ABSTRACT
This study investigated the
influence of schooling, gender and location on adolescents’ knowledge and attitude
towards child trafficking in Edo State. The study employed the descriptive
study based on the survey research design. The population of this study
consisted of in-school and out-of-school adolescents within the age bracket of
15 years to 18 years old in Edo-State. A sample of 1198 adolescents who
comprised 1034 in-school and 164 out-of-school adolescents were drawn (based on
purposively sampling Technique) from the three senatorial districts of Edo -
State. Eight research questions and six hypotheses were raised for the study.
The instrument used in this study was a rating scale titled “Adolescents’
knowledge and Attitude towards child trafficking (AKATCT)” which was completed
by the respondents. In order to ascertain the reliability of the entire instrument,
Spearman Brown “r” formula was applied and it showed reliability co-efficient
of 0.88 for Cluster B and 0.92 for Cluster C, which revealed that the items in
the instrument were reliable. Data were collected and analyzed using
percentages, mean and t-test. The analysis of their responses showed that:
Majority of the adolescents had adequate knowledge of child trafficking.
In-school and out-of-school adolescents in Edo State do not significantly
differ in their knowledge of child trafficking. Rural adolescents had higher
level of knowledge of child trafficking than urban adolescents. Female
adolescents had higher level of knowledge of child trafficking than their male
counterparts. Majority of the adolescents had unfavourable attitude towards
child trafficking. Unfavourable attitude to child trafficking was more among
in-school and male adolescents than their out-of-school and female mates
respectively. Urban adolescents possessed high unfavourable attitude to child
trafficking than their colleagues in rural areas. Based on the findings, the
study recommended, among others, that school counsellors, parents/guardians,
teachers, Non Governmental Organizations and all stakeholders should wage war
against child trafficking by upholding and functionalizing all Government’s
policies geared towards eradicating the root causes of trafficking.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Child trafficking has become an
issue of perennial concern to all who uphold human dignity as sacred. The high rate
of its occurrence among adolescents has made it an issue of global concern.
Child trafficking means obtaining a child’s consent/approval
deceitfully or forcefully or normally to be recruited, harboured and
transferred from the child’s domicile to another place to be exploited by
another (trafficker) in prostitution, labour or other servitude of any kind and illegal business.
Child trafficking is globally considered as an
illegal trade. This is because the adolescents who are
victims of trafficking are used for commercial sex exploitation (modern day reproductive slavery or modern-day form of
sex slavery) and forced labour (Renton, 2001; Dottridge, 2004; Firoze,
2006; Gbadamosi, 2006). Van (2006)
revealed that increased demand for cheap labour and sex, aided by restrictions
on legal migration possibilities, have opened a niche for traffickers. These
have aided the growth of human trafficking, especially as occasioned by the
current market forces that support such industry.
Trafficking
of human beings in Nigeria has become increasingly worrisome as a result of the
shocking dimensions it has assumed. Although human trafficking is neither alien
nor new in Nigeria, what is striking is the transnational character and the
height the practice seems to have reached in recent times. Nigeria seems to
have become overwhelmingly notorious for human trafficking in Africa. Nigeria
is known as a source, transit and destination country for child trafficking, as
gathered from the situation assessment of child trafficking in Southern Nigeria
by the National Agency for Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons and Other related Matters (NAPTIP) and UNICEF (2004),
which revealed that over 56% of repatriated victims of trans-national
trafficking in Nigeria were children who were engaged mainly in prostitution,
domestic labour (21%) forced labour (15%) and entertainment (8%). Within
Nigeria, trafficking of children was also reported; for forced labour (32%),
domestic labour (31%), prostitution (30%) and entertainment (7%). Evidence available indicates the purpose of
trafficking to includes sexual exploitation, begging, underpaid and exploited
forced labour in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction industries,
domestic service and organ harvesting (United Nations, 2000).
