By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Editor Copy
Crackdown on traffickers reduced illegal migration from Morocco to Spain in the first half of 2019 to 12,053 from 26,890 in the same period last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Official figures show that by June, Morocco – now the main departure point for illegal migration from Africa to Europe – had stopped more than 30,000 people from illegally crossing to Spain and thwarted 60 trafficking networks.
A new campaign against Nigerian women and young girls going to prostitute themselves abroad has shifted from relating horror stories to telling how they can acquire skills to create jobs at home.
Setting free 10,000 people daily from forced labour
However, 10,000 people would need to be freed every day to eliminate modern slavery over the next decade, according to research showing countries making little or no progress in efforts to end forced labour.
Less than half of countries rank forced labour as a crime and most do not regard forced marriage as a crime, said the report by the Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery group based in Australia.
More than 40 million people are estimated to be captive in modern slavery, which includes forced labour and forced marriage, according to Walk Free and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Ending modern slavery by 2030 was one of the global goals adopted unanimously by members of the United Nations four years ago.
But at today’s rate, achieving that goal is “impossible”, the report said. It would require freeing some 10,000 people each day for the next decade, it said.
“At current progress, we will not be able to eradicate modern slavery by 2030,” Katharine Bryant, research manager at Walk Free, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The group assessed 183 governments on such factors as the identification of slavery survivors, criminal justice, support systems and efforts to clean up supply chains.
The report said
- The worst countries for modern slavery are North Korea and Eritrea, where governments are complicit in forced labour.
- Libya, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo, Russia and Somalia fail to take action on ending slavery.
- Wealthy countries that have taken little action are Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, Brunei, Hong Kong, and Russia.
- Some countries have slowed or slipped backward in their efforts by reducing the number of victims identified, decreasing anti-slavery funding or cutting back on support systems.
- An estimated 16 million people are trapped in forced labour, but only 40 countries have investigated public or business supply chains to look at such exploitation.
- In nearly 100 countries, forced labour is not considered a crime or is a minor offence. About a third of countries ban forced marriage.
- Georgia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Moldova, Ethiopia and Mozambique are notable for taking steps to end modern slavery despite their limited resources, it said.
Walk Free urged governments to measure the extent of slavery within their countries as a necessary step toward eradication.
“Ten thousand a day is massive, but a government can eradicate slavery by the hundreds of thousands in strokes,” said Andrew Forrest, founder of Walk Free.
Nigeria’s new campaign against human trafficking
In March this year, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) began a new approach to preventing women’s exploitation abroad by sharing inspirational stories of women who made it at home.
A ‘Not for Sale’ campaign was rolled out with posters, television, and radio adverts in which women talk about how they were tempted by Europe but instead pursued their dreams and found success in Nigeria.
They end with the statement “I am not for sale”.
Thousands of Nigerian women and girls are lured to Europe each year by the promise of work, but end up trapped in debt bondage and forced to sell sex, the UN says.
Most prevention campaigns in Nigeria have focused on the horror stories and dangers of trafficking, but this has proved ineffective, said Richard Sandall of Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), supports the campaign.
“As we were developing this proposal we began to hear stories that actually these negative stories were almost reinforcing the urge to go,” Sandall, who works on anti-slavery activities in Nigeria, told the Thomas Reuters Foundation.
He added that suffering was seen as a kind of sacrifice or rite of passage.
“We wanted to create a different narrative. We don’t know if it’s going to work.”
The campaign includes a website with links to women’s empowerment groups, job sites and entrepreneurship programmes, and a form where people can submit their own success stories.
“When I finished secondary school, things were so tough for my family that when my friend suggested crossing to Europe to make some money, I was tempted,” writes a woman named Gladys.
“But I’d also heard of what many do to make it… and I didn’t want to be treated like a slave,” she says in one of the featured stories. She is now a fashion designer.
But one activist said she feared the campaign could be ineffective.
“It’s not that people who were trafficked haven’t considered opportunities at home,” explained Anna Sereni of Anti-Slavery International.
“Instead, it’s the lack of those opportunities and desperation for better lives that pushes people into taking these risky decisions to travel into the unknown.”
However, NAPTIP Director General, Julie Okah-Donli, said she thought the campaign had great potential.
“We hope to achieve empowerment of victims and potential victims of trafficking, which is key, and to also put out information about opportunities in the country to show there are better alternatives,” she enthused.
Trauma of sex slavery
In July, the UK Home Office faced criticism over its policy on women trafficked from Nigeria to Europe.
