Human trafficking in West Africa

A joint report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) shows that more than 75% of trafficking victims in West Africa encompasses children. The UNODC report also suggests that three out of four children in the region are victims of human trafficking that makes the situation grim.

This evidence throws light on prevalent recruitment and trafficking using methods of deception and is held in bondages in different labour-intensive activities. Children are also peddled and forced into prostitution Children especially the vulnerable, are brought into the industrial or trading business which makes it almost impossible to break free from. The victims as per the reports are usually from the regions of Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Togo, and Niger, where people are forced to flee the poor regions due to the ongoing political upheaval, military coups, unstable economy, and recurring droughts.

Most of the minors are recruited as a part of the transnational crime, which poses a massive threat to the security and peace of the continent, so much so that it has become endemic in Africa. In West Africa, this problem is highly complex. Children, especially girls are trafficked from the rural regions and forced to work in the Cocoa plantations in the Urban Cote D’Ivoire.

The traffickers in Africa target those children or people who migrate from the Sub-Saharan region considering they face language barriers and are vulnerable due to their poor status. These children and people are exploited due to their vulnerability by deceiving them of job opportunities and sending them to the labour-intensive and flesh-trade business. 

Africa has developed a nexus of human trafficking and encapsulated two dimensions- Internal and External. This market of criminal human trade is controlled by highly sophisticated criminal gangs who thrive on the lucrative nature of human trafficking globally. This is further enhanced by globalization and the inclusion of the dark web, which is exploited by traffickers to lure and advertise people into the world of trafficking. The business online has increased the concern even more with various illicit activities such as child pornography, online sex chats, and illegal sporting activities.

West Africa remains at a very critical end of this thread considering the lack of tight border rules and immigration control.