Benin City, Nigeria
Young women and girls from Edo State are systematically recruited with false job promises and trafficked through Libya to Europe for sexual exploitation, controlled through debt bondage and traditional oath-taking rituals. Accused: Trafficking networks operating recruitment pipelines from Edo State through Libya.
Location
Nigeria · Benin City · 2023 (location generalized to protect survivors)
Response & intervention
Human Rights Watch documentation based on interviews with 76 trafficking survivors. NAPTIP investigations ongoing; documented low conviction rates relative to reported cases. Survivors supported through NGOs and NAPTIP shelters in Lagos and Benin City.
Sources