A section of a policy document updated in June by the UK immigration agency said that while victims face the risk of being trafficked again to pay off debts owed to their traffickers, those who become “wealthy from prostitution” were being celebrated on their return.
The policy document cited the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) as one of its sources and claimed that “trafficked women who return from Europe, wealthy from prostitution, enjoy high social-economic status and in general are not subject to negative social attitudes on return.
“They are often held in high regard because they have improved income prospects.”
NAPTIP Head of Research, Godwin Morka, said it was “disappointing” that the UK Home Office would suggest that victims were profiting from their exploitation.
“The victims have been exploited and tricked in the first place. They are not the traffickers, who make money from enslaving them. There is nothing glamorous about it and by the time we rescue them they are so traumatised,” he insisted.
The Home Office countered that the assessment “accurately” reflects findings from two credible sources – the EASO and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“As the assessment also makes clear, each case must be considered on the facts in the context of the available country information and relevant case law.
“Where a female victim of trafficking is vulnerable to serious harm she will usually be granted protection,” a Home Office spokesperson said.
“In light of these concerns, we will however review the text of the assessment to avoid it being misinterpreted by decision makers.”
Morenike Omaiboje, Director of Programmes for the Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), an organisation rehabilitating trafficked women, said there are many forms of human trafficking in the country.
Most victims become impoverished on their return to the country having being sold into slavery abroad, but some make money off recruiting girls into prostitution rings in Europe.
“The majority of the victims that we meet at the borders and airport are wretched, especially those who were enslaved are wretched.
“But some are the madams, who were trafficked many years back, but got recycled, and they are now rich because they are enslaving others,” Omaiboje said.
Crackdown in Morocco
Last year, Morocco became the main departure point for migrants to Europe, overtaking Libya where the coast guard has prevented more departures with help from the European Union (EU).
Morocco is only 14 kilometres south of the Spanish coast, and shares land borders with the small Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta on its northern coast, which are surrounded by a six metre-high fence topped with razor wire.
Under a new crackdown this year, authorities are sending undocumented migrants they pick up to southern towns, far from the land and sea borders with Spain.
They are also clearing migrant camps in the forests and halting the sale of dinghies and inflatables.
Morocco is also about to complete a new three metre-high fence within its own territory around Ceuta to deter crossings, according to residents near the enclave.
“Authorities conduct surprise raids to comb the forests looking for us, therefore we have to sleep in a spot where we can anticipate their arrival and run before they catch us and send us south again,” said Ismail, 26, a Senegalese migrant.
He and other migrants live from begging, and wait for their chance to jump the fence surrounding Ceuta.
“We do not have 3000 euros ($3,360) to pay smugglers for a sea crossing to Spain,” Ismail added.
He made his way back north hiding even deeper in the forests and avoiding walking in the streets by daylight.
“Our brothers who crossed to Spain are now having a good life,” said Ibrahim from Guinea Conakry, showing scars on his hand from a failed attempt to jump the fence last year.
The displacement campaign has drawn criticism from rights groups such as ASCOMS, a coalition of 27 Sub-Saharan civil society non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Authorities say they take migrants south to protect them from smugglers and prevent migrants from storming the borders with Ceuta and Melilla.
50,000 migrants find home in Morocco
Crossing to Europe has become harder, so many Africans are now deciding to stay in Morocco and seek work, benefiting from a legalisation policy launched by Morocco in 2013.
Over 50,000 migrants, 75 per cent of whom are from Sub-Saharan Africa, obtained residency cards since 2013, according to official figures.
After five years in Morocco, Sonya, 35, from Cameroon, gave up on the idea of reaching Europe. She now sees in Morocco a home for her and her daughter Salma, who attends a local school.
Sonya told Reuters she is taking a training course with a local NGO, hoping to boost her chances of finding work.
But work is not easy to find in an economy where informal labour abounds and the unemployment rate stands at 10 per cent, with one in four young people jobless.
Ahmed Skim from Morocco’s migration ministry said state agencies could help migrants find work, and some 400 were employed in the private sector.
Moroccan schools received 5,545 children of migrants in 2018, while Moroccan hospitals treated 23,000 migrants.
Most migrants work in the informal sector doing low-paid jobs shunned by Moroccans, however.
The President of Tangier region, Ilyas El Omari, urged the EU to help Morocco and his region integrate migrants through training programs and investment to create jobs and avoid tension between locals and migrants.
The EU promised last year to give 140 million euros in border management aid to Morocco.
For Ismail, only Spain will do, however.
“I want to go to Europe for better living standards and better jobs. Salaries are not that good here,” he said.
“We are exhausted, but we will continue trying to get to Spain.”
