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New human trafficking laws
12/04/2006 08:23 - (SA)
Lagos - Nigeria has strengthened its laws against people trafficking with penalties such as 14 years in jail for pimps who use underage prostitutes, says the state agency in charge of fighting human traffickers.
Africa's most populous country was a major source, transit route and destination for women and children who fall prey to people traffickers.
The victims were mostly used for prostitution, forced labour and domestic slavery.
Carol Ndaguba, executive secretary of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), said: "Human trafficking ... has assumed dangerous dimensions that require urgent and drastic attention."
Exploitative employment
Ndaguba said: "We are determined to stamp out human trafficking, liberate and uplift the vulnerable, especially women and children, from dehumanising and exploitative employment and usage."
Ndaguba said new amendments to the law on human trafficking had already come into force.
The law now imposed a 100 000 naira ($776) fine or five years in prison for people convicted of using children under 18 for domestic labour.
NAPTIP hoped the fine, a large sum by the standards of most Nigerians, would act as a deterrent.
Rehabilitation, resettlement
Ndaguba said the agency had investigated 250 suspected human trafficking cases and secured seven convictions in the last two years, while 18 other cases were at various stages of prosecution.
NAPTIP had also set up a victims' trust fund, where the proceeds of the forfeited assets of convicts, including assets located abroad, were pooled for rehabilitation and resettlement.
A 2005 report from the American state department found that thousands of Nigerians were smuggled every year to Europe, the Middle East and other African countries to work in the sex industry or as forced labourers, especially as domestic help.
According to reports, in Europe, Nigerian girls and women were mostly taken to be prostitutes in Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Children work as street beggars
NAPTIP said it had evidence that children from 22 of Nigeria's 36 states had been displaced by people traffickers either to other parts of Nigeria or to other West African states. Many of them worked as street hawkers or beggars.
According to NAPTIP , Nigeria was also a destination for smuggled children from nearby Togo and Benin.
NAPTIP had signed bilateral agreements to fight the problem with several destination countries in Europe and was working on more deals.
Last year, Nigerians were shocked after police in Lagos intercepted a refrigerated truck, normally used for transporting frozen fish, carrying 67 children aged between 6 and 14 years from a northern state.
Two days earlier, police on Nigeria's border with Benin had arrested four people for smuggling 52 children into the country.
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