If you thought that slave trade was only a nineteenth century tyranny by the white masters of Africa then you are mistaken because slave trade continues even these days, but the perpetrators of the crime have changed. The 21st century slave trade focuses mainly on children from impoverished and illiterate African families and the traders are their African brethren who sell these children to African families in U.K.
Parents in Nigeria are cajoled to sell their children to families in U.K, convincing better lives for the children in the country. Poverty and illiteracy make parents in African countries such as Nigeria to sell children for ₤2,000 to ₤5,000 each. Many pregnant teenage girls even sell their babies before they are born for less than ₤1,000. International traffickers often earn as much as ₤6,000 every week trafficking children from Africa to Europe. Once these children are brought to Britain, fraudulent means are used to obtain illicit housing and other welfare benefits. They are sold to African homes or to criminal gangs where they are made to work for up to 18 hours a day and are subjected to physical and sexual abuses. Once these children grow older and are no longer entitled to any benefit, they are thrown out on to the streets with no papers to prove their identity.
Nigeria has emerged as a flourishing market for child trafficking. In January this year, the Nigerian police rescued 105 children who were found packed on a lorry and were being trafficked to serve as beggars or servants. Globally, child trafficking is one of the fastest growing organized crime. According to the UNICEF, every year 1.2 million children become victims of child trafficking, of whom 32 percent are Africans. According to a national survey conducted by the International Labour organization in 2003, it is estimated that six million Nigerian children are at a risk of trafficking for domestic and forced labour, prostitution and pornography every year. With majority of the population in the country living on less than $1 per day, human trafficking is becoming wide spread in Nigeria.
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This story quickly brings up a lump in the throat. Human trafficking is one of the more blatant transnational crimes. Middlemen of such a trade cash in on the poverty of people. Evil is so busy.