Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency said Wednesday it has rescued and repatriated 23 young Nigerians who were allegedly trafficked to Southeast Asia and forced into cyber-enabled criminal activities.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons said the victims were returned from Thailand in an operation carried out in collaboration with a Myanmar-based civil society organization, Eden, with support from the British government and the Nigerian Embassy in Bangkok.
Director-General Binta Adamu Bello warned of what she described as a growing trend in which traffickers recruit young Nigerians for online fraud operations in countries including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
According to the agency, the victims were lured with promises of scholarships and well-paying jobs before being trafficked abroad and forced to engage in romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud and fake investment schemes.
“This is a new dimension of the human trafficking phenomenon that targets vibrant and intelligent Nigerians,” Bello said. She added that traffickers often target young people with computer and information technology skills and those with no history of alcohol or tobacco use.
Bello said the victims were trained in scamming techniques and, in some cases, enrolled in language classes, including Chinese, before being deployed as online “customer care” agents to defraud individuals and organizations in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia and Canada.
“They were accommodated in hostels with bunk beds, provided with gadgets, and forced to go after daily targets,” she said. “They were constantly monitored by handlers, and anyone who refused to cooperate or failed to meet targets was tortured.”
Some of the victims reported being held in a “dark room” and subjected to abuse, she said. The agency also cited allegations of organ harvesting, particularly involving younger victims, though it did not provide further details.
Bello described the development as disturbing and pledged to intensify efforts to dismantle the trafficking network and arrest its leaders.
She commended the partner organizations and the Nigerian Embassy in Bangkok for facilitating the rescue, including the issuance of emergency travel documents.
The agency said the operation comes weeks after it pledged to strengthen collaboration to detect and disrupt emerging trafficking routes targeting Nigerians.
