Western and Central Africa13
Traffickers pocket substantial criminal proceeds from various forms of exploitation of victims. In
Western and Central Africa, these victims are predominantly women and children who live in the
harshest conditions of vulnerability. Armed conflict, socio-political instability, bad governance,
environmental stress and disaster drastically increase the vulnerability of children to
trafficking for a variety of exploitative purposes, including their recruitment and abuse in situations
of armed conflict and war.
When looking at the entire region, three major trafficking trends, two of which are transnational,
can be identified:
• Children who are trafficked within the region for the purpose of labour exploitation
• Women and girls who are trafficked both within and out of the region for sexual
exploitation
• Large-scale internal trafficking, which takes place within the borders of a State
Several countries in the region are both origin and destination countries for women and girls
who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. The main destinations outside the region are in
Western Europe, Southern Africa and the Middle East.
Patterns of internal trafficking within the region often remain hidden behind the issues of
transnational trafficking. Conflict, poverty, and HIV/AIDS leave adults and especially children
vulnerable to trafficking within their own national borders. General trends within the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) include trafficking from rural to urban and industrial
areas for employment and sexual exploitation. Larger farming and fishing communities in
fertile lands and along coastal areas also receive large numbers of internally trafficked persons for
labour.