• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, March 5, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

False Promises: Sex Trafficking, Exploitation on the Rise in Africa

Bryan Bowman by Bryan Bowman
01/25/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
Victims of sex trafficking in Mali.

Victims of trafficking in Mali. Photo: AFP

164
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Just over a year ago, Chance, a young Nigerian woman, was approached by some of her neighbors who persuaded her that she should drop out of school and leave her country, offering a tantalizing job opportunity in Malaysia.

“(They told me) I would work in restaurants and they would pay me USD 800 (400,000 CFA) monthly,” she told the International Organization for Migration.

On January 4, 2018, she left her home and everyone she had ever known, hopeful for the chance to create a better, more dignified life for herself.

But to her dismay, she soon realized there was no restaurant job for her in Malaysia. Instead, she was brought to Mali, where she was told she would be working as a prostitute.


Preying on the Vulnerable 

Each year, thousands of other Nigerian women are lured into sex work as traffickers prey on the desperate and vulnerable with false promises.

Since 2017, IOM has reported a massive increase in sex trafficking in the region. Some of the exploited women and girls are ultimately trafficked through Libya to countries all over the globe, while many others, like Chance, are brought to neighboring countries throughout the region like Mali where they become stranded and left with little choice but to do as they’re told.

“The vulnerability of migrants increases along the route of their journeys, especially for women traveling alone,” said Michele Bombassei, IOM’s Specialist on Migrant Protection and Assistance for West and Central Africa.

"We cannot be in denial about this problem any more" – Actress @RichaChadha stars in a new film hoping to shine a light on the global problem of human trafficking.

For more news, head here: https://t.co/iOm40vn1kt pic.twitter.com/389Otrt8ku

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 25, 2019

Prompted by a startling increase in referrals from the government of Mali, IOM is now fighting back, working to identify and protect women and girls who have been trapped into sex slavery with the ultimate goal of returning them home to their communities.

In Mali, IOM has intervened in 260 such cases since 2017, with 238 of the victims originating from Nigeria.  In 2018, the group assisted 188 Nigerian sex trafficking victims, providing them with food, shelter, clothing, and medical and psychological services.

IOM has also been providing training to prosecutors, judges, law enforcement agents, government officials and NGO workers to help them identify and combat sex trafficking in Mali and Nigeria.


Combating Trafficking 

Exploitation in the region is also not limited to sex trafficking.

“We should not think that women only are exposed to abuse. In the case of gold mining, for instance, we witness a large variety of abuse and exploitation, targeting men and women, and unfortunately children,” Bombassei said.

Last December, IOM participated in a fact-finding mission with Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons seeking to gage the full extent of the human trafficking phenomenon in the region.

“We are working closely with NAPTIP, the leading anti-trafficking agency in Nigeria, and our collaboration during the mission is but one step towards the safe return of these victims as well as their proper rehabilitation to prevent further re-trafficking,” Frantz Celestin, IOM’s Nigeria Chief of Mission said.

Even with increased efforts from local and international officials, data and evidence-based research on human trafficking remains lacking.

IOM is now hoping to fill that gap and provide resources to officials so that they can better understand and combat the growing problem with the best possible policies and strategies.


More on the Subject 

In recent weeks, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams in Libya have observed a sharp increase in the number of people held in detention centers.

Refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers intercepted or rescued at sea are being brought back to Libya in violation of international law and returned to overcrowded detention centers with dire living conditions.

Since the country was plunged into chaos following the war that ousted long-time dictator Muammar Gadaffi, Libya has been an epicenter of migrant exploitation and human trafficking and has even seen people sold in open slave markets.

 

Riots, Hunger Strikes Break Out in Libyan Refugee Detention Centers

 

Share164Tweet
Bryan Bowman

Bryan Bowman

Email Bryan at bryan.bowman@theglobepost.com or follow him on Twitter @TGPBryanBowman

Related Posts

Senegalese soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, July 24, 2019.
World

UN Peacekeeper Killed in Mali, Seven Wounded: Spokesman

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2021
Amazighan women with their children. Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP
World

Berbers: North Africa’s Marginalized Indigenous People

by Staff Writer
December 2, 2020
A migrant boat off the coast of Libya.
Refugees

At Least 74 Migrants Dead in Shipwreck Off Libya: UN

by Staff Writer
November 12, 2020
Nigerian protesters blocking the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
World

Unrest in Nigerian City After Deadly Shooting of Protesters

by Staff Writer
October 21, 2020
A soldier patrols by a Central African church
Opinion

Attacks on Religious Leaders in West and Central Africa Must Be Addressed

by Tony Perkins and Fred Davie
September 29, 2020
Cosmas Mutethia's wife (R) wears a mask with her husband's name, who was killed by Kenyan police during a night curfew, as she carries an empty coffin during their protest against police brutality in front of the Kenyan Parliament in Nairobi on June 9, 2020.
Opinion

African Regimes Are Using COVID-19 to Stifle the Third Wave of Protests

by Geebio Gargard
September 15, 2020
Next Post
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Four Scenarios for Venezuela's Growing Political Crisis

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at a naval base in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo State, on January 27, 2019

Is Venezuelan President Maduro's Fate in the Hands of the Armed Forces?

Recommended

Senegalese police intervening a protest in support of the arrested opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in Dakar.

Senegal Clashes Kill One After Opposition Leader Arrest

March 5, 2021
Malika Boumendjel, widow of Algerian lawyer Ali Boumendjel, speaks in a 2001 interview about her husband's death during his detention by the French army.

Algeria Welcomes France’s Admission It Killed Independence Figure

March 4, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.

Attempted US Capitol Coup a Security and Existential Crisis

March 3, 2021
Myanmar police fire water cannon at protesters as they continue to demonstrate against the February 1 military coup.

Six Dead as Myanmar Security Forces Fire at Protesters

March 3, 2021
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018, while he was inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Reporters Without Borders Sue Saudi Prince Over Khashoggi Murder

March 2, 2021
Hatice Cengiz delivers a speech addressing the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Capitol Hill, May 16, 2019.

Khashoggi Fiancée Demands Punishment for Saudi Prince

March 1, 2021

Opinion

Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.

Attempted US Capitol Coup a Security and Existential Crisis

March 3, 2021
What President Biden Should Do About the Uyghur Genocide

What President Biden Should Do About the Uyghur Genocide

March 1, 2021
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) meets with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Khartoum, last August

Sudan’s Normalization With Israel Is a Win for Everyone

February 26, 2021
Stolpersteine in Greifswald, Germany.

I Can’t Mark Where My Grandfather Is Buried, but I Want to Mark Where He Lived

February 26, 2021
Republican Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley

Trump’s Acquittal and Republican Senators: Not Setting the Bar Low Enough

February 22, 2021
Why Not Equality for America’s Puerto Rican Men and Women?

Why Not Equality for America’s Puerto Rican Men and Women?

February 19, 2021
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post