The United States has faulted Nigeria for failing to meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. It cited corruption, official complicity and the government’s failure to prosecute officials involved in trafficking crimes.
The 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which covers April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, also listed Nigeria among 14 countries that recruit and use child soldiers.
The report kept Nigeria on Tier 2. This category covers countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act but are making significant efforts to do so.
Child soldiers list
Nigeria was also placed on the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) list, alongside Afghanistan, Burma, the Central African Republic, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen.
The US Department of State said that, because of the listing, CSPA restrictions will apply to Nigeria from October 1, 2026, unless the US President grants a waiver. The restrictions cover international military education and training, foreign military financing, excess defence articles, peacekeeping operations, and licences for direct commercial sales of military equipment.
The department, however, acknowledged that the government had stepped up its efforts, with more investigations, prosecutions and convictions than in the previous reporting period.
Corruption and complicity
The US said corruption and official complicity in trafficking remained significant concerns.
“The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes or provide details or other actions taken against complicit officials from previous years,” the report said.
It added that in many cases, authorities coerced victims of forced marriage, including trafficking victims, into returning to their Boko Haram husbands at demobilisation centres in Borno State.
Weak victim protection
The report said only 675 trafficking victims received assistance in 2025, down from 2,058 the previous year. Services, especially for male victims, remained limited, with only one dedicated NGO shelter for adult male victims during the year.
It also said shelters run by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) did not allow residents freedom of movement, and that victims were required to cooperate with law enforcement to access certain protection services.
According to the report, the government provided no services to adult victims who declined shelter, which increased their vulnerability. It also has no formal policy to prevent victims from being returned to countries where they could face hardship or retribution.
“Unlike the previous year, the government did not report transferring any children associated with non-state armed groups,” the report added.
Labour protection gaps
The US said Nigeria did not prohibit worker-paid recruitment fees, did not report holding labour recruiters civilly or criminally liable for fraudulent recruitment, and did not train labour inspectors on child labour and human trafficking. It also noted that diplomatic personnel received no anti-trafficking training.
Child soldiers
On child soldiers, the report said Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa continue to recruit, abduct and use children as young as 12, through force, fraud and coercion. The children serve as cooks, domestic workers, spies, porters, messengers, bodyguards, checkpoint guards, morality police, armed fighters and suicide bombers.
The report defines a child soldier as anyone under 18 who takes direct part in hostilities, anyone under 15 voluntarily recruited, or anyone under 18 recruited by armed groups distinct from the state, including as a cook, porter, messenger, medic, guard or sex slave.
Foreign exploitation and new trends
The report said organised foreign criminal syndicates fraudulently recruit foreign victims to work in Nigeria, confine them in leased properties and force them to run online scams.
It said sources reported that Nigeria’s Ministry of Education helped promote Russia’s Alabuga Start programme despite red flags. It added that Russian authorities fraudulently recruit Nigerians to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.
North Korean nationals working in Nigeria may be operating under exploitative conditions and show several indicators of forced labour, the report said, while Chinese nationals in the country may have been forced to work by the Chinese government.
Baby factories, forced labour, sex trafficking
The report said criminals run “baby factories”, often disguised as orphanages, maternity homes or religious centres, where women are held against their will, raped and forced to carry and deliver children who are then sold. It described the practice as a widespread criminal industry, most prevalent in the south.
Traffickers also exploit children in sex trafficking and forced labour in granite quarries, artisanal mines, domestic work, begging, street vending, textile manufacturing and agriculture, while adults and children are forced to work on cocoa farms.
Some corrupt Quranic school teachers exploit children, mostly boys from rural areas, in forced begging and seasonal farm work.
In some states, families sell women and girls into forced marriages to older men to repay debts, a practice known as “money marriages”, the report said.
Progress recorded
The report nonetheless acknowledged some gains. In 2025, the government investigated 1,341 trafficking cases involving 1,367 suspects, prosecuted 94 suspects and convicted 97 traffickers. In 2024, there were 744 investigations, 71 prosecutions and 49 convictions.
Most convicted traffickers were sentenced to at least one year in prison, and funding rose. The government allocated N233 million ($161,000) for victim services, up from N128 million, and N245 million ($169,000) for prevention, up from N58.8 million in 2024.
The government also set up a cybercrime unit within the police to tackle online scam operations and worked with other governments and INTERPOL on investigations in West Africa and Southeast Asia.
It identified 2,004 victims, maintained standard operating procedures and the National Referral Mechanism, and coordinated the repatriation of 428 Nigerian victims exploited abroad.
The report added that the government issued restitution to 14 victims as part of criminal sentences, continued to implement the 2022-2026 National Action Plan, ran an anti-trafficking hotline, carried out public awareness campaigns, and had anti-trafficking task forces in 23 states.
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