Senegalese mining rocked by forced labour, sexual exploitation (Report)

 The report also mentions that “fishing vessels owned and operated by Chinese nationals flying the Senegalese flag may exploit West African men, including Senegalese.”

The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 highlights human exploitation in the gold mining region of Kedougou, in south-eastern Senegal.

According to the report, “traffickers exploit women and girls as young as 12 in sex trafficking,” noting that most victims come from Nigeria, but women and girls from Senegal, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are also affected.

Organised networks of Nigerian traffickers play a central role in this trafficking, the Americans report, stressing that they “fraudulently recruit their victims for employment and then exploit them in sex trafficking in Kedougou, often through debt bondage.” The traffickers confiscate the victims’ ID documents and charge them hefty travel
expenses, ranging from 1.57 million CFA francs to 2.15 million CFA francs ($2,670 to $3,650).

It is also reported that “the victims’ families are sometimes accomplices and receive payments from the traffickers.”

A research study quoted in the report estimates that “one in five people working in the sex trade in Kedougou is a victim of sex trafficking.”

In addition, an NGO report attributes part of the increased demand for sex trafficking in mining communities to “cultural and religious beliefs associating sex and illicit activities with increased chances of finding gold.”

The report also notes that traffickers exploit boys from neighbouring countries for forced labour in artisanal gold mines. The report also states that “fishing vessels owned and operated by Chinese nationals flying the Senegalese flag may exploit West African men, including Senegalese, and Chinese nationals in forced labour.”

North Korean nationals working in Senegal are also concerned, often “in exploitative conditions and with multiple indicators of forced labour.”

According to the report, the government of Senegal does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so.

AC/fss/as/APA