Porous Borders and Human Trafficking in Nigeria

Abstract

Crimes remain products of risk-related events, occurring at a time and place targeted at potential victims. Presently, human trafficking has become a cause of human insecurity, with statistics of related deaths on the increase, alongside relapse into modern slavery. This chapter seeks to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the connections between porous borders and human trafficking in Nigeria and the implications for national security. Firstly, it interrogates the socio-economic causative factors, including poverty as a major driving force for undocumented migration. Secondly, it explores the issue of security governance of borderlands and the capacity of border security agencies to contain identified challenges, and, thirdly, it provides an understanding of the enormity of the problems through analysis of the institutional gaps and what needs to be done to reduce the surge in human trafficking in Nigeria and beyond. The chapter proffers a regional approach to disrupt the supply chain, including synergy in countermeasures.