With a population of more than 150 million, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria is burdened with corruption and endemic poverty, with nearly 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Scarce employment opportunities, corruption, and poverty force thousands of Nigerians to emigrate every year in search of better quality of life. A large proportion of these migrants resort to illegal means to leave the country or what is termed “irregular migration.” There are various illegal processes associated with irregular migration, including forgery of passports, visas and other travel documents, marriage under false pretenses, bogus claims for asylum, human smuggling, and human trafficking.

The bulk of irregular migration in Nigeria occurs among youth aged 18-35 and is largely driven by economic motives. A high youth unemployment rate — measuring 21.1 percent in 2010 — and rising cost of living are two of the major factors contributing to high migration levels among this group (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010).

In response, Nigeria has embraced a leading role in the fight against irregular migration, becoming the first country in Africa to enact anti-human trafficking legislation — the Trafficking in Persons Prohibition and Administration Act (Adepoju and van der Wiel, 2010:280). It is also the first country in Africa to establish an agency to implement the legislation.

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