Abstract:
Nigeria has been facing the immense challenge of international trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation and forced labor into countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Being an international criminal activity driven by high profits, Nigeria's adoption of a regulatory policy is expressed in the series of legal provisions to deal with the army of traffickers. In desperation, within a space of 12 years, Nigeria has churned out two legal frameworks (one now repealed) owing to the enormity of the inhuman effects of the modern slave trade to her citizenry locally and internationally. This paper has attempted a critical appraisal of the legal frameworks, especially the new law - the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition, Enforcement and Administration) Act 2015 - to expose strengths, contradictions and weaknesses. It has also highlighted the operational reality that unless the pervasive corruption amongst personnel of government agencies and security outfits aiding traffickers in illegal migration of victims is tackled, and a positive synergy developed between Nigeria's Immigration Service and the anti-trafficking agency, NAPTIP, Nigeria's success in reducing on-going trafficking in persons may be very minimal
Machine summary:
"The new Act has 82 sections, and defines trafficking or traffic in persons in Section 82 as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person or debt bondage for the purpose of placing or holding the person whether for or not in involuntary servitude (domestic, sexual or reproductive) in forced or bonded labor, or in slavery - like conditions, the removal of organs or generally for exploitative purposes.
Unlike in the repealed 2003 Law which had a Chairman and two members each from the six geo-political zones of the country recommended by the Minister of Justice to the President, the new 2015 Act in Section 3(2) provided for a nine-man team comprising a knowledgeable Chairman, two representatives civil society groups and one each from the government ministries of Justice, Women, Labor and Productivity, Nigeria Police Force, National Intelligence Agency, Nigeria Immigration Service and National Planning Commission.
The new anti-trafficking law 2015 imposes more stringent penalty on body corporate, especially land transport companies, airline, travel agents, and tour operators involved in or encouraging trafficking in persons, as Section 31 sub-section 1-2 imposes heavier penalty of N10million (about $40,000) and the wind up of the body corporate and its assets and properties transferred to the Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund, unlike in the old law where only the fine of just N2million ($8,000) was imposed."