June 21, 2026
By Esther Onyegbula
For seven young Nigerian women, most of whom are teenagers, the journey began with familiar faces, including friends, relatives and community members.
They claimed to know people abroad who offers decent jobs in boutiques, restaurants, salons and homes. What awaited the young girls across the border, however, was a brutal reality. Theirs is a story of deception, coercion and exploitation.
Their rescue by the Global Anti Human Trafficking Organization (GAHTO), working with authorities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), is more than a narrative of survival.
