Human Trafficking in [Burkina Faso Street Children in [Burkina Faso] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Burkina Faso] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Burkina Faso [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation, with most victims being children. Within the country, most children are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers such as Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, for domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, forced agricultural labor, and forced labor in gold mines and stone quarries. Burkinabe children are also trafficked to other West African countries for the same purposes listed above, most notably to Cote d’Ivoire, but also to Mali, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, and Togo. Children from these West African countries are trafficked to Burkina Faso for the same purposes listed above. To a lesser extent, Burkina Faso is a source country for women lured to Europe with promises of jobs as maids, but who are forced into prostitution after arrival. Women from Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Niger reportedly are trafficked to Burkina Faso for forced labor in bars or for commercial sexual exploitation. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** Nigerian ladies rescued from prostitution syndicate’s den in Burkina Faso Tony was said to have promised to take Rita and Lovina to Germany, to meet their elder sister who resides in that country, but the journey ended up in Burkina Faso where he told them they were brought to the country for prostitution. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Studies indicate that a significant proportion of trafficking
activity is internal. Children are
trafficked into Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
country was an occasional source for women who traveled to Trafficked children were subject
to violence, sexual abuse, forced prostitution, and deprivation of food,
shelter, schooling, and medical care. Organized child trafficking networks
existed throughout the country, and during the year security forces
dismantled four such networks. Child trafficking networks cooperated with
regional smuggling rings. According to the 2004-05 report by
the Protection of Infants and Adolescents office, security forces intercepted
921 trafficked children, more than half of whom were girls; 158 were destined
for international trafficking. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2002 [54] While welcoming the efforts
undertaken by the State party to combat child trafficking through a national
program and, in particular, the adoption of a travel document with five other
countries of the region, the Committee is deeply concerned at the number of
trafficked children who are exploited in the State party and in neighboring
countries. NGOs Work
To Eradicate Human Trafficking, Help Victims U.S.-funded nongovernmental
organizations around the world are working to prevent human trafficking,
provide resources to victims and arrest and prosecute child-sex offenders.
From Africa to Europe to Asia, initiatives are raising worldwide awareness of
the illegal practice of human trafficking. PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING - The anti-trafficking network in
Burkina Faso includes representatives of truckers' unions, security forces
and social action and religious groups who identify and report suspected
trafficking situations. Nigerian
ladies rescued from prostitution syndicate’s den in Burkina Faso Tony was said to have promised to
take Rita and Lovina to Germany, to meet their elder sister who resides in
that country, but the journey ended up in Burkina Faso where he told them
they were brought to the country for prostitution. The
Protection Project - Burkina Faso FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Burkina Faso has been labeled
“a theatre of child labor.” Children
from other African countries are trafficked to Burkina Faso for prostitution,
as domestic workers or street vendors, and for agricultural work,
particularly in banana and coffee plantations. Minors from Burkina Faso are trafficked to
Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria to work on cocoa farms. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Burkina
Faso: Government Tackles Rising Number of Abandoned Children According to government
statistics, there were 2.1 million orphans and abandoned children in Burkina
Faso last year. They accounted for nearly 18 percent of the country's 11.8
million population. The government
blames the rising number of helpless children on AIDS, poverty and child
trafficking. Children, separated from their
families by unscrupulous individuals who promise the impoverished parents
that the child will have better life with another family, end up with no one
to protect them. Many are little more than unpaid domestic slaves. Child
trafficking projects in West Africa - Burkino Faso Their luggage is next to nothing.
Because when the young boys and girls from the south of Burkina Faso leave
their villages, there is not much to take. They finally set out to earn some
money – for a cycle, a wedding, or to support the family. The youngsters are
headed towards the Ivory Coast, where their dreams are supposed to come true
by working on plantations. However, no one has told them about men who will
deceive them and sell them as slaves. If at all they return, it is only
empty-handed. Police in Burkina Faso have
rescued about 30 victims of child traffickers, aged between eight and 17, on the
west African country's border with Mali, a police officer said on Friday. The traffickers had managed to win
the confidence of the children's parents by convincing them that the
youngsters were to be taken to Mali to study the Qu'ran, a police officer
told reporters. The official daily Sidwaya
reported that the real fate of such victims, snatched in several provinces in
Burkina Faso, was to work on agricultural plantations during the day and left
to forage for their own food at night. Labour
standards violated in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali Although Benin, Burkina Faso and
Mali have ratified the core Conventions on Forced Labour, the practice does
exist, Ms Kwateng denounces. "Many women and children are trafficked for
forced prostitution, forced labour on plantations and domestic work,"
she adds. Moreover, many Beninese,
Burkinabe and Malian children are reported to be sold to neighbouring
countries - like Togo and Côte d'Ivoire - and forced to work on plantations
or in domestic work under harsh and dangerous conditions while receiving very
low pay, if any at all. CHILD TRAFFICKING - In a high-profile campaign by
the government of the Ivory Coast, 97 victims of child trafficking were
return to their homes in Burkina Faso. Some of those returned say they are
neither children nor slaves. The returnees say that they were picked at
random by police. One young man says he is 24 and not a slave, he has been
working with papers in the Ivory Coast since 1999. Since January, 350 alleged child
slaves have been returned. The Ivorian government agrees that child slavery is
a problem but denies it is widespread on the cocoa plantations. It claims
that the children, traffickers and their sponsors are all foreigners and that
Ivorian farmers are not to blame. The country has tightened its borders
controls, especially with Mali and Burkina Faso, whose nationals account for
two-thirds of the workers in cocoa and coffee plantations. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Burkina Faso Street Children in [Burkina Faso] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Burkina Faso] [other countries]