Lagos — For millions of children under various forms of modern day slavery, life, definitely, could have been better if there was a genuine determination to end the menace.

Olaolu Olusina writes that from Ekori in South-south, Nigeria to the coast of Yeji on the Volta Lake in Ghana, trafficked children are suffering the same fate

An unusual scene played out at the Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria some years ago. A young boy caused a stir when he refused to board an aircraft heading for London. Poor soul! He had never come close to an aircraft, not to talk of boarding one. His blunt refusal aroused the curiosity of immigration officials who were watching the drama. They eventually discovered that the "village boy" was a victim of child trafficking. He was promptly rescued from his abductors and taken back to his village in South-east Nigeria.

Shinny, as he is called, is 12 but slaves under the tropical sun in one of the pig farms scattered around the villages off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in South-west Nigeria. When this reporter sought to know where he came from, a dry smile was what he could offer. Upon further inquiries, however, he said in pidgin English: "I come from Akwa Ibom." Not satisfied with his defensive tactics, a further probe immediately gave him out. "I be from Calabar...," he said as he tried to parry further questions about his family background with the stuff one hears everyday from such kids.

In Ekori, a rural community in Yakurr local government area of Cross River State in South-south, Nigeria, this reporter was faced with the stark realities of child trafficking. A once vibrant farming community is being depleted daily by the activities of modern day slave merchants and their collaborators. A generation of youths; the community's strength and future, now faces the threat of going into extinction. Ekori is believed to be the headquarters of a thriving trade in kid slaves and a hotbed for child trafficking.

Ofem Ubangha is from Ekori. He told this reporter that returnee slave kids usually return from the cocoa farms in South-west Nigeria about mid-December. "They always return from Ondo as from December 15, and the villagers welcome them with thundering shouts of Ondo-he! Ondo-he! Ondo-he! (meaning Ondo people have come) as trucks conveying them enter the village in droves," he said.

It was gathered that from December 10, every year, few of these kid slaves that have finished their contracts, or have been released by their masters, start returning home in trucks, with the attendant dangers to their lives while on transit. "Onward movement takes place in January and between January 3 and 10 of a particular year, about 30 trailers conveyed these children from Ekori to destinations in Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Lagos States. Few of them are also ferried into neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to work in plantations and farms," said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It will recalled that few years ago, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) carried the story of one Felicia, an African (Nigerian) girl who was abducted into slave labour. She was being ferried from London to Italy when she smartly escaped from her abductors at the Heathrow Airport by disappearing into the toilet where she later asked for help. If Felicia was lucky to have escaped unhurt, 'Boy Adam' was not in any way.

His story should still be fresh in the memory of those that followed the case. When his remains were found dumped in River Thames in the United Kingdom. The London Metropolitan Police that investigated the murder discovered, through a forensic report, that he was a victim of child trafficking and that his murder had some ritual dimensions moreso as his head was severed and taken away before his remains were dumped into the river. Further tests carried on his remains led the Metropolitan Police to Benin City as the boy is believed to have come from Edo State in Nigeria.

Human trafficking, no doubt, has become the current social issue of the time. The startling revelation of the frightening dimension the menace is assuming makes it even more worrisome. And just like HIV/AIDS, it crosses local, national and international borders. Every year, some 600-800 million modern day slaves are trafficked internationally. Human trafficking, according to the United States' Department of State, is the third most lucrative business in the world, after drugs and trading of arms, with an estimated annual earning of $5-$7billion. The United Nations also estimates that about 706,000 to four million women and children are trafficked every year. Out of this figure, 50 per cent are children, with some as young as six years.

Vision Media, an American organisation, reports that poverty is the factor in the global economy that leads to suffering. "Those toiling under the horrendous conditions of abject slavery cannot be viewed simply as victims of unfortunate circumstances in the melee of world trade and commerce," says Bill Butler, writer for Vision Media. "Modern day slavery must be acknowledged for the social issue it is; the result of a crime perpetrated by cruel and greedy individuals and criminal enterprises lacking in compassion for other people's suffering."

It was therefore not a surprise as this reporter watched in awe as Emelia Oguuah, filled with compassion, almost burst into tears on a live discussion programme on a Ghanaian television station recently. A mother, of course, with the milk of human kindness flowing in her, the Deputy Director, African Centre for Human Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO),could not hold back her emotions as she narrated the ordeals that young boys and girls, victims of child trafficking and forced labour, go through on a daily basis.

"Imagine an eight year old boy rearing about 150 cattle! He gets bitten by snakes, have dementia, his growth is stunted and retarded, he suffers all forms of deprivation," she said. "The Kayayes (female porters) at Tudu and Tema stations are sexually abused on a daily basis in order to get protection." Oguuah said that in such situation, "generations of children are born on the streets, raised on the streets and are going to die on the streets," adding, "we are building wasted generations."

Eric Appiah Okrah who works with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as the coordinator for the international programme on Eradication of Child Labour IPEC) in Ghana also painted a gloomy and more frightening picture of the menace. Speaking on the same programme as Oquuah, Okrah disclosed that in Kokrobite, a settlement on the outskirts of Accra, a kid slave said he knew that some of them (kid slaves) were actually used for rituals. According to Okrah, a Togolese trafficker arrested in Ghana, in fact, confessed that his first victim, a young boy obtained from Ghana, was used for ritual by his father back in Togo.

The ILO official said when about 100 slave children working with fishermen on the coast of Yeji on the Volta Lake were rescued by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in September 2003, and returned to their families, "it was discovered that these kids, as young as three-and-a-half years were being used as baits to catch fish by the slave masters who deliberately drown them on the river."

