NAPTIP RESCUES 3,000 VICTIMS AS TRAFFICKERS TAKE CRIME TO DIGITAL SPACE

Fake Jobs, Romance Scams, Crypto Fraud: How Nigerians Are Being Lured Abroad

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued more than 3,000 victims of sexual and gender-based violence in 2026, even as the agency warns that human trafficking is rapidly shifting from the streets and borders to the digital space.

NAPTIP’s Head of Press and Public Relations, Vincent Adekoye, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Joint Security News Briefing organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser. He said the agency had also secured more than 20 convictions in 2026 as it intensified its crackdown on trafficking and exploitation.

Adekoye raised fresh alarm over the growing use of social media, encrypted messaging platforms and fake online recruitment portals by trafficking networks. According to him, Nigerian youths are increasingly being targeted with fraudulent promises of lucrative jobs in Southeast Asian countries, particularly Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, only to discover on arrival that they have been trapped by criminal syndicates.

He explained that victims are often stripped of their travel documents and confined in guarded compounds controlled by cybercrime networks, where they are forced into online fraud, romance scams and cryptocurrency-related crimes targeting unsuspecting victims in other countries.

“Human trafficking is migrating to the digital space, and we must adapt our response to meet this emerging threat,” Adekoye warned.

He said NAPTIP was strengthening intelligence gathering and international cooperation to identify digital recruitment channels and dismantle transnational trafficking networks. He added that intelligence-led operations conducted in July and August resulted in the rescue of more than 80 suspected trafficking victims and the disruption of trafficking “muster points” around the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport.

The rescued victims, he said, were placed under NAPTIP’s protective care, where they received counselling, medical evaluation and rehabilitation.

54 CHILDREN UNDER INVESTIGATION

Adekoye also disclosed that NAPTIP was investigating the alleged trafficking and illegal adoption of 54 children from Loko community in Nasarawa State.

According to him, the children were allegedly taken from displaced families under the guise of a fraudulent “Back to School Initiative” and subsequently moved to unauthorised orphanages and adoption brokers.

He said investigators were working with state welfare authorities and other security agencies to recover the children and prosecute those responsible.

In another major operation, NAPTIP sealed an illegal maternity facility in Port Harcourt in August and arrested three persons allegedly linked to an international baby-selling network.

The agency has also inaugurated a specialised Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Media Corps, with support from its partners, to intensify public awareness and combat technology-facilitated exploitation.

Adekoye urged Nigerians to thoroughly verify overseas employment offers before travelling and to avoid dealing with unregistered or unverified online recruiters.

He also called on members of the public to report suspicious recruitment schemes, unauthorised child-placement activities and unregistered care facilities to NAPTIP.

He assured that the agency would continue to adapt its strategies to prevent technology from becoming a powerful weapon in the hands of traffickers seeking to recruit, exploit and control vulnerable Nigerians.

NIS RESCUES 23, REPATRIATES 99 FOREIGNERS

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said it had intensified border surveillance and migration management as part of efforts to disrupt irregular migration and human trafficking.

The NIS Public Relations Officer, ACI Akinsola Akinlabi, said the Service rescued 23 suspected trafficking victims during interventions in July and August, including victims intercepted at airports and land-border locations.

He disclosed that 99 foreigners were repatriated during the period, while immigration officers also apprehended a stowaway and identified four persons of interest during border and migration-control operations.

Akinlabi said the NIS had commenced the second phase of measures designed to extend enhanced migration-control coverage to additional land-border points.

He added that the Service was strengthening airport operations and personnel capacity to improve the detection of human trafficking, document fraud and other forms of irregular migration.

The NIS spokesman further disclosed that the Service, in partnership with the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, had hosted a national coordination meeting on the implementation of the Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record systems.

According to him, the initiative is expected to strengthen passenger screening and information sharing while enabling security agencies to identify suspicious persons and movements at an earlier stage.

The latest revelations underscore the changing face of human trafficking in Nigeria, with criminal networks increasingly exploiting technology, migration routes and economic hardship to prey on vulnerable citizens.