The government maintained mixed protection efforts. The government identified and referred to services 1,194 trafficking victims, including 654 sex trafficking victims and 540 labor trafficking victims; this compared with identifying and referring to services 1,384 sex and labor trafficking victims the previous reporting period. Of the 1,194 victims, 856 were women, 176 were girls, 119 were men, and 39 were boys. The government also reported identifying 184 potential victims. The government and partner NGOs provided services to all identified victims.
The government had law enforcement SOPs on victim identification and protection. In addition, the government, in partnership with civil society, continued training stakeholders on the use of the rapid assessment form to identify and refer trafficking victims to services. The NRM provided formal guidelines for law enforcement, immigration officials, and service providers to refer victims to care, including victims with disabilities and in conflict situations. The government worked in partnership with the Network of Civil Society Organizations Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labor (NACTAL) to ensure appropriate referral of victims. The National Policy for Protection and Assistance to Victims of Trafficking provided victim protection and care guidelines; the government also had a disability inclusion plan to better serve victims living with disabilities. NAPTIP’s Protocol for Identification, Safe Return and Rehabilitation of Trafficked Persons provided formal procedures for authorities assisting victims exploited abroad upon identification and during and after repatriation; NAPTIP conducted pre-departure trainings for NIS and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials on the procedures. Stakeholders observed an improvement in officials’ use of the referral procedures compared with previous years, but noted additional training and implementation of the NRM was needed. The government allocated more than 50.8 million naira ($55,830) for victim protection and assistance. This compared with allocating more than 110 million naira ($120,880) for victim protection the previous year.
NAPTIP operated 14 shelters across its 10 zonal commands, which provided services to 1,587 victims. The government provided legal, medical, psycho-social, family reunification, and vocational services to victims in its shelters. Nigerian trafficking victims exploited abroad were able to stay in the shelters upon repatriation. NAPTIP’s 14 shelters operated under a “closed shelter” policy, which restricted victims’ freedom of movement while residing at the shelter, including the option for children to continue attending school. If victims chose to participate in law enforcement proceedings against traffickers, NAPTIP placed them in its shelters for up to six weeks to conduct an initial investigation before referring them to partner NGO shelters for services. Observers reported limiting victims’ freedom of movement may have re-traumatized and disempowered victims to direct their own recovery. Observers also reported NAPTIP sometimes detained suspects in the same compound as its shelters due to lack of space; as a result, victims and traffickers were sometimes brought together. Officials referred victims who did not wish to participate in law enforcement proceedings directly to Ministry of Women-operated shelters for GBV victims or NGO partner shelters for services. Additional government and NGO shelters provided services, including long-term shelter, to vulnerable children and victims of crime, including trafficking; authorities sometimes placed child trafficking victims in foster homes or orphanages. There were reports some NGO shelters held trafficking victims against their will. In an effort to improve the quality of victim services and ensure uniformity in standards of care, NAPTIP finalized and launched minimum standards and guidelines for service providers rendering assistance to trafficking victims, which included licensing and reporting requirements. As of March 2024, five organizations met the NAPTIP standards to operate shelters.
The government provided victim-witness assistance for victims participating in law enforcement proceedings by providing security, victim advocates, temporary immigration relief, and travel and lodging assistance; the government reported 40 victims participated in criminal justice proceedings and received services. Victims were able to testify in the judges’ private chambers to protect their privacy and safety, and courts sometimes used video testimony. NAPTIP, in collaboration with an international organization, the MOJ, and NGOs, ran legal hubs in Edo, Delta, and Lagos states, intended to improve victims’ access to justice through legal aid counseling and representation in court. Several Nigerian embassies, particularly within West Africa, provided funding or in-kind support to repatriate Nigerian trafficking victims exploited abroad, and the government continued coordinating repatriation efforts with foreign governments and an international organization. Foreign victims had the same access to services as Nigerian victims. The government did not have a formal policy to prevent the removal of victims to countries where they would face hardship or retribution, but it could grant temporary residence visas to trafficking victims who had a pending criminal, civil, or other legal action; the government did not report if any foreign victims requested this relief. The 2015 anti-trafficking law established the victims’ trust fund, financed primarily through confiscated assets of convicted traffickers; however, the government did not report utilizing the fund to support victims, and observers reported it was not operational. The anti-trafficking law provided for victim restitution. The government reported courts awarded restitution and that a restitution determination was made in each case that resulted in a conviction. Victims could file civil suits against traffickers, but the government did not report whether any victims did so.
NAPTIP continued to partner with an international organization and a foreign donor to implement a screening and sensitization campaign to identify sex trafficking victims in IDP camps. Additionally, NAPTIP officials coordinated with the Ministry of Defense’s zonal commanders on protection issues pertaining to IDP camps by funding social workers and raising awareness of the crime among camp residents. The government reported identifying nine potential trafficking victims in eight IDP camps. Directed by the governor, the state government began closing IDP camps in Borno State and returning IDPs to their communities without sufficient return and reintegration assistance. Observers reported the camp closures resulted in an increase of human trafficking cases. A lack of assistance, including educational, vocational, medical, and specialized sexual and GBV services, further increased vulnerability to trafficking. Many IDPs who did not return to their communities lived in informal IDPs camps in Maiduguri, where they were vulnerable to human trafficking and other human rights abuses.
During the previous reporting period, the government, in collaboration with an international organization, adopted a handover protocol on the transfer of children allegedly associated with armed groups to protection actors within seven days. Officials reported transferring at least 53 children to protection actors for the first time under the handover protocol in 2023, and stakeholders noted the military was more expeditiously transferring children following the protocol’s adoption. Despite its increased efforts to implement the protocol, the government continued detaining some children whom authorities suspected of being associated with Boko Haram or ISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA), including potential trafficking victims. The anti-trafficking law prohibited the penalization of trafficking victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including association with armed groups. However, observers reported the government arrested and, in some cases, inappropriately detained for prolonged periods women and children removed from or allegedly associated with Boko Haram and ISIS-WA, including women and girls whom insurgents had forcibly married or sexually enslaved. Observers noted some of these victims likely remained in detention and were subject to criminal prosecution for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
The government collaborated with donors to continue the “Operation Safe Corridor” de-radicalization and recovery program for combatants formerly associated with terrorist organizations. Due to poor screening procedures, some noncombatants, who may have included trafficking victims, fleeing the conflict were wrongly labeled militants and inappropriately detained. Reports alleged there were serious abuse and poor conditions in the program’s detention centers. Under a separate program, Borno state authorities also provided demobilization and reintegration services to combatants formerly associated with terrorist organizations who turned themselves in; although officials separated unaccompanied children, they sometimes placed girls, including potential trafficking victims, who had been forcibly married to fighters with their husbands in the centers.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
