As the world marked **World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2026**, brave Nigerian survivors have opened up about their nightmare ordeal in Côte d’Ivoire — where they were tricked, trafficked, and forced into prostitution by ruthless syndicates.
The victims, mostly young girls and women from Benue State, were promised decent jobs and a better life abroad, only to be sold into modern-day sex slavery.
Monica, 17, an Idoma girl, and Juliet, 18, both from Benue but living in Kaduna, fell victim to the scam when a woman named Peace offered them bakery jobs in Abuja.
They travelled to Lagos, where another trafficker, Blessing, broke the news: the “job” had been moved to Côte d’Ivoire. Despite one girl raising the alarm and alerting police, Monica and Juliet were already smuggled across the border.
Once in Ivory Coast, the girls were locked up, threatened, and forced into hard labour. They were ordered to lie to their families and Nigerian authorities that they were safe. In one heartbreaking phone call, one of the girls broke down in tears before traffickers snatched the phone.
With no knowledge of French and mounting “debts” for transportation, they were told they had to “work” — meaning sell their bodies — to repay their captors.
Determined not to be broken, the terrified teenagers escaped with help from kind locals while their handlers slept. They reached out to the Global Anti Human Trafficking Organisation (GAHTO) and were eventually rescued and returned to Nigeria.
Monica Tamah, 38, a mother of five from Zakibiam in Benue State, was also lured by promises of a good job to support her family and send her 22-year-old daughter, Joy Teseh, to university. Instead, both mother and daughter were forced into prostitution upon arrival.
Another survivor, Rejoice Emmanuel, 25, shared similar horrors.
The victims revealed they were forced to sleep with up to **15 men daily**, earning traffickers around 50,000 CFA francs per day while receiving almost nothing themselves.
GAHTO, working closely with NAPTIP and Ivorian authorities, coordinated the daring rescues in Djiboroso and Boundiali in the Bagoué Region.
Mr. Oluwaseun Odusanya, GAHTO’s representative in Côte d’Ivoire and Chairman of the Nigerian Community in the Bagoué Region, played a key role, with vital support from local officials including the Sous-Préfet, Mr. Baro Séri.
The survivors have now been safely received at a social centre in Tengréla before their journey back home.
GAHTO described the operations as a major victory in the fight against human trafficking networks targeting desperate Nigerians.
Anti-trafficking campaigners are warning young Nigerians and their families to be extremely vigilant. They urge verification of all overseas job offers through official channels and immediate reporting of suspicious recruiters to NAPTIP or the police.
The survivors’ painful stories serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of “better life” scams and the urgent need for stronger international cooperation to crush these evil syndicates.
