The 2025 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report by the U.S. Department of State has delivered a scathing assessment of Nigeria’s efforts to combat human trafficking, revealing systemic failures and making a shocking accusation: the federal and Borno State governments, in some instances, returned trafficked victims to their Boko Haram husbands and their original traffickers.
The report maintains Nigeria’s Tier 2 classification, citing the government’s failure to meet minimum standards in several key anti-trafficking areas.
Devastating Findings on Re-Victimization
The most damning revelation involves the re-victimization of vulnerable populations, particularly those associated with non-state armed groups. The report stated that due to inadequate screening:
“The federal and Borno State governments did not take effective measures to prevent the re-victimization or inappropriate penalization of potential victims… In some cases, authorities detained or returned victims to their Boko Haram husbands and traffickers.”
This failure means that efforts to identify and protect victims among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), women and children allegedly associated with Boko Haram, and children exploited in begging were deemed “inadequate.”
Endemic Corruption and Official Complicity
The report highlighted that corruption remains a major inhibitor of effective law enforcement, contributing to widespread impunity for human traffickers.
- Obstruction of Justice: “Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes, including among designated officials with responsibilities to combat human trafficking, remained significant concerns,” the report asserted. Observers noted that law enforcement, military, and other government officials “committed trafficking crimes, accepted bribes to facilitate trafficking, or obstructed justice by interfering with investigations.”
- Sexual Abuse of IDPs: Disturbingly, observers reported that some security officers “sexually abused and exploited internally displaced persons (IDPs), including children, in and around Maiduguri.”
- Lack of Accountability: Despite the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) sacking five staff members (including a deputy director) and demoting three others in a previous period for complicity and soliciting bribes, the government “did not report initiating any prosecutions of the officials.”
Legal and Enforcement Failures
The report also pointed to significant flaws in the legal and judicial system that frustrate the fight against trafficking:
- Judicial Corruption: “Endemic judicial corruption impeded prosecutions and convictions of most crimes, including human trafficking.” The quality of justice is compromised by the fact that trafficking cases are sometimes tried in state courts by local judges who lack the standardized training of federal and state judges, contributing to “corruption and misapplication of the law.”
- Minimal Prosecutions: Within the reporting period, the government only initiated the prosecution of one Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) official for sex trafficking crimes.
The report concludes that until these structural issues, from corruption and official complicity to judicial weaknesses and insufficient victim protection, are addressed, Nigeria will continue to fail in meeting the minimum international standards for combating human trafficking.
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