Human trafficking in Senegal

[1] In 2008, Senegal was a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

Within Senegal some boys called "talibes" were victims of trafficking, by promising to educate them, but subjecting them instead to forced begging and physical abuse.

Senegalese women and girls were trafficked to neighboring countries, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude and possibly for sexual exploitation.

Women and girls from other West African countries, particularly Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria may have been trafficked to Senegal for sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism.

In December 2007, nine individuals, two of whom were truck drivers from Guinea-Bissau and one of whom was Senegalese, were arrested at the southern border for attempting to traffic 34 boys.

The Ministry of the Interior, through its Bureau of Investigations, works closely with Interpol to monitor immigration and emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking.

Senegalese police continued to work closely with Bissau-Guinean authorities to repatriate children trafficked for forced begging back to Guinea-Bissau.

However, the Family Ministry, which funds and operates the Center with help from international donors, has recently begun using an NGO-funded computerized database to track trafficking victims.