"IOM, Partners Combat Exploitative Labour Practices, Human Trafficking in West Africa" 

...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...

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.