The truth is that for criminal gangs and groups, human trafficking ends up
being more lucrative than the trafficking of drugs or guns, and is often safer.
 |
| Ms. Franca Asemota |
One
year after she was arrested for money laundering, a Nigerian businesswoman, Ms
Franca Asemota is to be extradited to the United Kingdom to face criminal
charges.
The
order to extradite Asemota to the UK was handed down by Justice Abdul Kafarati
of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
She is
wanted by the British government for trafficking of minors to Europe through
London. She was
accused of allegedly organizing the network that trafficked young women, mostly
teenagers, aged under 18 — from remote Nigerian villages to Europe using
Heathrow airport as transit hub...
(more pix after the cut)
She was
arrested in New Benin, Benin City, Edo State by operatives of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on March 24, 2015.
After
she was arrested, checks on her profile revealed that she had been on the
wanted list of the British National Crime Agency.
She was
accused of accompanying about 40 girls on eight separate flights to Heathrow
between 2011 and 2012.
The
girls were promised education and jobs such as hairdressing in several
countries including France and Spain but were forced into prostitution.
TimelessTinz opinion:
It’s pathetic that some of the trafficked children are so young and
innocent, some 10 years or even younger. Statistics reveal that the average age
of children trafficked and used as prostitutes is between 12 and 13 years. A
recent incident in a remote part of Italy identified a 10 year old
Nigerian child taken into custody for prostitution.
According to Bradley Myles, executive director and CEO of Polaris Project,
a non-profit that combats human trafficking, "it is estimated that less than 1
percent of an estimated almost 21 million human trafficking victims worldwide
are actually identified."
The real-life horrors of forced human labor take many
forms—from forced conscription of child soldiers, domestic slaves, to sexual
servitude.
Gullible and
desperate parents, guardians and wards have fallen victims of believable
stories of fantastic offers of employment and the good life away from the
poverty and drudgery of everyday living in their villages.
These are not just faraway problems affecting the developing world;
estimates reveal that over 100,000 American citizen children are victims within
U.S. borders.
The truth is that for criminal gangs and groups, human trafficking ends up
being more lucrative than the trafficking of drugs or guns, and is often safer.
This seemingly
innocuous transaction has taken such dimensions that Nigeria today has been
dubbed an endemic country in the trafficking of human beings. In a Citation
Index drawn up by UNODC, Nigeria ranks as "very high" as an origin
country, and together with Cote D'Ivoire and South Africa, they are frequently
cited as destinations for victims trafficked from African countries, bringing
with it negative portrayals and odium internationally.
Our communities, remote and
urban, need to be saturated with awareness of what trafficking is, how to spot it
and what to do when it’s discovered. Sometimes, even law enforcement members
are unaware or ignorant about this heinous crime against humanity.
Every Nigerian,
young and old should be involved in the war to stop human trafficking.
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