ABSTRACT
This study was designed to identify factors influencing human trafficking among Secondary school students in Edo State: A case study of Egor local government Area of Edo State. Four research questions were raised and analyzed for the purpose of the study. A random sampling technique was used using two hundred (200) students resident in Egor local government area of Edo state. The data were collected with questionnaire instrument and analyzed using mean and simple percentage.
The result revealed that; poverty contributes to the high rate of human trafficking in Egor local government Area of Edo State, students from large and polygamous families are likely to be victims of human trafficking, unemployment is a major cause of human trafficking, but findings also bare that even people with jobs are also victims of human trafficking because of greed, students in Egor local government Area of Edo State fall for human trafficking because of peer pressure and even pressures social pressures.
Based on the results, it was recommended that concerted efforts must be made to address the root causes of the trafficking of women, which among others are poverty and unemployment. Girls and women are more vulnerable to the false promises of traffickers when they are poor and see very little prospects of moving out of their state of deprivation, a social security policy should be put in place to enhance their access to education by providing them with scholarships. This has the added advantage of making the millennium development goals of ensuring rights for girls and child education acts more reachable, there is an urgent need to develop facilities and social services for the reception, protection and reintegration of trafficked persons to prevent as much as possible the re-trafficking of once trafficked people and finally, the initial policy on education that created 3-3-4 should be strengthening so that students will learn to state being creative and not dependent on “white-collar” job that is not available.
