A/HRC/41/46/Add.1
11.
Trafficking destinations also include countries in North Africa, the Middle East,
including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation (including in
relation to the 2018 World Cup, during which at least 10 trafficked victims were identified
by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons) and Central Asia,
where victims are held in exploitative conditions, in most cases undergoing sexual
exploitation, debt bondage and domestic servitude. Cases of trafficking by sea have also
been reported in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea and Mali, where victims are
recruited under false promises and end up being forced to work on farm plantations, or as
hawkers or salespersons, usually to lift heavy loads at warehouses or stores, and domestic
servants.
C.
Internal forms of trafficking in persons
12.
An increasing number of people are trafficked from rural communities in Oyo, Osun
and Ogun States in the south-west, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa States in the
south, Ebonyi and Imo States in the south-east and Benue, Niger and Kwara States in the
middle belt to cities such as Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Calabar and Port
Harcourt. This type of trafficking regions is predominantly for exploitative domestic work,
farm labour and prostitution, with incidents of forced labour particularly prevalent in
Lagos.
Child trafficking
13.
While the Special Rapporteur did not receive any official data on the magnitude of
child trafficking during her visit, she was informed that it is still prevalent in Nigeria,
including in the form of exploitative child labour. Such forms of labour include domestic
servitude, begging, farm labour and work in illegal mining sites and quarries. Other forms
of child trafficking include forced marriage, trafficking for the purpose of organ removal,
suicide bombing and the use of child soldiers. It also came to the attention of the Special
Rapporteur that children, particularly in northern Nigeria, are increasingly subject to
internal trafficking in the form of child begging. Most child beggars from the north-western
and north-eastern regions come from the Islamic Qur’anic Schools. This is an informal
school system, known as almajiri, which dates back to the eleventh century and applies the
concept of educating young children in Qur’anic studies away from home. Children,
including unaccompanied, separated or orphaned children, are increasingly given into the
care of religious teachers (mallams) who run such informal schools. The use of children by
religious teachers for child labour has been widely reported.
14.
In Nigerian society as a whole, child begging is widespread. Victims of child
begging also include children with disabilities, who are lured into the major cities. Poverty,
conflict and displacement in the north, as well as reluctance or sheer negligence by the
Federal Government to act on this issue, are other contributory factors.
Trafficking in camps for internally displaced persons and in host communities
15.
Following extremely violent attacks by Boko Haram, hundreds of women and girls
from north-eastern states were abducted. Some of them were subjected to domestic
servitude, forced labour and sexual slavery through forced marriages to Boko Haram
militants. To date, the whereabouts of many of the victims are unknown.
16.
As of June 2018, the United Nations reported that there were 1.7 million displaced
persons in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States. 5 Lack of livelihood
opportunities has forced many families to send children as young as 5 years old to hawk
items in the streets or beg in order to have money to buy food, and both boys and girls are
reportedly engaged in “survival sex”. Internally displaced persons, especially in the northeast, face severe protection problems, including the widespread sexual abuse of women and
girls.
5
4
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “North-east Nigeria:
humanitarian situation update” (June 2018).
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