Migration Industry in Nigeria: The Cartels, the Capital and the Oaths

Abstract

Nigeria has the fifth highest number of citizens who cross the Mediterranean and the highest number of migrant's flow within the ECOWAS sub-region in the bid to search for greener pastures. These migrations are often perilous. This work offers a comprehensive conceptualization of why migrants ignore the clear danger in the movement from Kano (Nigeria) through Agadez and Qatroun (Niger) to Serbha, (Libya) and the Mediterranean Sea to Lampedusa (Italy).This work proposes the concept of a closed-option migration industry in Nigeria as the ensemble of entrepreneurs, businesses and services which, motivated by the pursuit of commercial motive, left migrants at the mercy of the cartels. The precept is that in spite of the capital-intensive nature and cost of migration, migrants are charged only registration fee of $120 for a service and investment which reek in $40,000 for the cartels. This work links the desperation and perils of the migrants to the quest to pay back the total cost of investment and this leads to the casting of an inviolable pact in form of oath-taking. The paper contends that migration is actually precarious and is directed by the consequences of oath breaking and economic despondency of migrants. This work is exploratory as primary sources of data are interviews with deportees who had used the migration routes, interviews and access to the data of the IOM, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria Immigration Service etc. and secondary data which include books and articles.