Nigerian youths seeking employment opportunities abroad are increasingly being lured through social media and recruited into cybercrime compounds in Southeast Asia, where some are reportedly held against their will and forced to defraud victims online.
One survivor, identified as Sabiu, a 26-year-old from Borno State, travelled to Laos after being promised a legitimate telecommunications job. Instead, he was taken to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, where he discovered that the supposed job involved online fraud.
Sabiu said his passport was confiscated after he arrived, while he was pressured to sign a contract that extended his employment from the promised three months to two years. He said workers were forced to spend up to 17 hours a day carrying out online scams under strict surveillance.
According to his account, guards used violence and electric shocks to punish workers who resisted orders or fell asleep. He also alleged that his cryptocurrency wallet, containing about $9,000, was emptied before he was abandoned near the Mekong River.
Sabiu eventually spent six months homeless before receiving assistance from the International Organization for Migration, the Nigerian Embassy, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other authorities. He returned to Nigeria in September 2025.
His case is reportedly part of a wider trafficking network targeting educated and technologically skilled Nigerians. Traffickers often advertise attractive jobs through Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms, promising salaries of up to $1,500 per month.
Another Nigerian survivor, Offor from Abia State, said he responded to an online advertisement for an international marketing job. After travelling to Thailand, he was allegedly transported through several locations before being taken across the border into Myanmar.
Offor said he and other recruits trekked for hours through forests and rivers before reaching a heavily guarded compound. He alleged that hundreds of people from different countries were being forced to conduct online fraud from computer terminals.
Officials from NAPTIP have warned that trafficking networks are increasingly targeting young people with computer, coding and cryptocurrency skills. The agency said it repatriated 23 Nigerian youths from Thailand in February 2026 after they were trafficked for cyber-enabled crimes.
The agency also recorded 93 convictions in 2025 and more than 2,500 interceptions of potential trafficking victims, highlighting the growing scale of the problem.
Authorities and anti-trafficking organisations are urging Nigerians to carefully verify overseas job offers, particularly those received through social media, before travelling. The cases demonstrate how seemingly attractive employment opportunities can become gateways into forced labour, financial exploitation and organised cybercrime.
.jpeg)
.jpeg "Sunayen kofofin aljanna guda takwas 8")
0 Comment about the Post: