[This is a copy of an email sent earlier in the week to NPR's Morning Edition in hopes that their week long series on the oil industry in Nigeria would include some information on human trafficking in Nigeria.
While I did not hear a discussion about trafficking in Nigeria, NPR very prominenty reported on corruption in Nigeria's oil industry, as well as the ecological devastation the industry has caused.
Friday's report discussed the ongoing corruption investigation into a Halliburton subsidiary, associated with the ELF Oil scandal being investigated in France.]
[update: In this letter I wrongly stated that President Bush dedicated almost 20 minutes of his 2004 address to the United Nations to the issue of human trafficking. I wrote that President Bush felt human trafficking was the third most important "global problem" preceded in importance only by WMD and HIV/AIDS.
In actuality, the speech I was referring to was President Bush's 2003 address to the UN. In this speech President Bush dedicated the end of his 25 minute speech to the issue of human trafficking; focusing primarily on trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. In this speech President Bush stated that "First, we must stand with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq", the second matter of importance was the proliferation of WMD, followed by HIV/AIDS. After these points he brought up the “humanitarian crisis spreading, yet hidden from view� -human trafficking. President Bush also addressed the UN on September 2004. In this 2004 address he touched upon human trafficking as well.]
I am writing in response to your series on Nigeria and the oil industry in Nigeria.
I am an independent producer who has been researching human trafficking. I have produced a short piece on this subject for Chicago Public Radio, WBEZ.
I write in hopes that NPR will consider including human trafficking in its series on Nigeria, if it hasn't done so already.
The aforementioned radio piece centered around a small group in Antwerp, Belgium that assists women from Nigeria working in prostitution. Most of the women this group assists fit the definition of a victim of human trafficking. I have included a link to the piece at the end of this email.
Many human trafficking experts consider Nigeria to be one of the largest source countries for victims of human trafficking.
An odd phenomenon for such a natural resource rich country.
Some organized crime experts have proposed that Nigeria is home to the world's most sophisticated drug trafficking network. They believe that this network has branched out into the smuggling of people, throughout the globe. Those that use these networks can incur debts as high as $40,000 - $50,000 USD.
NPR listeners might find it worthwhile to learn that although Nigeria has such a well known human trafficking problem, it has maintained a tier 2 rating in the US State Department's annual Global Report on Human Trafficking.
Some human trafficking experts consider this a sad hypocrisy within the United States' current counter human trafficking policies.
On Monday morning you touched loosely upon the large amounts of money that "disappear" in Nigeria's government.
In your reporting on Nigeria and the oil industry in Nigeria, NPR listeners may be interested to learn more about how corruption contributes to displacement in peoples throughout the world, leading to the drive to migrate, and ultimately the increased potential for becoming ensnared within a human trafficking network.
Transparency International, a group featured on various NPR and PRI shows, dedicated several pages in its 2004 Global Corruption Report to the ongoing ELF Nigerian oil corruption investigation, entitled "The Elf trial: political corruption and the oil industry".
The Guardian UK referred to this scandal as "perhaps the biggest financial scandal in western democracy since the end of the Second World War."
In connection to the Elf scandal, NPR audiences may be interested in learning that US based Halliburton has acknowledged that improper payments "may have been made" to Nigerian officials through a consortium, of which it was a member.
In relation to this matter, the Department of Justice and the SEC continue their investigations into potential violations, by Halliburtun, of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with subpoenas issued as recently as last Friday [Aug 19].
As your listeners are most likely aware of, through your reporting on the G8 meeting in Scotland, one of the primary conditions President Bush made for giving additional aid to Africa, was Africa's need to address corruption.
As your listeners might also be aware of, President Bush dedicated almost 20 minutes of his 2004 address to the United Nations to the need for the world to take on the problem of human trafficking. Human trafficking he stated, was the third most important "global problem" requiring "global solutions". President Bush felt human trafficking was preceded in importance only by WMD and HIV/AIDS.
NPR has reported on the numerous accounting discrepancies of Iraqi war contracts of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR.
NPR listeners may find it equally of worth to learn that in a separate Nigerian financial scandal, US based Halliburton acknowledged in an SEC filing that "…payments were made to obtain favorable tax treatment..." In the late 1990s, its subsidiary Kellog, Brown & Root had improperly paid a Nigerian government official $2.4 million dollars in order to evade paying an estimated $5 million in Nigerian taxes.
Along with gaining greater insight into the economic conditions of countries where their gasoline and oil come from, NPR listeners, who have become familiar with human trafficking through your reporting, may be equally as interested in seeing connections between western company practices, western international policy, and some of the conditions that contribute to increased irregular migration, and, in many cases, human trafficking.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email.
All the best.
Aden Rae
Editor
www.tradio21.org
As mentioned, the piece on human trafficking and the group in Antwerp, Belgium was aired June 16th on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview.
http://www.wbez.org/audio_library/wv_rajun05.asp#16
The piece is the fourth from the top of the June 16th show heading, entitled "Trafficking of Women in Belgium".
