[3] In 2009, Voice of America reported that the number of prostitutes in Burkina Faso had increased as a result of the country's poverty.
In 1990 the Burkina Faso government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and there are laws against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Trafficked children, primarily Nigerian nationals, were also subject to sexual abuse and forced prostitution.
[8] Professionnelles de luxe (French for 'luxury professionals') are call girls who offer their services, by appointment, in hotels, motels and clients' residences.
[8] Many young women, especially high school students, turn to part-time prostitution to afford "luxury" goods such as fashionable European clothing.
Prevalence has fallen from 53% in 1998,[13] to 16.2% in 2016[12] Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking.
To a lesser extent, traffickers recruit women for ostensibly legitimate employment in Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and various European countries and subsequently subject them to forced prostitution.
It is a destination for children subjected to trafficking from neighbouring countries, including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.
Women from other West African countries are fraudulently recruited for employment in Burkina Faso and subsequently subjected to forced prostitution.