The Cost Of Japa: How Nigerians Are Falling Victim To Dubious Travel Agents
In June 2009, shortly after writing her West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the parents of Tobi Kolade informed her that they were processing her travels to the United States for tertiary education. All required papers were submitted to a travel agent who was also paid ₦350,000. All that was left was for her WAEC result to be out so she could add it to the document and go to the US to study. When the result was released towards the end of the year, she sent it to the agent and sat back. It would take her four years to leave the shores of Nigeria eventually, but it would be to Lithuania, a small country in Europe, more than 5,000 miles away from America.
“My only regret was not writing JAMB when my mates were doing so and starting a degree in Nigeria,” she told Neusroom. “I had secondary schoolmates already in universities in Nigeria and terminated it when their foreign admission came. In my case, I was so sure of going to the US within a year that I did not bother to explore other opportunities. I wasted four years doing nothing.”
According to Tobi, the ₦350,000 was one of a long list of payments her parents made to secure American education and possible permanent residency for their daughter. Twice, she went to the American Consulate in Lagos for a visa interview and twice, her application was denied. Each visit cost the agent additional money that they lost count of how much had been paid at a point.
“In 2012, three years after the initial payment, I grew desperate and even became embarrassed because my life was on hold. All my friends were either out of the country or in the university, while I continued to hold on to the hope of going to the US. It did not even cross my mind that there was something fishy about the whole situation. At a point, he told me he had helped secure admission for me at a university in Lithuania. If I were willing to spend one year in a European country, my application to the US would be easier. I pounced on it even though I was just learning about the country for the first time in my life. I just wanted to leave Nigeria.”
In 2013, Tobi finally left Nigeria and got to Lithuania after a stopover in Germany. She had to do a language course for a year before starting her academic programme. Subsequent applications to the US from there have been futile, so she has given up on the dream.
“The only consolation now is that all the money spent by my parents still took me somewhere even though I did not even know Lithuania existed. Looking back at the whole thing, I don’t think the agent could take me to the US. He fed off our desperation to the point where we were okay with any country, so all the money spent would not be a waste.”
Tobi is one of the relatively lucky ones. As travel agencies and agents are springing up in Nigeria, claiming to have the ability to help Nigerians secure entry into countries in Europe, North America and Australia, most of them are fraudsters who have seen a general uptick in Nigerians’ interest in moving abroad and capitalised on their desperation.
The search for greener pasture
A report by Pew Research Centre says 45% of Nigerian adults say they plan to leave the country within the next five years, making it one of the highest in the world. Nigeria has the largest number of immigrants in the US, although the rate reduced in 2020 when the Trump administration added the country to a list of countries whose residents faced travel restrictions.
Akan, a Nigerian biochemist who is a permanent resident of the US, told Neusroom that he gets at least one inquiry from Nigeria every week on how to process visas into the US.
“Whether it’s a family member or former church member or a friend of another friend whom I can’t even remember, the emails and messages keep coming in. I even had to set up an automatic email response to specific keywords related to visa and travel.”
A 2018 Pew Research Centre Survey reveals that many Nigerians hold pessimistic views about the country’s economy, which might be responsible for the surge in the quest to leave the country.
According to Africa Polling Institute, the desire for better opportunities tops the reasons many Nigerians seek to leave the country, closely followed by security concerns.
Canada has emerged as the leading destination for Nigerians seeking to leave the country for greener pastures. The US and UK used to be the desired destinations, but this changed post-Brexit and the Trump administration’s anti-immigration stance.
According to API, “these categories of Nigerians are not the ordinary poor Nigerians, but they are the highly skilled, well educated, mostly employed and upwardly mobile group of individuals, who constitute the middle-rung of the socio-economic class of the country.”
The most common pathway Nigerians use to move to Canada is the Federal Skilled Workers Program known as Express Entry (56%), followed by Studentship / Postgraduate Work Permit (25%) and the Provincial Nominee scheme (12%).
