Human Trafficking: The Trap For Easy Jobs

The phenomenon of human trafficking is sprouting. For several decades now, a day can’t go by without the media reporting on cases of human trafficking, which is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, receipt of people through force, fraud and deception for the purpose of exploitation. In recent years, human trafficking has become one of the topical crimes that governments all over the world have been fighting against. Most victims in this modern form of slavery that involved millions of men, women, and children worldwide are job seekers. Experts say human traffickers usually start with fraudulent jobs offers from companies allegedly based in foreign countries. Their pay packages range from FCFA 500,000 to 1,000,000 for skilled workers and unskilled workers, FCFA 300,000 to 700,000 per week. Once convinced or brainwashed, the victim is asked to prepare travel documents and make sure he or she has enough money to pay for transportation since the employer will provide accommodation and other welfare. After meeting the requirements, the victims do not only find out their destinations have changed when they finally arrive, but also realise that it is the beginning of their nightmares. All round the clock, apart from pressurizing them to call their parents back home to send huge sums of money which they claim is for proper contract documentation so that the acclaimed job will not be given to another person, they also lock victims in different rooms, ask them to call friends and relatives back home, convince them to follow the same procedures by telling them that, there are lucrative jobs offers in their host countries. Anyone who refuses to comply is threatened of being sold for organ harvesting, abused by the traffickers or thrown out in the cold. Some victims are forced to pretend they are sick and are in need of urgent medical operation. A video is taken of the victim as if he or she is medically attended to by supposed doctors, then the family will be called to send money for medical attention. Under such pressure, some victims have reported wanting to escape but were either too scared or did not know how and from whom to seek help. After several extortions from their family members without them being released, some victims are said to have succeeded to inform their families back home to forget about them because, they are not sure to make it out alive and that they should stop sending money. In Cameroon, what is enthralling is the fact that, in some cases the numbers used to send the money belong to users registered with mobile telephone network companies based in the country. Investigations revealed that, when traced, the users appear to be residing in most of the major cities in Cameroon like, Yaounde, Douala, Bafoussam, Bamanda, Limbe and Garoua. Faced with all these challenges, the government has taken the bull by the horn by earmarking strategies that are already paying off. In 2024, a major international operation code named “Operation Liberterra II”, was carried out in Douala aimed at dismantling trafficking rings and rescuing victims of forced labour. Last year, a major human trafficking network operating in the Moungo division (Littoral Region) was dismantled by officers of the Bwelelo gendarmerie brigade. Between 2025 and 2026, security and diplomatic stakeholders worked hand-inglove with Nigeria and Ghana Rescue experts. Their missions led to the liberation of over 120 Cameroonians from a trafficking hub in Ghana, and 46 more from a “slave camp” in Nigeria. The above operations notwithstanding, curbing fake online recruitments that are used to lure desperate and unemployed youth especially those from Cameroon requires collaborative efforts between the government and social media companies th...