Victims Exploited in Africa

This data story presents key characteristics from the Global Victim Dataset of approximately 3,000 victims exploited in Africa. Most data is shown at the regional level, and there are some key statistics for the ten countries within the region where the largest amount of data is present. The subset mainly comprises data from IOM's counter trafficking activities, and therefore some data is largely reflective of IOM's programming within the region. Regions and sub-regions are defined according to the official UN classification.

Global dataset analysis

Regional analysis

Trafficking locations

TYPE OF EXPLOITATION ALL VICTIMS

Over half of victims exploited in Africa are victims of trafficking for labour exploitation, while around a fifth are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

GENDER OF VICTIMS

Among identified cases of victims exploited within the region of Africa, there is a nearly equal proportion of male and female victims.

ADULTS AND CHILDREN

REGION OF ORIGIN OF VICTIMS

Notably, over half of the victims identified as being exploited in Africa are children. This is in contrast to the Global Dataset at large, of which only one fifth of victims are children.

Over 80% of identified victims exploited in Africa have citizenship of an African country, representing the intra-regional nature of trafficking.

GENDER AND AGE OF VICTIMS

Whilst within Africa the proportion of male and female victims is almost equal, the genders are not equally distributed across age categories. There is a higher proportion of boys (children under 18) in each of the children's age categories. The reverse is true for categories between 19 and 48 years of age, with higher proportions of females. Men are more proportionately represented among the over 60s.

MEANS OF CONTROL USED ON ADULTS

MEANS OF CONTROL USED ON CHILDREN

Traffickers use many means of controlling their victims, and each victim can be subject to several means of control during the course of their trafficking experience.

Similarly to adults, children exploited in Africa are controlled most through threats, false promises, and psychological or physical abuse.

MARITAL STATUS

EDUCATION LEVEL

Over 80% of victims exploited in Africa are single. This may be a reflection of the high number of children among identified victims.

Over 50% of victims exploited in Africa have completed primary or elementary education, but beyond that very few have completed any higher level of education. Again, this may be reflective of the age of identified victims, rather than victims exploited in Africa in general.

WORK SECTOR FOR VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING FOR LABOUR EXPLOITATION

RECRUITER RELATIONSHIP

Available data shows victims largely trafficked into begging or domestic work. While this may be reflective of general trends, it should be noted that data here largely reflect IOM's programming and there may be a high number of individuals trafficked into certain sectors in certain places.

The majority of identified victims were not recruited by someone close to them.

SUB-REGION OF EXPLOITATION OF VICTIMS

Within available data, which mostly comes from the IOM caseload, almost half of victims are exploited in Western Africa. Almost equal numbers are exploited in Eastern and Northern Africa, while the smallest number are exploited in Southern Africa.

DURATION OF TRAFFICKING

Over 60% of victims exploited in Africa were trafficked for between 0-1 years. From there, the frequency for number of years trafficked decreases steadily, with the longest recorded trafficking duration for a victim of trafficking at 13 years.