A market for fraudsters
The massive demand for Canadian travel and emigration has opened up a market for fraudsters who create intricate webs to try and lure unsuspecting Nigerians by creating dubious “travel agencies”. Although travel agencies exist to provide information on travel and visa applications, some have turned this opportunity into a scheme to defraud Nigerians.
In January 2020, Semiu Olowole and Adegboyega Adefuye were remanded in prison for defrauding Nigerians of N15 million in a visa scam. Their victims were promised work visas to Dubai that never came.
A travel agent who spoke to Neusroom on the condition of anonymity via phone said telltale signs show if an agent is legitimate or not and insisted that their experience comes valuable to anyone wishing to leave the country.
He said: “The agent’s work is to guide a potential traveller by providing appropriate information on each country. Information on websites is not usually updated. However, we agents have the knowledge and experience that can be of great help to people, which is what we sell.
“If an agent does not have an office or you don’t know where they live, you should be suspicious. A legitimate agent has nothing to hide, and they make travel easier.”
Most countries provide immigration information on their websites. In some cases, however, fraud victims desire quick visa acceptance or do not have the prerequisite documentation and seek these agents to help find a way around it.
One Shola Ahmed who spoke to Neusroom said he paid ₦1.5 million to a travel agent after claiming she could help him secure a Canadian work visa. After connecting with her via Twitter, the two agreed on an initial payment of ₦1.5 million and that another ₦1.5 million would be paid when the visa was issued.
Ahmed said after paying the money, the agent deactivated her social media accounts, and her number became unreachable. Efforts to retrieve the money have proved abortive.
“I went to my bank to lay a complaint but was told that they could not do anything about it since it was a legitimate transaction and not a compromised account.”
Neusroom spoke with a ‘travel agent’ to make inquiries about getting a visa to Canada. The agent said the total package cost ₦4 million and would cover:
▪️Work permit visa
◾️ One-way flight tickets
◾️ Job offers
◾️ Accommodations
In reality, according to Esther Adebola, there is no guarantee that anything will be done after the payment has been made. She found out the hard way after paying ₦3 million to an agent to help process a Canadian visa for her and her twin sister.
“I was told he had helped people and worked at Skywithus Travels. He even said we would pay him 5% of our salary when we get to Canada for six months which I agreed to. I did not know anyone could disappear off the surface of the earth. The network provider has reassigned his phone number, and all his social media footprint is gone. It is as if the person never existed. I was told by a friend later that they create a new identity until they don’t need it again and discard it.”
Part of the requirement for the visa application to most western countries is the proof of fund, which shows that the immigrant has the financial capability to cater for themselves for a duration of time after moving in. This requirement has birthed a sort of racketeering where Nigerians pay for an amount of money to be domiciled in their account for a specific period for a fee. An agent who spoke with Neusroom said an applicant is expected to pay 3% of the total amount required as proof of fund.
The account information is then presented as part of the documentation for the visa application. This scheme has opened up Nigerians to fraud where they pay money to ‘agents’ who then send fake credit alerts to them.
Canada has attempted to address these problems by providing periodic information on the best way to approach visa applications.
Nancy Caron, the Spokesperson/Media Relation Advisor, Communications Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, told Neusroom that accredited agents registered and recognised by the Citizenship Act exist and are members of one of these groups:
- Citizenship or immigration consultants must be a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.
- Lawyers or notaries must be a member of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, or the Chambre des notaires du Québec.
- Paralegals (Ontario only) must be members of the Law Society of Ontario
Caron said any other person receiving payment outside any of the groups listed above violates the law and warns applicants to be wary of them.
She added that “It is not necessary to hire a representative as all the forms and instructions needed to apply for a visa, a permit or citizenship are available for free on the Government of Canada’s website.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada urges individuals to use the official Departmental website to get the latest information about its programs and fees to apply.
“Using the services of a representative with an immigration or citizenship application will not speed up the application process, and no representative can guarantee they will be successful in getting an application approved.”
Most countries provide all relevant information on their immigration websites and also contact information they can be reached on to provide answers to immigration questions. Thus, to reduce the risk of falling into the hands of dubious travel agents, it is advisable to go through accredited channels.