Human trafficking, as a
business in the world today, is one that seems to be very lucrative hence it
has attracted the attention of many adolescents. But it is by no means the
fastest lucrative illegal businesses in the world as Haken (2011) revealed
child trafficking as second only to drug trafficking, another illegal business
in the world today. The lucrative nature of child trafficking was further
buttressed by the instances given by United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2004) that the total revenue that was accruing
annually from trafficking in persons was estimated to be between $5 billion and
$9 billion. It further revealed that 600, 000 – 800, 000
women and children are trafficked annually across international borders. The
vast majority of children trafficked under 18 years are girls while boys
account for only 2% of child trafficking cases. Most of these girls are often
trafficked for sex work in Europe and the Middle East (UNESCO, 2005).
Since
the beginning of the 1990s, human trafficking has become an issue at the United
Nations. Efforts then were not solely geared towards combating trafficking in
girls; rather it was a mission to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. This is
supported by Van (2006) who declared clearly that the two fundamental reasons
for the revival of the fight against trafficking then were the strong feminist
movement at that time as well as the growing concern over HIV/AIDS. By the end
of the 1990s, there was a paradigm shift from the trafficking of the female
folk to trafficking of both males and females. Therefore, in order to curb the
trend, the European Parliament went beyond the traditional female oriented
concept of human trafficking and adopted the term trafficking in human persons
(Van, 2006).
Child
trafficking is in every sense of the word comparable to slave trade. However,
unlike slave trade that trafficked adults, this new form of slavery focuses on
children, showing that while the former was abhorrent, the latter is abominable
and as such is seen and held as human violation of children’s right. These
rights on global acceptance concur with International Human Rights Treaties
that have been adopted since 1956 under the UN Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, Slave Trading and Institutions and Practices similar to Slavery.
Despite the ratification of these treaties, it is sad to know that many
Nigerian youths die while trying to migrate illegally to Spain, Italy, and
other European countries.
Global
consciousness and worry have brought to light the growing phenomenon of child
trafficking, the main form of trafficking in human persons. An estimate of all
trafficked persons globally shows that 35 percent of them are children who are
below eighteen years old (Osita, 2003). Despite existing
local, national and international laws enacted to prevent and stop human
trafficking, the crime seems to have remained unchecked; obviously because the
practice appears to have defiled all the efforts of the relevant law enforcement
agencies (United Nation Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), 2006b).
Arising
from the growing incidents of child trafficking, especially in Nigeria, one
begins to wonder what could be responsible for the increased rate and trend in
child trafficking. The researcher examined the influence of schooling, gender
and location on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child
trafficking. The incidence of child trafficking has striking dimensions since
both adolescents’ in-school (Juveniles or teenagers currently attending schools)
and out-of-school (Juveniles or teenagers currently not attending schools
currently) are involved. There is a popular notion that the victims of child
trafficking appear to be adolescents who are out-of-school which shows that out-of-school
adolescents seems to be more vulnerable to trafficking than those in school.
The fact that they are not in school makes it easier for them to be coerced or deceived
by their traffickers with promises of better life in Europe and big cities. Although
incidents of trafficking in Edo State involve both in-school and out-of-school
adolescents, yet the out-of-school adolescents seem to be more. This study
succinctly examined the school status of adolescents to child trafficking in
order to ascertain the influence on their knowledge of and attitude towards
child trafficking.
Traffickers’
focus is on how to capture beautiful and attractive young female adolescents
for their business. One wonders how they get their prey so easily. These
adolescents believe, from evidence of victims of trafficking, that once one
leaves this country for overseas, especially Europe, that person is already
wealthy. This was the case of the first
sets of the victims of trafficking who were very successful and returned to their
State of origin (Edo) to show off their wealth (Aghatise, 2002). However, there
is a new scandalous trend of trafficking in Edo State which no longer involves
only females but male adolescents. In recent times, it has been noticed that
only girls internally trafficked are further trafficked externally to European
countries as reported by the deported girls themselves. (NAPTIP, 2005). In a bid to understand gender in the network
of trafficking; this refers to male and female with cultural values, roles and
inclinations. The rate of trafficking amongst male and female adolescents’ is
not clear as some areas are dominated by male adolescents while in some females
are predominant. The researcher therefore investigated the influence of gender
on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child trafficking in other to
determine those more prone to become trafficked.