The case on the Volta Lake is pathetic; it is indeed one that has continued to generate the attention of the international community. And quite in line with trends in modern day slavery, where traffickers seek vulnerability in their intended victims, they also seek environments in which they can exploit victims with minimal threat of the victims' escape or law enforcement action. On the Volta Lake, quite a number of children find themselves confined and work under terrible conditions with no means of escape or help as the case may be.

Many of the unfortunate kids are subjected to beatings, deprived of food and water, and enough sleep. They are exposed to highly unsanitary conditions and infectious diseases as they are forced to perform life-threatening work in unsafe conditions without pay. One can then understand the emotional outburst of Oguuah and Okrah as they made a passionate case for the protection of the rights of the Ghanaian child.

It is however interesting that with all these developments, the US Department of State's 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report still classifies Ghana as a Tier two country; a country with an improvement on her anti-trafficking efforts. According to the report, "trafficking within the country is more prevalent than transnational trafficking, with majority of victims being children (boys and girls) engaging in forced labour in the fishing industry, agriculture and mines."

Observers are, however, not convinced that Ghana is doing enough. Prior to the IOM's intervention, the country had no law to prosecute traffickers. And in spite of her leading role in the sub-region, the country is yet to ratify the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. Though the country made an effort with its 2005 Human Trafficking Act that prescribes a minimum penalty of five years' imprisonment for all forms of trafficking, there is no maximum penalty for the offence. It is however gratifying to note that Ghana obtained its first conviction in February 2005 as a trafficker got a six-year jail term under the 2005 law. The 17-member Human Trafficking Board is also awaiting presidential approval.

And just as the countdown to the African Cup of Nations football competition, tagged Ghana 2008, begins, the Ghanaian government has been called upon to put adequate measures in place to prevent human traffickers from having their way .This followed the disclosure by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and some organisations that some people have perfected plans to recruit children for prostitution during the games.

The secret association of commercial sex workers in Accra and Takoradi had earlier expressed concern, though for selfish reasons, about media reports of invasion of prostitutes from neighbouring Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire in the run up to the African Cup of Nations tournament.

Bright Appiah, an activist with the Children Right International, an NGO also said he had information from Kumasi that some "underground agents" have been paid to recruit sex workers, with children as some of their targets. Speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and sponsored by the British High Commission at Senchi near Akosombo in the country's Eastern region recently, Appiah said as the security agencies beefed up their watchdog role in host cities and surrounding towns of Ghana 2008, tournament, children could also be protected if government imposed a curfew on children during the tournament. While this may appear a sincere suggestion, observers are not in any way in support of this as it will definitely be an infringement of the rights of the child to free movement.

International sporting events, no doubt, have become fertile ground for human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children. The case of Ghana 2008 cannot, therefore, be an exception, say observers of the development. Adu Poku, director general of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service confirmed this as well. "The international sporting events have become a fertile ground for human trafficking for sexual exploitation, the documented patterns of frequent trafficking of children for forced prostitution during World Cups and others as well as the increase of recruitment of children for prostitution in South Africa for the upcoming World Cup create a dire picture. We need to fight it to ensure zero tolerance for human trafficking," said the Ghana CID boss.

Tatiana Kotlyarenko, executive director of Enslavement Prevention Alliance West Africa, however, put the challenge at hand in proper perspective. "In South Africa, there are media reports of how street children as young as nine years old are being lured and prepared for prostitution for World Cup 2010," she said, even as she warned: "With no preventive measures in place and relatively easy border crossings for other ECOWAS members prior to, and during, the CAN 2008, it is highly probable that thousands of women and children will be trafficked into Ghana for the purposes of exploitation, as well as recruited internally."

The ECOWAS Commission estimates that not less than 300,000 children have fallen victim to trafficking in the sub-region, citing an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report .The sub-regional body already has a protocol among member states that makes trafficking an offence. Member states are currently being encouraged to embark on reform of national laws with a view to harmonising them with international and regional conventions and protocol on trafficking in Persons.

Organisations around the world are also expressing sincere and serious concerns about the problem of human trafficking into the Southern African region in the run up to the World Cup 2010.The need to adequately prepare for the upcoming World Cup was one of the topics on the agenda at a conference held by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok, Thailand last November.

The situation in Nigeria is not in any way better, though the country is also classified as a Tier 2 country by the 2007 TIP Report of the US State's Department. Nigeria, according to the report, remains a major source country for women trafficked to Europe and a transit and destination country for trafficked children to and from other parts of Africa.

Collateral Damages, a new report by the GAATW, which examines anti-trafficking measures and their impact on human rights of trafficked people in eight countries across the globe, however describes Nigeria's 2005 anti-trafficking act as a step in the right direction. It nonetheless notes that the act has many loopholes and shortfalls, which it says may be "the result of acting too quickly." Victoria Nwogu, author of the Nigerian chapter in the report said "the act essentially reproduces the UN Trafficking Protocol, without effectively adapting it to the local context. Some of the points of the Protocol are inappropriate for Nigeria and so the Act, in some places, misses its mark."

It would be recalled that following the endorsement of the UN Protocol on Trafficking In Persons, Nigeria went ahead to promulgate the 2003 Trafficking In Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was created in August 2003, with Carol Ndaguba as the executive secretary. The 2005 amendment to the Child Rights Act also increases penalties for traffickers and their collaborators.

Though sentences imposed have been inadequate, NAPTIP has continued to make commendable efforts as the country reported 81 trafficking investigations, 23 prosecutions and three convictions in 2006.The national action plan against trafficking developed in 2006 is also awaiting presidential approval.

The UN Protocol to Prevent ,Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children came into force in 2003.It defines human trafficking as, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."