Civic Education · Lesson 7

Human trafficking and HIV/AIDS

WAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

WAEC: meaning, causes, effects, efforts of government and individuals to stop it (NAPTIP); Topic 11 HIV/AIDS: meaning, causes and modes of transmission, symptoms and effects, prevention, stigmatisation and care of people living with HIV

NECO: meaning, causes, effects, efforts of government and individuals to stop it (NAPTIP); Topic 11 HIV/AIDS: meaning, causes and modes of transmission, symptoms and effects, prevention, stigmatisation and care of people living with HIV

What you will learn

Define human trafficking and distinguish it from smuggling.
Identify the forms, causes and effects of human trafficking.
Explain the efforts of government, NAPTIP, NGOs and individuals to combat trafficking.
Define HIV and AIDS and explain the modes of transmission.
State the symptoms and effects of HIV/AIDS on individuals and the nation.
Explain prevention, care and the evils of stigmatisation.

Key points

Human trafficking: recruiting, moving or holding people by force, fraud or deception for exploitation (Palermo Protocol, 2000); act + means + purpose.
For children, the means element is not required; trafficking can happen within a country.
Forms: sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude, child begging, organ removal, baby factories, debt bondage.
Causes: poverty, unemployment, ignorance, greed, peer/family pressure, weak enforcement, conflict, demand.
Effects: harm, trauma, STIs, loss of education; national image and human resources damaged.
NAPTIP (14 July 2003; Act 2015): prevention, protection, prosecution, partnership; also s.34, Child’s Rights Act 2003, VAPP Act 2015.
HIV attacks the immune system; AIDS is its advanced stage (recognised 1981; Nigeria first case 1986).
Transmission: unprotected sex, infected blood, shared sharps, mother to child; not casual contact or mosquitoes.
Prevention: ABC, blood screening, sterile instruments, PMTCT, PEP/PrEP; ART controls HIV but there is no cure.
Stigma discourages testing and treatment; HIV and AIDS (Anti-Discrimination) Act 2014 protects PLHIV; NACA coordinates the response.

Start here: Meaning of human trafficking

A young woman in a small town is told by a "kind aunty" that a hair salon job in Europe pays well. Her passport is arranged, and she is driven north. Weeks later she is stranded in another country, her passport taken, told she owes a huge "debt" and forced into prostitution. This is human trafficking: it often begins with a promise.

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or by giving payments to a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

This definition follows the UN Palermo Protocol (adopted in 2000), which Nigeria has ratified. It has three elements:

Act: what is done (recruiting, transporting, harbouring, receiving).
Means: how it is done (force, fraud, deception, abuse of vulnerability).
Purpose: why it is done (exploitation).

For a child (under 18), the "means" element is not needed: recruiting or moving a child for exploitation is trafficking even if no force or deception is used. The consent of a victim to the intended exploitation is irrelevant once any of the means has been used.

Trafficking versus smuggling

Human trafficking	Migrant smuggling
Victim does not truly consent (or consent is obtained by deception)	Migrant consents and pays to be moved
Exploitation continues after arrival	Relationship usually ends at the destination
Can happen within a country	Always involves crossing a border
Crime against a person	Crime against a state’s border laws

Worked example 7.1

A 15-year-old girl agrees to go with a man from her village to work as a house help in Lagos, where she is unpaid and not allowed to go to school or leave the house. Is this trafficking?

Act: she was recruited and transported.
Purpose: exploitation (unpaid domestic servitude).
She is a child, so the means element is not needed and her "agreement" does not matter.

Yes, it is internal child trafficking.

Try it yourself. Name the three elements of human trafficking.

Show solution

Act, means and purpose.

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Practice questions

1. Human trafficking is

recruiting or moving people by force or deception for exploitation
legal migration
tourism
sending children to school

Show answer

A: recruiting or moving people by force or deception for exploitation
Act + means + purpose.

2. The agency that fights human trafficking in Nigeria is

NDLEA
NAFDAC
NACA
NAPTIP

Show answer

D: NAPTIP
Established in 2003.

3. NAPTIP was established on

10 December 1948
1 October 1960
14 July 2003
26 June 1989

Show answer

C: 14 July 2003
Its law was re-enacted in 2015.

4. Which is a form of human trafficking?

Legal adoption
Forced labour and domestic servitude
Paid holiday travel
University admission

Show answer

B: Forced labour and domestic servitude
Also sexual exploitation and child begging.

5. A major cause of human trafficking is

poverty and unemployment
good jobs at home
strong laws
education

Show answer

A: poverty and unemployment
Victims seek better lives.

Key words

Human trafficking: Recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by threat, force, fraud or deception for exploitation.
Smuggling of migrants: Helping a person to cross a border illegally for payment; unlike trafficking, the person consents and the relationship usually ends at the border.
Exploitation: Using a person unfairly for another’s gain, e.g. forced labour, prostitution, servitude or organ removal.
Forced labour: Work obtained from a person under threat of penalty and without free consent.
Debt bondage: Forcing a person to work to pay off a debt that is made impossible to clear.
NAPTIP: National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Nigeria’s lead anti-trafficking agency.
Palermo Protocol: The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000).
HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which attacks the body’s immune system.
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the advanced stage of HIV infection.
Opportunistic infection: An infection, such as tuberculosis, that takes advantage of a weakened immune system.
ART: Antiretroviral therapy: medicines that suppress HIV and keep the immune system strong.
PMTCT: Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

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