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Women and Women's Rights

Human Trafficking Isn’t Just Morally Repugnant. It’s Also a Security Threat.

<p>#BringBackOurGirls campaigners raise candles during a candle light gathering marking the 500th day since the abduction of girls in Chibok, Nigeria. August 27, 2015. </p>
#BringBackOurGirls campaigners raise candles during a candle light gathering marking the 500th day since the abduction of girls in Chibok, Nigeria. August 27, 2015. Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters

By experts and staff

Published
  • Rachel B. Vogelstein
    Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program
  • Jamille Bigio
    Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy

Last month, Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency made a startling announcement: It had collected evidence that some 20,000 Nigerian women and girls are being held in brothels in Mali. Among those discovered were schoolgirls who had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution, reminiscent of the 2014 abduction of 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which prompted the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Today, tens of thousands of women and girls — most between the ages of 16 and 30 — are still awaiting international condemnation of their plight, as well as efforts by the Nigerian government to finally bring them home.