Reinventing Human Trafficking Through Baby Factories and Child Commodification in Nigeria: Ethical Implications

Introduction

Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons, is a kind of modern-day slavery and millions of people around the world, including children are victims of this crime (DeStefano, 2007). It has today changed from an almost unknown and largely unreported phenomenon to a widespread global issue involving millions of victims. In recent years, greater awareness, education, outreach, and sensitization have improved the detection and reporting of this crime; but, human trafficking still reflects a hidden phenomenon, difficult to locate and even more difficult to prosecute. Without any sense of conjecture, human trafficking is considered the third largest revenue generating and fastest growing illegal industry in the world, surpassing every other criminal enterprise except the drug and arms trades (DeStefano, 2007). Schauer and Wheaton (2006) argue that human trafficking is more lucrative than drug trafficking, in part because it holds fewer risks and because, unlike illicit drugs, humans may be sold and re-sold, often countless times in one day.

Human trafficking involves the exploitation of human beings, especially the vulnerable populations, and is recognized as one of the most severe abuses of human rights today. Violations of human rights are both a cause and a consequence of human trafficking (Robinson, 2002). It would be understandable to state that every country in the world is affected by the phenomenon of human trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination. It is both a national and transnational crime that has become more prevalent with the coming into place the idea of globalization of society (DeStefano, 2007). Fair-mindedly, despite increased attention and response to the subject of human trafficking lately, the empirical state of the literature has seen only marginal, leaving the magnitude of the problem unknown especially child trafficking. Trafficking in children, or child trafficking, is human trafficking, but refers to persons under the age of 18. Children are trafficked globally and domestically for labor, sex, and lately traded for many purposes including ritual uses. Child sex trafficking is a particularly intolerable form of human trafficking due to the natural and inherent vulnerability of children (ILO, 2008; Vieth & Ragland, 2005) and represents a severe form of child maltreatment (Estes & Weiner, 2005). In many countries around the globe, it is illegal to lure, transport, or obtain a child for the purposes of prostitution or any other illegal activity.

In contemporary times, child trafficking narratives are pervaded by the notion of victimhood, conveying representations of helplessness, vulnerability and lack of agency. This position confirms why children have become vulnerable to trafficking through a wide variety of factors at the individual, family, community and societal levels. Given that trafficking generally constitute one of the most degrading abuses of human rights today, the activity gives rise to numerous inhuman treatments and abuse of human rights in the society (Ellen, 2013). Put differently, trafficking of human persons often gives rise to the violation of other rights of the victims and sometimes, the commission of other crimes against the victims. With specific reference to Nigeria, it must be noted that the most vulnerable groups are the women and children who are usually trafficked for the purposes of prostitution, begging, domestic servitude and other types of criminal intended purposes. In recent years, traffickers in Nigeria have also introduced a supplementary dimension to the perverse business of exploiting victims for commercial purposes. Here, human new-borns are turned into commodities where they are treated as economic animals such as chickens, pigs, goats and cows. This is successfully done by the use of deceit, coercion or obtaining consent by fraud and undue influence to keep young pregnant girls or abduct and kidnap young girls and have them impregnated while being held hostage by the abductors (Laden, 2007).