Several Nigerians recently saved from trafficking gangs in Côte d'Ivoire have shared how they were tricked with promises of good jobs, only to find themselves trapped and forced into sex work.
The survivors, named Monica, 17; Juliet, 18; Rejoice, 25; Joy, 22; and Monica Tamah, 38, said traffickers took advantage of their need for better jobs before taking them to the West African nation.
They were rescued in a joint effort by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Ivorian authorities, and the Global Anti-Human Trafficking Organisation (GAHTO).
In a statement obtained by PUNCH Metro on Thursday, Prosper Michael, the founder of GAHTO, said the operation came after months of suffering faced by the victims.
Seventeen-year-old Monica from Benue State shared her story. She thought she was accepting a bakery job in Abuja but was taken through Lagos to Côte d'Ivoire.
"I told my parents because I thought the offer was real. We later found out there were no jobs after we were locked in a room," she said.
She added that the victims were watched closely and told to assure family members they were safe whenever they got the chance to call home.
"When I spoke to my mother, I started crying, and they immediately took the phone from me. They kept taking money from the little we earned without explaining why," she recalled.
Monica explained that she and another victim managed to escape with help from kind locals, who helped them reach out to GAHTO.
Another survivor, Monica Tamah, said she went to Côte d'Ivoire to support her family and pay her daughter's school fees but soon found out she was trafficked for prostitution.
"When we got there, we found out there were no jobs. Instead, we were told we had come for prostitution and had to pay off transportation debts through sex work," she said.
Tamah mentioned that she spent about six months in captivity, during which she and other victims were said to have to sleep with up to 15 men every day.
"They made about 50,000 CFA francs every day from us, but we received little or nothing. I was there for about six months before they rescued me," she added.
GAHTO also shared that its representative in Côte d'Ivoire, with local authorities, rescued three other victims from Benue State in a different operation.
Describing these operations as a big win in the fight against human trafficking, the organization urged Nigerians to check overseas job and migration offers through the right government bodies before traveling.
They also called for stronger teamwork among governments, security agencies, and international partners to break down trafficking networks, rescue victims, and punish those responsible.
Anti-trafficking advocates say that economic struggles, lack of jobs, and irregular migration still make many young Nigerians easy targets for traffickers, who often hide their operations as real recruitment or travel offers. They urged potential migrants to do their homework and report suspicious recruiters to the police before accepting any overseas job offers.
Human trafficking remains a major crime that targets vulnerable Nigerians seeking better lives abroad, with traffickers increasingly using fake job offers to lure victims into forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, and other forms of modern slavery.
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