…NAPTIP Records 380% Jump In Female Child Domestic Labour Victims
…Cybercrime Trafficking Victims Plunge From 375 To 21 In One Year
Data obtained from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) show sharp changes in the number of victims recorded across several trafficking categories in 2025. Victims of trafficking for cybercrime fell from 375 in 2024 to 21, while female victims of child domestic labour rose from 145 to 696. Victims of forced labour outside Nigeria reached 2,502, more than 2.5 times the previous record of 963.
THE WHISTLER‘s analysis of 11 years of NAPTIP data found sharp changes in several trafficking categories in 2025 without explanation.
The figures do not establish whether the changes followed new enforcement operations, identification of previously unrecorded victims or changes in how cases were classified.
In 2024, NAPTIP recorded 375 people as victims of trafficking for cybercrime. The classification identifies people who might otherwise be treated as cybercrime suspects as trafficking victims.
The agency’s records show no cases in this category from 2015 to 2020. It recorded six victims in 2022 and 18 in 2023 before the figure rose to 375 in 2024. In 2025, it fell to 21, representing a 94 per cent decline in one year.
NAPTIP has not publicly explained either the sharp rise in 2024 or the subsequent fall. Neither change appeared in the agency’s press releases or media briefings reviewed by THE WHISTLER.
Trafficking for cybercrime has been documented in operations involving Nigerians and other West Africans recruited into overseas fraud networks. In a recent multi-part investigative report, Stephen Angbulu of The Punch documented compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia where young men from across West Africa were held and compelled to run romance scams, investment fraud and cryptocurrency manipulation.
The scale of the change in NAPTIP’s records makes the absence of an explanation significant. A major rescue operation, a change in how victims were identified or a genuine decline in the number of victims identified could produce different interpretations of the figures.
One possibility is that a major enforcement operation in late 2024 or early 2025 led to the identification of many Nigerians held in overseas cybercrime compounds. The data do not establish whether such an operation accounted for the 375 victims recorded in 2024.
A change in victim-identification procedures or the introduction of a distinct classification for trafficking for cybercrime could also explain part of the increase. The subsequent fall to 21 could reflect changes in enforcement, trafficking routes or classification, but NAPTIP’s records do not establish which explanation, if any, applies.
While recorded victims of trafficking for cybercrime fell sharply, victims of forced labour outside Nigeria reached 2,502 in 2025, the highest figure in NAPTIP’s 11-year records. The total was more than 2.5 times the previous record of 963 in 2021 and over 10 times the 22 victims recorded in 2015.
Male victims accounted for a substantial share of the increase. NAPTIP recorded 993 male victims of forced labour outside Nigeria in 2025, up from 115 in 2024, representing a 763 per cent increase.
The forms of exploitation documented in forced-labour cases include work in agriculture, construction and mining, as well as digital labour in overseas cybercrime compounds. The figures do not establish how many of the recorded victims were involved in each type of work.
Forced labour within Nigeria also reached a record in 2025, with 194 victims: 94 males and 100 females. This represents an increase of 166 per cent from the 73 victims recorded in 2015.
Artisanal mining is also among the settings where labour exploitation has been documented. In an August 2026 investigation, THE WHISTLER found children working in an illegal gold-mining environment in Pangu, Kwali Area Council.
Female victims of child domestic labour recorded the sharpest increase among the categories examined in NAPTIP’s 11-year data.
In 2024, the agency recorded 145 female victims in the category. In 2025, the figure rose to 696, an increase of about 380 per cent. The 2025 total was nearly five times the highest figure recorded in any previous year.
Between 2015 and 2023, annual figures ranged from 23 to 148. In 2015, NAPTIP recorded 138 female victims, but the number fell to 23 in 2020 before gradually recovering. The rise to 696 in 2025 far exceeded that earlier pattern.
The agency has issued no press release, annual report summary or media briefing explaining the increase, based on the public statements and briefings reviewed by THE WHISTLER.
Male child domestic labour victims also increased from 126 in 2024 to 190 in 2025.
The figures leave open whether NAPTIP intensified investigations, received more referrals, changed its classification procedures or identified a genuine increase in the number of children being exploited. The recorded increase alone does not establish that the actual number of exploited girls rose by the same proportion.
Child domestic labour in Nigeria has been documented in urban households, where girls from poorer families, often from northern and Middle Belt states, are placed with households as domestic workers. Intermediaries may arrange these placements on behalf of families, although their roles and the circumstances of individual cases vary.
The practice is normalised in some communities, making detection difficult and placing considerable weight on investigations and referrals to authorities such as NAPTIP.
If a major enforcement operation contributed to the 696 female victims recorded in 2025, information about such an operation would help explain the scale of the increase. Details of referrals, reporting procedures and classification criteria could also help establish whether changes in how cases were identified contributed to the figure. NAPTIP’s published records do not provide the information.
The 11-year records show three sharp changes in 2025: victims of trafficking for cybercrime fell from 375 to 21; male victims of forced labour outside Nigeria rose from 115 to 993; and female victims of child domestic labour increased from 145 to 696.
Each category presents a different question about how NAPTIP identifies and records victims. The cybercrime figures require an explanation for the sudden rise in 2024 and the subsequent fall. The forced-labour records show a sharp increase in victims identified outside Nigeria, while the child domestic labour figures could point to previously undercounted populations being identified or a change in the way cases were recorded.
The data, obtained by THE WHISTLER on request, contain detailed figures on the number and types of trafficking victims recorded by the agency. But public statements and briefings reviewed by THE WHISTLER do not explain the changes.
Part three of this investigation examines the Nigerian states where trafficking originates, how the geographical pattern has changed over the past decade, and whether the enforcement system is identifying victims across the country or primarily finding those already known to authorities.
This is part two of a three-part investigation. Read part one HERE.
