Auwal Muntari was filled with joy when three men approached his family, offering to enrol him in a secondary school in Niger Republic, which was located just across the border from his village in Illela, Sokoto state, Northwest Nigeria. It was 2017, and at the age of 17, Auwal had longed to attend a good secondary school ever since he completed primary school in 2013. Unfortunately, there were no operational secondary schools in his village, so the opportunity in Niger seemed promising. Being just a few kilometres away from his village, it felt like a viable option. A few days later, Muntari, along with two other teenagers who had also been promised a quality education, embarked on a motorcycle journey through a bush path towards Niger. They were hopeful that the journey to the nearest town in the French-speaking country would only take a few hours, but to their surprise, it ended up taking approximately two days. Eventually, they arrived at a village where Muntari was allocated a room with seven other young men. “It was a very small room with a tiny window. I couldn’t sleep well without discomforting myself and the person next to me,” Muntari recalls. Soon, Muntari realised that he had been trafficked. The promise of attending school turned out to be a deception, as he was instead coerced into washing motorcycles daily. If he failed to comply, he would be subjected to painful lashings with a cane on his back. “I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I felt betrayed and extremely disappointed,” Muntari says. “Whenever I dared to ask about the education I was promised, I was brutally beaten, treated like an animal. The food we received was of appalling quality. We were served rice cooked with dirty water.” Muntari endured three months of gruelling labour under the watchful eyes of his traffickers. However, one day, he mustered the courage to inquire about the route back to Nigeria. With the help of sympathetic individuals whom he borrowed money from, he managed to escape and make his way back to Illela. “When I returned, everyone was taken aback. They were relieved to see me after not hearing from me for so long. However, I spent most of my time indoors, crying over the harrowing experience I had gone through,” he says. A few weeks later, Muntari crossed paths with Aliyu Araba, an advocate against human trafficking in their community of Ilela. Araba introduced Muntari to a shelter operated by Save the Child Initiative (STCI), a non-profit organisation that offers assistance to victims of trafficking. During his three-day stay at the shelter, Muntari received counselling to help him cope with the trauma he had endured. “I had to share my story with a staff member who genuinely cared to listen. He provided encouragement and emphasised that, despite all I had endured, I should not let my past define my future,” Muntari reminisces. “Their words instilled in me the belief that I could become a vocal advocate against trafficking within my local community.” Nigeria is known as a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked individuals. In 2017, the U.S. classified Nigeria as a “Tier 2 Watchlist” country. According to a report on The Guardian Nigeria, over 30 million Nigerians have been trafficked in the last decade. The town of Ilela, located near porous borders, has unfortunately become a hotspot for trafficking. Traffickers take advantage of its strategic location to transport victims to North Africa and Europe for labour and sexual exploitation. They often target vulnerable individuals and those facing difficult circumstances. In September 2022, two suspects were nabbed in Sokoto for human trafficking. One of the suspects was in Illela making plans to traffic his victim to Libya. According to reports, over 22 victims of trafficking from Nigeria were rescued in Niger and reunited with their families in Sokoto but unlike Muntari, some are unlucky. Abdulganiyu Abubakar, the founder of STCI in 2001, grew concerned about the government’s lack of action towards addressing trafficking in Illela. As a result, he decided to launch an anti-trafficking initiative in the community. The primary goal was to raise awareness about the dangers of trafficking, while also educating people on how to identify and report traffickers to the authorities. Jamila Musa, another victim from Illela was enticed to go to Niger in search of a better job two years ago but ended up being exploited as cheap labour. Musa recalls her experience, saying, “My childhood friend tricked me into coming to Niger for a good job.” She later discovered that her childhood friend, who she didn’t name, was part of a trafficking syndicate in Niger.