and 2023 is bearing fruit beyond these years in combating human trafficking head-on, thanks to Misean Cara who sponsored it.
Emboldened by the resources and all the communal support needed, we traversed eleven of the thirty-three local government areas of Oyo State. Equipped with specialized training received from St. Leo’s University on combating human trafficking, we disseminated tailored messages to thousands of persons in all the nooks and crannies of the state. Through these efforts, twenty persons were rescued and the number is still growing.
These efforts paid off. The enlightened communities became their own champions in the fight against human trafficking in their localities. And, in spite of the rigours of the field experience, we emerged stronger, with lifelong experience.
Human trafficking, despite its intricacies, yields the same results everywhere – economic gain for the traffickers and the dehumanization of the victims. In Lagos, the story remains the same. The pathetic stories of the survivors’ struggle to overcome the terrifying and traumatic experiences of exploitation abound.
One such is the case of Julia (not her real name). She lost both parents within the span of two years, before she was trafficked from Akwa Ibom State to Lagos State at the age of 15 years. She is currently 19 years old. Julia managed to escape from her traffickers, but not knowing where to go, she wandered the streets of Lagos, sleeping in uncompleted buildings and under the bridge. Tragically, she fell into the hands of another exploiter. Because he was an older man, she believed she would be safe; but she was mistaken. She was molested for six months in the man’s house before she escaped back to the streets.
One night, around 2 a.m., Julia was rounded up by a police patrol team mistaken for a criminal. Her pleas of being innocent fell on deaf ears. She was detained at the police station till dawn when an investigation finally began. She led police to her molester’s house. The neighbors confirmed his suspicious behaviors and he was subsequently arrested. The arrest marked a turning point in Julia’s life. She was taken to a shelter and her reintegration began in earnest.
Julia has completed her training in hair dressing and has graduated with a shop secured and ready to be equipped. However, there was another hurdle, the challenge of reconnecting her with her family whom she had not been in touch with for three years. Through networking with the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious (NCWR), and helped by a member of the Congregation of the Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus, we not only traced her family, but facilitated her reconciliation with the entire family, ending a complicated family squabble that had lasted for years. We collaborated with the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Agency (DSVA) and facilitated Julia’s access to professional counselling from the DSVA shortly before her return to Akwa Ibom. We believe in holistic reintegration!
Another harrowing case is that of Anna (not her real name). She was trafficked by her own biological mother. She dropped her off at a brothel for the purpose of prostitution when she was only 16 years old. She managed to escape after four nights. Though some might consider her ‘lucky’ to have escaped quickly, the deed was already done. Anna, though rehabilitated and reintegrated, still lives with the horrors and the profound psychological damage of those four nights and still finds it difficult to tell the story. Anna trained as a fashion designer and has been empowered with her own shop. We remain ever so grateful to the Conrad Hilton Fund for Sisters for the sponsorship and also for the collaboration of the NCWR.
There are many twists and turns to the stories of human trafficking in Nigeria; Ghana seems to be the primary destination recently. All four victims rescued between 2025 and 2026, trafficked from Imo state, Plateau State, Delta and Rivers State respectively, were intercepted in Lagos while en route to Ghana,
Indeed, all hands must be on deck so that together we can break the chains of human trafficking and save humanity from this menace.