Closely
related to the factor of gender as a likely variable that influences child
trafficking is location of the would-be adolescent victim. Adolescents domicile
has an important role to play in trafficking trade. Oftentimes, adolescents are
trafficked from rural areas into urban cities or across border. Again,
the location of adolescents seems to
influence their recruitment into trafficking especially as poor adolescents
sometimes even volunteer themselves for trafficking due to personal reasons.
Unfortunately, some of the adolescents see trafficking as a form of assistance
by benefactors who mean “well” for them. The recruitment of adolescents in
rural areas is seen to be more rampant than in the urban areas due to the
decline of rural communal life, traditional value system, extended family
setting, occasioned by rapid urbanization, education, globalization and harsh
economic conditions seem to have made rural adolescents more vulnerable to
trafficking than their urban counterparts. People are now concerned mainly with
their nuclear families without having consideration for the extended family and
larger society. This has led to the collapse of extended family system and
community form of solidarity. The collapse of the protective environment seems
to have worsened the situation of vulnerable adolescents, especially that of
female adolescents in the rural areas. It is against this backdrop that the researcher examined how location influences
adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child trafficking.
Adolescents’
attitude towards child trafficking centres on their mindset especially to the
extent they are disposed either positively or negatively based on the knowledge
they have. There are many young people in Nigeria with some level of education,
but have no jobs, they believe that they would get jobs outside Nigerian shores
and this make them very vulnerable to the manipulation of the traffickers who
rely heavily on their unfortunate conditions (NAPTIP, 2005). Most of the
trafficked children are victims of traffickers because they want to go abroad
to search for better employment opportunities. This has led to the craze,
especially among girls, to opt for traveling abroad through sponsors instead of
employing legitimate means. It is on this premise that the researcher
investigated the influence of schooling, gender and location on the knowledge
of and attitude of child trafficking to ascertain the measure of influence the
above variables has on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitudes towards child
trafficking.
Statement
of the Problem
Child
trafficking is a global menace. Trafficking in children
is the foremost human rights violation in the world today, Child trafficking often leads to the violation
of the rights of a child and child abuse such as abandonment of school and
broken homes as well as making them prone to contacting incurable diseases such
as “HIV”, emotional and psychological trauma, violence and are made to work
under dangerous working conditions. Even problems have erupted for young girls
who refused to be lured into trafficking by family members tagging them as
enemies of progress. This is because children have been found to be
vulnerable and helpless. Some key factors that facilitate
trafficking include poverty, female gender, lack of policy and enforcement,
age, migration, displacement and conflict, ethnicity, culture, ignorance of
trafficking methods which facilitate or mitigate adolescents’ vulnerability to
child trafficking.
In addressing
vulnerability of children towards child trafficking, several International Regulations have been laid down to help in
combating the ugly trade of trafficking in children as well as other human
beings. Nigeria as a nation has ratified some of these International
Instruments. In addition, Nigeria has enacted different laws to combat human
trafficking. Among these are the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria (1999), Labour Act (1974), Child Rights Act (2003), National Plan of
Action for Combating Child labour (2000), Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition)
Law Enforcements and Administration (Amendment) Act (2003), Criminal Code (As
applicable in the Southern States of Nigeria) (1990), Penal Code (As applicable
in the Northern States of Nigeria) (1963) and Immigration Act (1990). The Edo
State Government has also passed a law making trafficking in women a punishable
offence known as the Anti Trafficking Law (2002).
