Dakar – While labour migration in West Africa remains a phenomenon involving mostly men (85 per cent), there are signs of change. More children and women are on the move, thus increasing the risks of abuse, violence, and exploitation they face during their journeys.  

“I was ready to start my first year of University when a man approached my mother with a proposition for me to study abroad,” said a young woman named Favour. “He managed to convince my mother that he could get me a scholarship in Italy. All I had to do was give him the necessary documents for him to process the paperwork.” 

She remembered that once they arrived in Libya, things changed. “The ‘pusher man’ gathered all the women who were in the truck and handed us over to another man. The man took us to Qatrun, a city in Libya, and later sold us to a ‘Madam’ who took us to a house and told us that we would be now working for her,” she concluded. 

Over the years, migration dynamics from and within the region have become more complex, with an increasing number of people travelling across the region. Intraregional migration now accounts for the largest part of migration flows within the region (90 per cent). 

To help teach authorities to identify the protection needs and challenges of vulnerable migrants along the routes and improve the understanding of the mixed migration phenomenon in West Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for West and Centre Africa organized a seminar on Exploitative Labour Practices and Combatting Human Trafficking in West Africa in Dakar, Senegal’s capital city last week. 

This seminar brought together nearly 50 participants from UN agencies, governments, the Regional Working Group on Mixed Migration and NGOs.   

The event was funded by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), and organized within the framework of the African Regional Migration Programme. This programme works to support countries across the continent as they improve migration management. Another goal is reducing the vulnerability of migrants. Another is to promote regional cooperation and partnerships on migration issues.  

“It is key to bring everyone together to discuss such a range of protection issues associated with migration in West Africa – from mining practices in Senegal and Guinea to border security in Liptako Gourma – arguably one of the most complex border areas in West Africa,” said Geoffrey Parker, PRM’s Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa at the US embassy in Dakar.  

“To effectively address the continuous protection needs of vulnerable migrants in the region, we must increase regional and inter-country cooperation,” added Nassima Clerin, an IOM regional protection specialist.  

To highlight the reality of exploitative labour practices and human trafficking in West Africa, IOM presented key findings from its latest research studies conducted in several countries on West African female domestic workers in Middle East and on labour migration in mining sites in Guinea and Senegal. 

“For many female sex-workers originating from the region, working conditions around the mining sites are characterized by isolation, insecurity and exploitation, which tend to prove the existence of a sub-regional trafficking system in West Africa,” said Berenice Boukaré, IOM regional research officer. 

Daniel Tagoe, project officer from IOM Ghana and Awa Kaira, PRM focal person from IOM Gambia, presented studies portraying the cases of female domestic workers in Middle East countries to demonstrate the specific vulnerabilities of female migrants, their profiles and the recruitment process in the international migration context.   

Research findings recommended that enhanced prevention efforts and increased coordination and cooperation between key actors at regional, national, and community level are crucial to ensure protection to vulnerable migrants. 

“It is key to promote a regional and cross-sector approach to better address the vulnerabilities of the most vulnerable migrant groups and build effective protection mechanisms,” IOM’s Boukaré concluded. 

During the seminar, Senegal’s National Anti-Human Trafficking Office also presented Systraite, its data collection system on human trafficking. The Mixed Migration Centre presented its recent research on smuggling practices as well as border and security governance in Liptako Gourma, in Burkina Faso while Save the Children presented effective sub-regional governance of migration and protection of the youth on the move between Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso. 

This programme, funded by PRM, is implemented in 17 countries, including four West African countries (The Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo).  

For more information, please contact Donghyuk Park, Email: dpark@iom.int or Nassima Clerin, Email: clerin@iom.int at the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa.