The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has rescued more than 3,000 victims of sexual and gender-based violence in 2026.

The head of press and public relations of NAPTIP, Vincent Adekoye, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the joint security news briefing organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Mr Adekoye said the agency also secured more than 20 convictions in 2026 as it intensified operations against human trafficking and exploitation.

He said human trafficking was increasingly migrating to the digital space, with criminal networks exploiting social media, encrypted messaging platforms and fake online job portals.

“Human trafficking is migrating to the digital space, and we must adapt our response to meet this emerging threat,” Mr Adekoye said.

He said traffickers were increasingly targeting Nigerian youths with fraudulent offers of lucrative employment in Southeast Asia, particularly Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

According to him, victims are often stripped of their travel documents on arrival and forced into guarded compounds controlled by cybercrime syndicates.

Mr Adekoye said the victims were subsequently coerced into online fraud, romance scams and cryptocurrency-related crimes targeting people in other countries.

He said NAPTIP was strengthening intelligence gathering and international cooperation to identify digital recruitment pipelines and dismantle transnational trafficking networks.

The spokesperson said the agency secured nine convictions and rescued more than 80 suspected trafficking victims during operations conducted in July and August.

He said intelligence-led operations around the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport disrupted trafficking “muster points” used to transit victims abroad.

Mr Adekoye said rescued victims were placed under NAPTIP’s protective care and provided with counselling, medical evaluation and rehabilitation.

He also disclosed that the agency was investigating the alleged trafficking and illegal adoption of 54 children from Loko community in Nasarawa State.

He said the children were allegedly taken from displaced families through a fraudulent “Back to School Initiative” and trafficked to unauthorised orphanages and adoption brokers.

Mr Adekoye said investigators were working with state welfare authorities and other security agencies to recover the children and prosecute those responsible.

He said NAPTIP also sealed an illegal maternity facility in Port Harcourt in August and arrested three persons allegedly linked to an international baby-selling network.

The spokesperson said the agency, supported by partners, had inaugurated a specialised sexual and gender-based violence media corps to strengthen public awareness and address technology-facilitated exploitation.

He urged Nigerians to verify overseas employment offers before travelling and avoid engaging unverified online recruiters.

Mr Adekoye also called on members of the public to report suspicious recruitment schemes, unauthorised child-placement activities and unregistered care facilities to NAPTIP.

He said the agency would continue adapting its strategies to ensure that technology did not become a tool for traffickers to recruit, exploit and control vulnerable Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the public relations officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), ACI Akinsola Akinlabi, said NIS had intensified border surveillance and migration management to identify and disrupt activities linked to irregular migration and human trafficking.

Mr Akinlabi said the NIS rescued 23 suspected victims during interventions in July and August, including cases intercepted at airports and land-border locations.

He said 99 foreigners were repatriated during the period, while the NIS also apprehended a stowaway and identified four persons of interest during its border and migration-control operations.

Mr Akinlabi said the NIS had commenced the second phase of measures to extend enhanced migration-control coverage to additional land-border points.

He said the Service was also strengthening airport operations and personnel capacity to improve the detection of trafficking, document fraud and other forms of irregular migration.

The spokesperson said the NIS and the National Counter-Terrorism Centre had jointly hosted a national coordination meeting on implementing the Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record systems.

He said the initiative would strengthen passenger screening, information sharing and the early identification of persons and movements considered security concerns.

(NAN)