How do we curb sex-slavery during the

migration crisis from Nigeria to Italy?

Key Terms

"Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the
intentions of settling permanently in the new location. Human trafficking is the
trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery or
commercial sexual exploitation for the traffickers or others. Sex
slavery/exploitation is the sexual abuse of children and youth through the
exchange of sex or sexual acts for drugs, food, shelter, or protection."
en.wikipedia.org
-Sex slavery in Nigeria began in the 1960's after they attained their independence
from Britain. Nigeria had 3 consecutive bloody coups that followed and forced
approximately 1 million Nigerian to migrate out of Nigeria in search of a home.
Most of those Nigerian fled to neighboring countries such as Ghana, Togo, Benin,
Niger and Cote D'ivoire. Nigerian have a history of skepticism and
untrustworthiness. Nigeria is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the
world, if not the most corrupt. Nigeria has a very big gap between the rich and the
poor despite being the richest country in Africa, as a result many Nigerians are
unemployed, have very poor health care, standard of living and no unemployment
benefits. On the other hand Europe has all those things mentioned, including the
welfare system which attracts many migrants to make the torturous journey there.
Due to the inequality in Nigeria crime is very popular and this causes militia
groups to form (Boko Haram) and the reason why the groups retained power is,
because they lured the unemployed by offering food, shelter and money to join. On
the 14-15 April 2014 276 Nigerian female students were abducted from school and
to this date 113 are still missing.

Sex-slavery in Nigeria was formed due to the poor government techniques and
measures to protect women in Nigeria. Therefore many girls migrate in hopes of a
better life, security and to go to school. Mislead by smugglers and sex traffickers,
the Nigerian women migrating without any funds incur debts worth between
40,000-100,000 $. This is to cover their expenses on the journey. Once in Libya
some women are forced to become sex-slaves and others continue their journey to
Italy. Nigeria is in the top 5 countries ranked in asylum seeking, because many of
the migrants traveling have no passport and once their caught they seek asylum
instead. Once they reach Italy sex-traffickers are waiting for them at the ports or
wherever they arrive from.

In the world that we live in today one of the biggest issues we face is inequality.
Especially between Men and Women. In Nigeria gender inequality and inequality
between the rich and poor causes violence to become more wide spread and very
little is being done to ensure that women are secure and safe, which leads many to
either flee or resort to prostitution. Sex-slavery is an industry that generates close
to 10 Billion $ yearly. Stopping sex-slavery throughout the world is a great ask,
there is too much to be done. The problem that we have with sex-slavery is that not
only is derogatory to women it also creates an unbalanced society. The problem
will always remain as long as other countries sit back and do nothing. This issue
should be global and everyone should take part in preventing sex-slavery. Europe
should be the number one concerned Europe tries to prevent these people from
getting the help they deserve by funding the local coast guards in Libya, Morocco
and Algeria to prevent the migrants from crossing to Europe. The truth in fact is
that not only is it Europe's best interest to help find solutions, but also they are the
cause of migration in the first place. If Europe had never colonized these African
countries then left the countries in the hand of Dictators they would not be having
migrants trying to seek asylum in Europe.

So how do we make migration safe and prevent women from being trafficked in
Nigeria? The causes of migration in Nigeria is the safety of women, the inequality
between them, the militia groups still imposing a threat, education, corrupt
government and unemployment. These are the factors that cause many of the
women to migrate in hopes of a better life and as a result they end up becoming
sex-slaves. The solution lies in the problem, because the most influential factor is
the corrupt government. Nigeria needs to re-establish their government and reduce
corruption in the country to become a more stable nation. It is estimated that over
20% of officials in Nigeria are corrupt. These officials are elected into power and
not appointed. According to the world bank there are six strategies every nation
can implement or use to fight of corruption. Firstly paying public servants better,
an example is the ports in Nigeria its estimated that the ports bring in 1 billion in
illegal revenue each year in Nigeria. By paying civil servants well, this will
motivate and create better incentives towards corruption. Secondly, openly
demonstrating government spending. Thirdly, having international conventions
each year to reflect on improvements and the effectiveness of these policies. In
addition, developing technological advancement. By using machines instead of
humans to record books and reports, less falsified information will appear because
machines never make mistakes. Lastly harsh laws should be passed to forbid sex
trafficking. In order to discourage sex-trafficking governments should unite to pass
on laws that restrict, forbid or discourage sex trafficking, and these laws should
make sufficient punishments that discourage sex traffickers and reduce the size of
the large industry.

The reason why our group chose this topic is because all of us come from Africa .
We all have sisters, cousins and mother and we all wish for them to be successful
in life and have equal rights and I believe it would not be fair to mistreat another
sex, because at the end of the day we are all humans. Africa is our home and we
want to help as best we can even if it simply means making people more aware of
the current situation. I personally do not like to see people migrating to Europe,
because I believe the same opportunities in Europe can be achieved right here in
Africa if not more. I firmly believe that sex-trafficking and the migration issue in
Europe will be resolved with time and that soon we will have a better situation of
our own here in Africa.

REFERENCES

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Guardian staff and agencies. Nigeria: Boko Haram releases dozens of

kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls. The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6
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