PERCEPTION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS ABOUT CHANGES IN THEIR HOUSEHOLDS’ SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA
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Date
2017
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Publisher
Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology
Abstract
Human trafficking has been described as “modern day slavery” whereby people are coerced or deceived through
promises of good jobs and career opportunities to move out of their communities to ‘work’ outside the country
or in cities. This study was carried out to investigate the socioeconomic implications of human trafficking on the
wellbeing of affected households. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select 250 out of 926 victims of
trafficking identified working as domestic servants, plantation workers, food vendors, shop keepers and other
forms of menial jobs in the study area. More than half (55.2%) of the respondents were females and mostly
single (82.8%). Majority (90.8%) of the respondents earned a monthly income of less than ₦5000 before
trafficking, which is an indication of their low level of income and poverty situation. Average family size of
respondents was seven, 42.8% of them had only primary education while 31.2% went through adult literacy
programmes. More than half (52.0%) of the respondents had low perception of their contribution to household
socioeconomic status. There was a significant relationship between respondents’ frequency of contact with
households and change in household wellbeing (r = 0.520, p = 0.000). The result also shows a significant
difference between Oyo, Ogun and Lagos states in perception of victims on change in the households’
socioeconomic status (F=3.00, P<0.05).The study concluded that perception of trafficking victims about change
in their households’ socioeconomic status is low as a result of less frequent contact with households during the
trafficking period.