‘Do not employ underage children as domestic servants’

There is a lot of awareness on trafficking. Before WOTCLEF started not many knew that people were being trafficked or that it is a crime. But today I must say there is a lot of awareness because in each state of the federation, it may not have reached everybody but there is some form of awareness on trafficking in Nigeria.

Now with NAPTIP on ground, many traffickers have been prosecuted. Many of them are behind bars so even though we have not reached there, we are taking  steps to reach the stage where we can minimize it. I have always said you cannot completely eradicate trafficking in persons  because it is a crime and crimes are committed by human beings and as long as there are human beings, there will be crime.  All we need to do is to reduce or minimize the crime. Trafficking is also being addressed squarely by the government and civil society organizations in Nigeria.

Child labour is that labour that deprives children of being children. It deprives them of going to school, affects their physical and psychological growth and even their emotional growth. People always confuse child labour with child work. But they are not the same. Children can help their parents at home, sweep, wash and do other chores, that is part of socialization  and it is different. Child labour on the other hand is  not commiserate with the age of the child and deprives him or her of play, education and other things he needs while growing up.

In WOTCLEF, we are doing a lot in creating awareness, we create awareness amongst the children on what constitutes child labour and we target the parents and talk to them not to allow their children to engage in child labour. We talk to the teachers too and also have what we call WOTCLEF anti trafficking Brigades. Trafficking can also be for  labour so we educate and sensitize the children to know what child labour is and why they should not be used for it. We sensitize them to know their rights because child labor is an infringement on their rights and if they know that their rights are being violated, they can speak out.

There is no one- half compliance to the law because many people go under the guise of not being aware of the law. The Child Rights Act is very clear on who a child is and it states that no child should be employed to work in any capacity outside his or her home and there is punishment for the practice.  In some instances, the children have already been trafficked before engaging them in child labour. Maybe that child has been trafficked from the rural area to the urban centre and the child is now  forced to do  domestic work. That is exploitation and child labour which are all criminal activities and the law prohibits that.

Well those states give reasons why they have not passed the law like culture, religious and so on but no State has come out to say that they want their children to be abused or that their children should not be protected. So the states which have not passed the Child Rights Act should do so and if there are certain aspects of the Act that does not tally with their culture and religion, they should just modify it and have something that will protect their children instead of leaving it completely out.

The Minister of Women Affairs is doing  a lot  to ensure those states yet to pass it do so. The states yet to do so are mostly in the North and some states in the South-East. It is sad such states have not adopted the Act, and yet they want their children to be protected. It is the law that will protect those children.

When trafficked persons are returned, the public should try as much as possible to embrace them. They should not look at trafficked persons as criminals. They are victims, it doesn’t matter how old they are or whether they are children or adults because the trafficking practice itself is based on deceit and lies. So trafficked persons should be properly taken care of and accepted by the society.

Secondly, I want to urge parents especially those that are in the rural areas not to give out their children to anybody. People come with all sorts of false promises like ‘I will take your child to Abuja, I will send your child to school, I will do this  or that,’ and because of poverty parents will readily give out  their children. I think parents should stop doing that. I also want to call on the elites in the country and people in the cities to stop using children as their domestic helps. Bringing children to the cities and employing them as house helps  is wrong. They can employ adults not children.