FJA 2020 Shortlist
Category: Outstanding Contribution to Peace
Philip Obaji (Nigeria)
The Child Refugees ‘Sold’ Through Facebook
Sahara Reporters
December 31, 2019
The original publication is available via the following link: http://saharareporters.com/
Having fled the conflict in Cameroon's English-speaking regions, a number of Cameroonian child refugees are becoming victims of human trafficking, including being marketed as maids through Facebook
For over a week in December, Stan Wantama used his Facebook page to upload photographs of teenage Cameroonian girls, who fled the conflict in their country's Anglophone regions to border communities in southern Nigeria, as he sought interest from people willing to pay to have them as maids.
In one post, he put up a photograph of a young girl he said was 16 years of age and asked Facebook users interested in having her as a maid to contact him by sending a private message via the social media platform or through an email he displayed in the post.
In another post, Wantama uploaded an image of a girl he claimed is “intelligent, hardworking and about 17,” and asked persons interested in hiring her as a maid to “inbox me.”
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