Despite these laws and efforts by
government and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOS), there appears to be a rising tide in the ugly trend of trafficking,
especially in children (Global
Alliance against Trafficking in Women, 2001). In fact the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that 75% of trafficking victims are
women and children. Female adult make up 55% to 60% of all trafficked victims
globally, followed by girls at 17%. Alarmingly, the UNODC’s 2007–2010 estimates
reveal a rise in the total percentage of child victims from 20% to 27% (UNODC,
2012).
Every now and then incidents of repatriated
Nigerians, who illegally migrated to countries in Europe, are reported in the
mass media. Most often, those
repatriated are adolescent girls, who narrate different stories of how they
were trafficked to Europe. Even within Nigeria, especially in recent times,
illegal baby manufacturing industries in the big cities where adolescent girls
are illegally kept for sexual exploitations are being uncovered by law
enforcement agents and other security agencies. Many of the girls in these
sexual factories are victims of child trafficking.
Within Nigeria,
children are trafficked due to the great demand for cheap labour in all spheres
of life in urban cities, ranging from domestic servitude, hawking, begging and
employment as bus conductors and street traders. These children are also
employed in cottage industries, brass melting, stone digging, scavenging and
even in agricultural works (UNESCO, 2005). Across the border of Nigeria,
trafficked Nigerian children are purely for prostitution. This is why in most
cases girls are mostly sought after in the trafficking business. It is sad that
despite efforts by government and other stakeholders to stop this illegal
business, trafficking in children continues to thrive in Nigeria, assuming new
trends and dimensions. It is against this backdrop that the researcher investigated the influence of schooling, gender, location
on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child trafficking in Edo
State.
Purpose
of the study
The purpose of this study is to
investigate the influence of schooling, gender and location on adolescents’
knowledge and attitude towards child trafficking in Edo State. Specially, the
study shall:
1. Determine
knowledge of child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
2.
Ascertain attitude towards child
trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
3. Establish the influence of gender on
knowledge of child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
4. Determine the influence of location on
knowledge of child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
5. Find out the influence of schooling on
knowledge of child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
6. Investigate the influence of gender on
attitude towards child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
7. Establish the influence of location on
attitude towards child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
8 Ascertain the influence of schooling
on attitude towards child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State.
Research
Questions
To
guide this study, the following research questions have been raised by the
researcher to investigate the influence of the variables of schooling, gender
and location on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child
trafficking:
1. What is the level of knowledge of child
trafficking among adolescents in Edo State?
2. What
are the attitudes towards child trafficking among adolescents in Edo State?
3. What is the difference in the level of knowledge
of child trafficking between in-school adolescents and out-of-school
adolescents in Edo State?
4. What is the difference in the level of knowledge
of child trafficking between adolescents in urban and rural areas of Edo state?
5. What is the difference in the level of
knowledge of child trafficking between male and female adolescents in Edo
State?
6. What is the difference in attitude towards
child trafficking between in-school and out-school adolescents in Edo State?
7. What is the difference in attitude towards
child trafficking between adolescents in urban and adolescents in rural area of
Edo State?
8. What is the difference in attitude
towards child trafficking between male and female adolescents in Edo State?
Research
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested in
this study at 0.05 level of Significance:
1. There is no significant difference in the
knowledge of child trafficking between in-school adolescents and out-of school
adolescents in Edo State.
2. There is no significant difference in the
knowledge of child trafficking between adolescents in rural areas and those in
urban areas in Edo State.
3. There is no significant difference in
the knowledge of child trafficking between male and female adolescents in Edo
State.
4. There is no significant difference in attitude
towards child trafficking between in- school adolescents and out-of-school
adolescents in Edo State.
5. There is no significant difference in attitude
towards child trafficking between adolescents in rural areas and those in urban
areas in Edo State.
6. There is no significant difference in attitude
towards child trafficking between male and female adolescents in Edo State.
Significance of the Study
The findings of the study in practical
terms will be a working document and a guide to school counsellors, educational
administrators, policy makers, parents, owners of training institutions and all
stakeholders both in the educational and non-educational sector. These will
help to checkmate the vulnerability of adolescents to trafficking in Nigeria.
