A recent US State Department report has shed light on the prevalence of human trafficking in Ghana, with Nigerians forming the largest group of victims identified in the country in 2025. According to the report, 896 Nigerian nationals were identified as trafficking victims, surpassing the number of Ghanaian victims. This revelation is part of the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, which evaluates countries' efforts to combat human trafficking.
The report indicates that a total of 2,331 trafficking victims were identified in Ghana during 2025, with 1,469 being foreign nationals. Nigerians comprised the largest share of foreign victims, followed by individuals from Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, Senegal, Niger, and Benin. The report highlights the need for continued efforts to address human trafficking in Ghana, which affects communities on both sides of the border.
Traffickers often lure Nigerian women and girls into Ghana with promises of legitimate jobs, only to force them into commercial sex work as a means of repaying inflated debts for transport and accommodation. This deceptive arrangement typically begins with false promises about the nature of the work, before recruiters use fabricated debts to trap victims under their control.
The report also points to a growing concern: fraudulent recruitment and forced labor tied to online scam operations run out of Ghana. These schemes often disguise themselves as job opportunities before trapping workers, sometimes foreign nationals themselves, in exploitative conditions. In July 2026, police rescued 18 trafficking victims during a raid on Nigerian nationals suspected of running a cybercrime and trafficking operation in Kwabenya, on the outskirts of Accra.
Despite the challenges, Ghana has made significant progress in combating human trafficking. The US State Department upgraded Ghana from Tier 2 to Tier 1, crediting Ghanaian authorities for stepping up prosecutions, improving victim identification, raising public awareness, and cooperating with foreign governments on cross-border cases. This ranking indicates that Ghana now meets the minimum standards set under US law for combating human trafficking.
Ghanaian authorities have taken proactive steps to address the issue, investigating 222 trafficking cases in 2025, prosecuting 212 suspected traffickers, and securing 28 convictions. The government also screened 2,837 returning migrants for trafficking signs and repatriated 567 Ghanaian victims from abroad with government support, providing shelter, healthcare, counseling, legal aid, and repatriation for those identified.
The Trafficking in Persons Report is an annual publication by the US State Department that ranks countries worldwide on their efforts to combat human trafficking. While Ghana has made progress, the report's findings emphasize the need for continued efforts to curb trafficking networks, particularly those targeting Nigerian nationals. The scale of the problem remains significant, and it remains unclear what additional steps Ghanaian authorities plan to take to address the issue.
Key points
- 896 Nigerians were identified as trafficking victims in Ghana in 2025.
- Ghana has been upgraded to Tier 1 by the US State Department for its efforts to combat human trafficking.
- Traffickers often use online scam operations to lure victims into forced labor and commercial sex work.
