The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued 25 women in Abuja who were allegedly being prepared for trafficking to Saudi Arabia for forced labour.
The women, aged 17 to 43, were intercepted in front of a popular hotel in Wuse II, where traffickers had gathered them for onward movement.
According to NAPTIP’s Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, the victims were recruited from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina states with promises of high-paying domestic work abroad. Many of them, who had never been to Abuja before, were stranded without travel documents when rescued.
One of the victims told investigators: “Some people came to our village and told my parents they would help me travel abroad to work as a house help in Saudi Arabia. They promised good pay so I could take care of my family. They asked us to wait here for our travel documents and instructions, but none of them showed up.”
NAPTIP’s Director-General, Binta Adamu Bello, confirmed the rescue and said preliminary investigations had linked the operation to a “popular travel agency.”
NAPTIP said the rescue was part of its intensified surveillance and intelligence operations in major cities following reports of increased recruitment of young women from rural communities for trafficking.
