HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking as defined by Wikipedia is a trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery or commercial sexual exploitation for traffickers and others. It is common in many societies and both children and adults are victims of this barbaric act.

There are many types of human trafficking and they include:

1. Sex Trafficking
2. Trafficking of Children
3. Forced Marriage
4. Labour Trafficking
5. Trafficking for organ trade

I'll emphasize on sex trafficking. I remember watching 'Super Story' TV program titled 'Itohan'. Itohan was told she was going to pursue her football career abroad and that was how they lured her into prostitution. She was sent to Italy and everyday she was forced to warm the beds of her customers who wanted to be sexually satisfied.

These traffickers use scholarship offers as a ploy to get people and afterwards, they send them to a far country where their victims will find it difficult to return from. Most times their victims become depressed and some of them usually get sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Others may get addicted to bad habits like smoking and may end up having lung cancer.

'Left Out' is a poem I wrote about 'Human Trafficking.'

---

Left Out

---

Left out of a journey of paradise
Because everything was a disguise
Left out to see the world on your own
You roam around feeling alone

Left out to be ill treated
Always scolded and defeated
Left out to be harassed and abused
This leaves you completely bemused

Left out of the good things of life
All you do is work and strive
Left out of all the fun days
Everything replaced with painful years

Waking up to realize it wasn’t a dream
Never able to shout and scream
They promised you scholarship to go to school
Now you realize you were a big fool

Leaving your mother’s embrace
You thought you were starting a good race
Going into another country
You thought it was your grand entry

Then you came into realization
That they had no good intention
Everything you were told was a lie
They made up stories for you to comply

Now you’ve become a prostitute
Even with that you are still destitute
Forced to grace the street every night
Your clothes were always skimpy and tight

All your values were drained in the mud
In you they had sown a seed of discord
What you envisaged as your future
Changed and became torture

With a gun in your hand
They all returned to sand
As payment for their wickedness
And their mercilessness