Making Sense of the Relationship between Trafficking in Persons, Human Smuggling, and Organised Crime: The Case of Nigeria
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.2011.84.1.507 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Author | Tom Ellis,James Akpala |
| Subject Matter | Article |
TOM ELLIS
Principal Lecturer, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies,
University of Portsmouth
JAMES AKPALA
Former Masters student, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies,
University of Portsmouth
MAKING SENSE OF THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS,
HUMAN SMUGGLING, AND
ORGANISED CRIME: THE CASE
OF NIGERIA
Trade in human beings, and Nigeria’s role in it, is a contested
area. This article first sets out to provide an integrated picture,
from the varied academic and policy output, of human traffick-
ing and smuggling, focused on a market picture that is able to
incorporate both genders and diverse forms of exploitation,
i.e., forced labour, prostitution and domestic servitude. It then
outlines how organised crime operates under this model in the
specific Nigerian context. Finally, the article reports the main
results of a small exploratory study carried out with Nigerian
law enforcement officers who work on the front line in tackling
trafficking and smuggling.
Keywords: human smuggling; human trafficking; law
enforcement; Nigeria; organised crime
Introduction
Trafficking in persons has become more widespread and com-
plex since the end of the Cold War (Truong & Angeles, 2005: 1),
forming what Morrison and Crosland (2000: 5) described as the
‘dark side of globalisation’, with a disproportionate impact on
third world countries ( Parent & Bruckert, 2002: 4). International
Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates suggest that global profits
from trafficking in persons were around $31.6 billion annually
(United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNDOC), 2008: 96)
and the United Nations’ estimates show the profit from trading in
human beings ranks among the top three revenue sources for
The Police Journal, Volume 84 (2011) 13
DOI: 10.1358/pojo.2011.84.1.507
organised crime, after trafficking in narcotics and weapons (US
Department of State (USDS), 2004, cited in Smit, 2004: 25–6).
The article first gives some background and context to
human trafficking and smuggling in general and establishes what
we hope is an integrated set of definitions. We then develop our
model of the relationship between trafficking, smuggling and
organised crime, and define the three key markets involved in
exploiting human capital, before moving on to outline how this
model operates in the Nigerian context, including both internal
and trans-border operations. The final section of the article
reports the main results of a small exploratory study we carried
out with Nigerian law enforcement officers who work on the
front line in tackling trafficking and smuggling.
Background and Context
Trafficking in Nigeria can be viewed from a migration per-
spective, as both legal and illegal forms of migration are driven
by the same factors. The shift is always from more economically
disadvantaged regions to those which are economically more
secure. Even within Nigeria, internal trafficking from rural areas
to metropolitan areas is common (UNODC, 2006a: 29). An
estimated 83% of child victims were trafficked internally for
exploitation in: domestic service; street trading; commercial sex
work; labour on plantations; work in construction, quarries and
mines; and drug trading (Dave-Odegie, 2008: 65).
Since the 1990s, due to lack of opportunity at home, cross-
border trafficking has also increased from Nigeria (Onyejekwe,
2005: 144). Nigerian migrants are driven by a range of ‘push
factors’ to seek the services of traffickers or smugglers, e.g.
poverty, lack of education, lack of parental care, poor social
services, traditional practices and a desire for a higher standard
of living (Maicibi, 2008: 4). Young Nigerians are treated as
commodities to be bought and sold in markets as diverse as
the sex industry, forced agricultural labour and sweatshops
(Nalyvayko, 2006: 8).
Definitions
The failure of organisations and states to agree on the definition
of concepts like ‘trafficking’ ‘smuggling’ and ‘organised crime’
is a major hurdle in dealing effectively with them. Parent and
Bruckert (2002: 5) have collected the plethora of terms used in
different relevant fields of study, e.g. alien smuggling, trafficking
of aliens, illegal migrant smuggling, human trafficking, traffick-
14 The Police Journal, Volume 84 (2011)
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