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WOCON Responds to the 2006 TIP Report
The Women's Consortium of Nigeria Responds to the 2006 TIP Report
National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Person and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) receives deported trafficked girls, sometimes picking them up at the airport where victims of trafficking sometimes as young as nine have been shackled together with common criminals after spending nights in jail in the destination countries and treated as though they were also criminals.
An official of NAPTIP in Nigeria stated in an interview the need for increased sensitivity, training of police in destination countries such as Italy. He said that, “From my experience of receiving deported victims, it is rare that they had been treated with sensitivity by authorities in the destination countries, such as Italy where they had been trafficked to unless they agreed to reveal the names of their traffickers.”
To address these problems, NGOs such as the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) and TAMPEP have been working together trans-nationally to address sensitive issues such as the treatment of deported victims abroad. However, inadequate information regarding the actual state of human trafficking in countries including Nigeria, Italy, and the United States in the US TIP report undermines these collaborative efforts by displaying a false sense of significant progress towards the elimination of trafficking.
Director of WOCON, Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi said, “There are thousands of Nigerian girls that are trafficked to destination countries, and when deported there are scarce resources to address trauma of the victims not only from the trafficking itself, but also from the ignorance of authorities and the society in both Nigeria and the destination countries that treat them as if they were criminals.”
Quite striking in the US TIP report was the omission of the United States as a destination for trafficked Nigerian girls, exemplifying the inadequacy and lack of information gathering used in the production of the report. In any case, by giving kudos only to the countries in demand of trafficking victims and shaming the source, the supply and demand chain of human beings will flourish.
Ms. Olateru-Olagbegi stated, “Efforts of source countries such as Nigeria that are working to combat human trafficking are not adequately acknowledged with due consideration of their meager resources and level of technological capabilities.”
WOCON and TAMPEP, two prominent non-governmental organizations in Nigeria and Italy respectively have also not been mentioned or included in the US TIP report as major sources of education, prevention, awareness, and rehabilitation. While the TIP report is welcomed as a means to keep governments in check, there is also a greater need for more accurate information in order to redress the issues of human trafficking.
For more information email wocon95@yahoo.com or visit WOCON online.
(Drafted by Jessica Sewall in Lagos, Nigeria)
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