Human trafficking in Togo

In 2008, Togo was a source, transit and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within Togo was more prevalent than transnational trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Togolese girls were trafficked primarily within the country for domestic servitude, as market vendors, produce porters, and for commercial sexual exploitation. To a lesser extent, girls were also trafficked to other African countries, primarily Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, and Niger for the same purposes listed above. Togolese boys were most commonly trafficked transnationally to work in agricultural labor in other African countries, primarily Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Benin, though some boys are also trafficked within the country for market labor. Beninese and Ghanaian children have also been trafficked to Togo. There have been reports of Togolese women and girls trafficked to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, likely for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Togolese women may have been trafficked to Europe, primarily to France and Germany, for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. In 2007, 19 Togolese girls and young women were trafficked to the United States for forced labor in a hair salon. The Government of Togo does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so, despite limited resources. Togo demonstrated solid law enforcement efforts by increasing the number of traffickers convicted. However, sentences imposed on convicted traffickers were inadequate and protection efforts were diminished over last year.^[1]

The country ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in May 2009.^[2]

In 2017, the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watch List" in 2018^[3] - a downgrade from the year before.^[4] The country was at Tier 2 in 2023.^[5]

In 2023, the Organised Crime Index noted that while some state officials played a role in carrying out this crime, the country had made progress in fighting it, including setting up a National Action Plan in 2021 with rehabilitation centres for child victims.^[6]