School counsellors will be equipped
based on the findings of the study to formulate, strategize and implement
relevant guiding principles and counselling techniques that will help eliminate
incidence of child trafficking among secondary school students in Nigeria as a
result of the assertiveness of the adolescents’ knowledge and attitudinal
disposition towards child trafficking in Edo State. The findings of the study
will make counsellors establish private counselling centres in their community
so as to attend to out-of-school adolescents. In other words these centres will
be located outside school environment and for adolescents not attending school
where trafficking issues will be of foremost priority or concern.
Furthermore, the study unfolded schooling,
gender, location as variables that influence adolescents’ knowledge and
attitude towards child trafficking which make young people sometimes susceptible
to either be coerced, deceived or volunteer themselves for trafficking
business, knowing the adolescents’ knowledge and attitude towards child trafficking
will empower administrators formulate policies or put in place machinery that
will help to reduce the problem to its barest minimum in Nigeria.
The findings will better equip
policy makers in the educational sector to formulate and incorporate formidable
policies in the curriculum of learning at all levels to create more awareness
on the meaning and consequences of child trafficking on adolescents’. Such
policies include enlightenment campaigns on assembly ground.
Again, the findings of this study
will prompt government to establish outreach counselling centres (Educational
Counselling Centre) for out-of-school adolescents where they could be taught
and counselled on how they could resist trafficking.
The findings of this study shall explicitly
expose younger people’s knowledge and attitude towards the business of
trafficking. Unraveling these will enable government, school heads/teachers,
students and parents/guardians, and all stakeholders in child’s welfare to
prevent trafficking in children to its barest minimum in Nigeria.
The
implementation of the findings of this study shall benefit all stakeholders
especially in the educational sector such as school counsellors in knowing how
better to help students in school which will eventually influence other
children out-of-school through their peer group associations and wherever they
find themselves in the nearest future as the knowledge gained takes them
through all facet of their lives and makes them agents of change.
Scope
of the Study
This
Study is designed to investigate the influence of schooling, gender and
location on adolescents’ knowledge of and attitude towards child trafficking in
Edo State. It examined child trafficking in all its ramifications (concept,
dimension purpose, consequences). It must be noted that child
fostering/apprenticeship and smuggling of migrants are not within the scope of
this study. The different variables of
this study are limited to schooling, gender and location as they affect the knowledge
and attitude of adolescents towards child trafficking.
This
study did not include junior secondary school students in Edo State because
they might not be so equipped with issues under study. The study focused on
senior secondary school students and their out-of-school counterparts that fall
within late adolescence. For the purpose of this study, the age
limit is between 13-18 years for adolescents.
Assumption
The researcher believed that out-of-school
adolescents in Edo State can read and write as result of the free basic
educational scheme available up to primary school level all over the country. This assumption was correct except two
respondents who could not to read and write.
Operational Definition of Terms
Adolescent:
A teenager being between the ages of thirteen and eighteen years.
Attitude:
A complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to
act in certain ways.
Child
Trafficking: Obtaining child’s consent/approval
deceitfully or forcefully or normally to be recruited, harboured and
transferred from the child’s domicile to another place to be exploited by
another (trafficker) in prostitution or other servitude of any kind and illegal business.
Get-Rich-Quick-Syndrome: Short
cut to wealth.
In-school Adolescents: Juvenile persons (teenagers) who do attend
school currently.
Knowledge:
The psychological result of perception, learning and reasoning (degree of
awareness).
Location:
Urban and rural (geographical areas)
Out-of-school Adolescents:
Juvenile persons (teenagers) who do not attend school currently.
Rural:
An area outside of the Local Government Headquarters.
Urban: Local Government
Headquarter (A geographical area constituting a city).
================================================================
Item Type: Ph.D Material | Attribute: 136 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment