Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.6, No.16, 2016 31 Trends of Child Trafficking Situation in Nigeria and A Way Forward Dauda Salihu* Muhammad Chutiyami Department of Nursing Service, Yobe State Hospitals Management Board Damaturu Abstract International and local policies/legislations exist on Child Trafficking. However, it remains a serious public health concern in many parts of the world particularly in developing countries like Nigeria. This paper explores the problem in Nigeria and proffers appropriate solution. It involves illegal recruitment and movement of children for the purpose of exploitation. Different factors predispose to trafficking in the country, mainly due to social, political or economic reasons. Of recent, the phenomenon of Baby factory becomes very common in some parts of the country, leading to young girls mobilized into the trafficking cycle and giving birth to children for sale in black markets. Trafficking occurs either locally within the country or internationally through various routes, across all the geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Various health implications associated with trafficking exist, these include physical, mental or sexual consequences, hence, the article outline existing legislations, barriers and ways of controlling the menace. Keywords: Trends, Child, Trafficking, Situation, Nigeria. 1. Introduction Trafficking is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. It comes with a new trend that’s hard to quantify; children are traffic within and outside Nigeria for many purposes (UNICEF, 2007; Adepoju, 2005; Hassan, 2012; UNICEF, 2006; Adesina, 2014). Furthermore, internally most of the victims are children (Hassan, 2012) whose numbers are not known (Konstantopoulos et al., 2013); it comes with a new trend called baby factory which promotes trafficking in Nigeria (Makinde, 2015). It is a public health challenge affecting the world (Dovydaitis, 2010) with only a few programs to address it (Fong and Cordoso, 2010). Similarly, Bale and Soodater (2009) are of the opinion that the total number of trafficked victims is two times that of olden days' slavery, hence the need to review its impact on the population. Trafficking children is an exploitative act that jeopardizes child survival. Exploitation refers to the use of a person or his properties (resources) for personal gains or benefits (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2015; Macmillan Dictionary, 2015). In an economic point of view, exploitation refers to a central concept in which an institution or organization treats a human being as a resource, with little or no consideration to their wellbeing (Salihu and Ajio, 2009). Furthermore, the use of a child for personal gain or benefit sexually is called child sexual exploitation (Tsutsumi et al., 2007). As stated by Cameron et al., (2015, p.9), in 1996, "the world congress in Stockholm defined commercial sexual exploitation of children as sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object". Equally important, the United Nation Convention on the right of a child (1989) defined a child as a young human being who is below 18 years old. Child right is a human right index in any society today. Correspondingly, article 24 of the international covenant on civil and political rights (1996, p.13) "states that every child shall have the rights to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor on the part of his family, society, and the state". This declaration is not worldwide. Children are traffic within and outside Nigeria for the purpose of exploitation (UNICEF, 2006). This paper aims to examine the situation in the country to (or "intending to") outline specific responses that could be put in place to curtail the menace. We adopted a qualitative search of literature from relevant databases, to extract available evidence that can be used to meet the aim of the review. 2. Key Determinants of Child Trafficking in Nigeria Despite the presence and domestication of international laws, the passage and promulgation of child's right act in 2003 and the Nigerian constitutional laws, human trafficking, served as a good source of income, generating almost 10 billion dollars a year (UNICEF, 2003; Hassan, 2012), the gain in it is much with very few loss (UNICEF, 2006: Makinde, 2015) and that attracted many people to it. Various factors predispose to child trafficking in Nigeria. Some of which are a quest for cheap prostitutes, decay in public institutions, rural-urban migration, poor governance, endemic corruption, change in family size and low level of education as well as the poor economic status of families. Others are old traditional norms that create inequity among children, the porosity of our borders, lack of alternative economic opportunities, devaluation of naira, and change in the trend of household responsibilities to women in some cultures. Furthermore, effects of crisis all over the world as factors that contribute to the vulnerability of Nigerian children (UNICEF, 2007; United State Department of State, 2005; Kazeem, 2009; Konstantopoulos et