For the 15th year, Nigeria has been classified as a Tier 2 country in the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the U.S. Department of State yesterday.

The report documents how criminal organisations and repressive regimes exploit trafficking for financial gain, and calls for government accountability in prosecuting traffickers and protecting citizens.

Countries ranked Tier 2 are those whose governments “do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to comply with those standards.”

The Trump administration said it will deploy all available tools to prosecute traffickers and their enablers.

“Human trafficking is a direct assault on the values of freedom and dignity that define America. The 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report reveals new ways criminal organisations and repressive regimes use this abhorrent practice for financial gain. The report also calls for accountability for governments that fail to punish traffickers and protect their citizens. The Trump Administration will use all available tools to fight traffickers and their enablers and bring them to justice,” spokesman for the State Department, Tommy Pigott said.

Nigeria last attained Tier 1 status in 2011 and has not done so since. Its ranking also fluctuated between Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 2 (Watch List) based on annual reports published for the past 25 years.

The report noted that the Federal Government in 2025 reported investigating 1,341 trafficking cases (589 sex trafficking, 301 labor trafficking, 451 for unspecified forms of trafficking) involving 1,367 suspects, prosecuting 94 suspects (46 sex trafficking, 7 forced labor, and 41 for unspecified forms of trafficking), and convicting 97 traffickers; this compared with 744 investigations, 71 prosecutions, and 49 convictions in 2024. The government sentenced the majority of convicted traffickers to at least one year of imprisonment.

The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes or provide details or other actions taken against complicit officials from previous years, even though corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns.

Nigeria also identified 2,004 victims (893 sex trafficking; 1,111 forced labor), similar numbers to the 2,058 trafficking victims identified during the previous year. The government assisted 675 trafficking victims, a decrease compared with 2,058 victims the previous year. The government provided shelter, health care, counseling, legal services, vocational training, and repatriation assistance directly and through partnerships with civil society organisations. The government coordinated with foreign governments and an international organisation to repatriate 428 Nigerian victims exploited abroad.

The annual report categorises countries into four tiers as mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 are TIER 1—countries whose governments meet the TVPA’s minimum standards and TIER 2—countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to meet those standards.

Others are TIER 2 Watch List—countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to meet those standards but are seeing a “significant increase” in the numbers of victims of severe forms of trafficking and TIER 3—countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.