COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The Covid-19 pandemic came with its attendant challenges cutting across all sectors of human endeavors. One thing that the pandemic has done is to exacerbate situations and make the vulnerable more vulnerable. Take for instance in the aspect of health, research has shown that elderly people and all those whose immune systems are weak and those with underlying health conditions constitute high risk population and are prone to contracting the virus. In the sector of economy, with the total lockdown in many countries, many businesses have crashed, many people became homeless and in extreme cases, some countries ran into recession. Socially, the pandemic still continues to wreak havoc on the psychology of people, driving some people into depression and in some cases attempted suicide. Summarily, the virus has made weak people weaker and the exploited prone to more dangerous exploitation.

It will be totally out of place to think that a pandemic that has so much effect on every sphere of life will not also extend its long arms to human trafficking. Suffice is to say that Covid-19’s global impact presents the opportunity for human trafficking in various forms to flourish.