Human trafficking in Senegal

Senegal ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in October 2003.^[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. Trafficking within the country was more prevalent than trans-border trafficking and the majority of victims are children. 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. A 2007 study done by UNICEF, the ILO, and the World Bank found that 6,480 talibe were forced to beg in Dakar alone. Women and girls were trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism, within Senegal. Transnationally, boys were trafficked to Senegal from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea for forced begging by religious teachers. 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.^[2]

The Government of Senegal maintained a steady commitment to rescuing and caring for victims, though law enforcement efforts.

The U.S. State Department's [[Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons[[ placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2023.^[3]