Fake Job Promises Fuelling Human Trafficking, Travel Fraud — NIS Warns Nigerians

Fake job promises and misleading information about migration are fuelling human trafficking, migrant smuggling and travel fraud, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has warned, urging coordinated action to protect Nigerians seeking employment and other opportunities abroad from exploitation

This is as the Service buttressed that border controls alone could not address the growing challenges of irregular migration, stressing the need to ensure that Nigerians have access to accurate and reliable information before making decisions about travelling abroad.

The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, gave the warning in a speech delivered by the deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Visa and Residency Directorate, Franca Nwanneka, at a Stakeholder Sensitisation and Engagement Seminar in Abuja on Wednesday.

The seminar was themed, “Bridging the Information Gap: Promoting Informed, Safe and Regular Migration.”

Nandap said migration offered opportunities for education, employment, safety and improved living conditions, but decisions influenced by misinformation, deceptive promises and limited awareness of lawful migration pathways could expose prospective migrants to serious risks.

“Human trafficking, migrant smuggling, travel fraud, and irregular migration highlight the risk of inadequate information and intelligence sharing among operational stakeholders,” she said.

The Comptroller-General emphasised that addressing these threats required more than enforcement at the nation’s borders, noting that prospective migrants needed reliable information to make informed decisions and identify legitimate migration opportunities.

“Preventing these risks requires more than border control. It begins with equipping prospective migrants with accurate, timely, and reliable information to make informed decisions and pursue safe,” she said.

The quotation supplied for this report ends mid-sentence and should be verified against the original speech before publication.

Nandap said the NIS was strengthening its operational capacity through institutional reforms, modern border management technologies, intelligence gathering and improved service delivery.

She cited the deployment of border control and immigration management systems, alongside other technology-driven platforms, as part of efforts to build a modern, responsive and intelligence-led immigration service.

However, she acknowledged that technology and tighter border controls could not independently resolve the underlying factors driving irregular migration.

“Nevertheless, we recognise that even the most sophisticated border management systems cannot on their own address the underlying factors that encourage irregular migration,” she said.

She called on government agencies, security institutions, development partners, traditional and community leaders, civil society organisations, educational institutions, transport operators and the media to work together to counter misinformation and expand public access to trustworthy migration information.

“Migration sensitisation is a shared responsibility that cannot be left to the Nigeria Immigration Service alone,” she said.

According to Nandap, the seminar was designed to assess existing approaches, identify institutional gaps and explore how innovation, community participation and inter-agency cooperation could improve migration management.

Also speaking at the event, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening its partnership with the NIS to promote regular migration and address migration-related challenge

Speaking at the event, a Senior Programme Associate of IOM Nigeria, Nnenna Onuoha,
who represented the organisation’s Chief of Mission, Sharon Dimanche, said the partnership between the two institutions had continued to grow stronger and produce tangible results.

“The relationship and the partnership between IOM and NIS have been and have continued to grow stronger and have produced tangible results,” Onuoha said.

She described the engagement as an opportunity for stakeholders to examine how collective action could make regular migration more accessible and commonplace in Nigeria.

Onuoha conveyed Dimanche’s goodwill to participants and expressed the organisation’s hope that the discussions would produce fruitful deliberations and actionable outcomes.

The seminar brought together representatives of security and law enforcement agencies, regional and international organisations, border management institutions, civil society groups, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, academic institutions and other stakeholders.

Nwanneka formally declared the seminar open on behalf of Nandap, expressing the Service’s expectation that the deliberations would advance a safer, smarter and more coordinated migration management system.

The challenge now is to translate these commitments into sustained public education, improved access to reliable migration information and stronger cooperation among relevant institutions.