Nnadiebube Journal of Religion, Culture and Society

Human trafficking is the trade in humans for commercial gain, which is modern-day slavery. Human trafficking has become a lucrative but illegal business in Nigeria. It is difficult to mitigate human trafficking due to its diaspora connections. Youths are being led into it due to economic frustration. Victims are exploited and killed while human traffickers make quantum gains. This paper examines the concept of slavery in Paul’s Epistle to Philemon and explores its implications for addressing contemporary human trafficking in Nigeria. The paper investigates how Paul’s appeal challenges the hierarchical norms of Greco-Roman slavery by emphasising Christian brotherhood, dignity, and reconciliation. This paper further connects the biblical principles to the modern crisis of human trafficking in Nigeria, where exploitation, forced labour, and modern slavery persist. This paper adopted a historical method with a descriptive approach. It included a review of the literature, as well as data from primary and secondary sources such as Journals and Textbooks. This paper discovered that Paul’s ethical framework promotes human dignity and equality, offering a moral and theological foundation for Christian communities, Churches, and policymakers in combating human trafficking and advocating justice, freedom, and restoration for victims in contemporary society. It also discovered that, unlike in biblical times when slavery was allowed, slave trading has been abolished in Nigeria, and human trafficking is a crime. This paper recommends that lawmakers should enact laws that will check the migration of people for greener pastures, which is the major route to human trafficking.

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