The phenomenon of the trafficking of women, especially of youngudgirls and women into exploitative sexual and commercial labor, has recentlyudbegun to attract local, national and international attention from world leaders,udacademics, the mass media, advocacy groups, the clergy and humanity inudgeneral. This is against the back drop of the fact that the trafficking of womenudhas a number of far-reaching socio-economic, health and political consequences.udSeveral factors, among them poverty, unemployment, ignorance and family sizeudhave been implicated as being reasons why women fall easy preys to the anticsudof traffickers. From available statistics, we can say that about 500,000 womenudare brought into the United States of America and Europe yearly for sexual anduddomestic servitude. Of the over 70,000 African victims of women trafficking,udNigerian women account for 70 percent of those trafficked to Italy alone. Fightingudthe menace requires a coordinated and concerted push from all stakeholders. Thisudpaper presents the causes and consequences of the trafficking of women fromudNigeria to America and Europe. Empirical evidence indicates that the activitiesudof traffickers, corrupt embassy officials, the country’s porous borders, poverty,udrefusal of victims to expose traffickers, delay in prosecuting apprehended culpritsudand biting youth unemployment have “conspired” to undermine the battle againstudthe illicit trade. The paper makes far-reaching recommendations about how toudmitigate the identified obstacles.
展开▼
