Trafficking in human beings: human rights and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Broadly speaking, poverty, unemployment, socio-cultural practices degrading women,
increase in prostitution, lack of information, gender imbalances, and a high level of
demand for cheap labour as well as sex workers put certain demographic groups at higher
risks of being traffi cked. 17 These are mentioned in all the reports from the pilot studies as
main causes of traffi cking.
Women and children happen to be the main component of this group. In e.g. Lesotho,
persons who fall prey to traffi cking are male and female street children, sex workers and
ordinary women and girls living a normal life in their homes. They are either forcibly
bundled into private vehicles and abducted or voluntarily agree to be taken across the
border on false promises of employment. Others are sex workers who willingly go,
thinking they are dealing with genuine paying clients only to fall prey to violence and
abuse. 18
A number of factors contribute to the phenomenon of traffi cking in human beings, in
particular children, in West Africa. Predominant among these are poverty, large family
size, lack of educational opportunities and lack of employment. Other factors facilitating
traffi cking in persons in Benin, Nigeria and Togo include ignorance on the part of families
and children of the risks involved in traffi cking, the high demand for cheap and submissive
child labour in the informal economic sector, the desire of youth for emancipation
through migration, institutional lapses such as inadequate political commitment, nonexistent
national legislation against traffi cking in human beings, and the absence of a
judicial framework allowing for the perpetrators and accomplices of traffi cking to be
held responsible and punished for their acts. Other contributory factors in traffi cking in
persons in the region include porous borders, corrupt government offi cials, involvement
of international organized crime groups or networks, limited capacity of or commitment
by immigration and law enforcement offi cers to control traffi cking at the borders and lack
of political will or desire to enforce existing legislation or mandates. 19
In the case of women and children traffi cked in the West Africa region, push factors
include the diffi cult socioeconomic environment and deep-rooted, abject poverty,
regional inequalities and inadequate programmes for the creation of employment or
revenue-generating activities, particularly for youth in rural areas. Failure of structural
adjustment programmes to regulate the economic situation and the massive debt of
many countries has resulted in economic decline, placing millions below the poverty line,
and making children and their families vulnerable to forms of exploitation to include
traffi cking. Economic insecurity and poverty are aggravated by political instability and a
lack of accountability of government institutions, which have been either under military
regimes or under one party rule. 20
17 These pull factors are mentioned through all the country reports.
18 UNESCO: Human Traffi cking in Lesotho: Root Causes and Recommendations, p. 26.
19 UNODC: Measures to Combat Traffi cking in Human Beings in Benin, Nigeria and Togo. 2006. p. 11.
20 Ibid. p. 25.
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