Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/Benin.htm
Benin is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a
destination country for children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor
and commercial sexual exploitation. A UNICEF study found that in 2006 more
than 40,000 children were trafficked to, from, or through Benin. Ninety-three
percent of victims were Beninese and 92 percent were trafficked within the
country. Forty-three percent of children trafficked were subjected to
domestic servitude. Of those trafficked internally, 86 percent were underage
girls. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later
country report here or a full TIP
Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you like
to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty. There is a lot to the subject
of Trafficking. Scan other countries
as well. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Scale of African
slavery revealed BBC News, 23 April,
2004 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3652021.stm [accessed 23 January
2011] COMPLICITY - Much of this
trade in children often has the tacit collaboration of the victims' own families
where it is seen not so much as criminal activity but as a way for a large
family to boost its poor income. The story of Joseph
in African "slave
ship" highlights spread of child slavery Trevor Johnson,
World Socialist Web Site, 19 April 2001 www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/slav-a19.shtml [accessed 23 January
2011] Although there may
be a superficial resemblance to the African slave trade of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, the driving forces behind this modern form of
slavery are entirely new. The roots of today's slave trade are to be
discovered in the way that capitalism has developed in The conditions of
extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa have attracted transnational corporations
(TNCs), which can profit from ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Benin U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/benin/
[accessed 13 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The government did not consistently enforce the law, particularly in the large informal sector. Forced labor occurred, including domestic servitude and bonded labor by children. Forced labor was mainly found in the agricultural (e.g., cotton and palm oil), artisanal mining, quarrying, fishing, commercial, and construction sectors. Many traffickers were relatives or acquaintances of their victims, exploiting the traditional system of vidomegon whereby a child, usually a daughter, is sent to live as a servant with a wealthier family, despite NGO and government efforts to raise awareness of the risks associated with this practice. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Despite the
government’s limited capacity to enforce child labor laws, the government
took steps to educate parents on the labor code and prevent compulsory labor
by children, including through media campaigns, regional workshops, and
public pronouncements on child labor problems. These initiatives were part of
the Labor Office’s traditional sensitization program. The government also
worked with a network of NGOs and journalists to educate the population
regarding child labor and child trafficking. The Ministries of Justice and
Labor supported capacity building for officials and agencies responsible for
enforcing child labor laws. To
help support their families, children of both sexes, including those as young
as age seven, worked on family farms, in small businesses, on construction
sites in urban areas, in public markets as street vendors, and as domestic
servants under the practice of vidomegon. Many
rural parents sent their children to cities to live with relatives or family
friends to perform domestic chores in return for receiving an education. Host
families did not always honor their part of the vidomegon
arrangement, and abuse and forced labor of child domestic servants was a
problem. Children often faced long hours of work, inadequate food, and sexual
exploitation, factors indicative of forced labor and exploitation of children
in domestic servitude. Sometimes the child’s parents and the urban family
that raised the child divided the income generated by the child’s activities.
Up to 95 percent of children in vidomegon were
young girls. Several local NGOs led public education and awareness campaigns
to decrease the practice. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/benin/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 19 March
2020] G3. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY PERSONAL SOCIAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER AND SIZE
OF FAMILY, PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND CONTROL OVER APPEARANCE? Domestic violence
remains a serious problem, and women are often reluctant to report instances of
domestic abuse. A 2003 law that prohibits female genital mutilation reduced
the incidence of the practice, but it still persists, particularly in the
northeast. Although the law prohibits marriage for those under
18 years old, the government allows exceptions for those aged 14 to 17 if
there is parental consent. Child marriage and forced marriage remain common
in rural areas. G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Legal protections
against forced labor and other exploitative working conditions are unevenly
enforced, with poor conditions more prevalent in the large informal sector.
Human trafficking is widespread in Benin, despite a recent uptick in
prosecutions for the crime. The practice of sending young girls to wealthy
families to work as domestic servants has led to cases of exploitation and
sexual slavery. Children are also exploited for agricultural labor and work
in various trades. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 15 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 23 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 157] Children are
trafficked mostly within Benin but also to other countries, primarily Gabon,
Nigeria, and the Republic of Congo, for domestic work and commercial sexual
exploitation, as well as to work in vending, farming, and stone quarrying.
(1; 17; 20; 21; 22; 2) Children working in mines and quarries are subject to
long working hours and physical injuries and illnesses from dynamite
explosions, falling rocks, collapsing quarry walls, and dust inhalation. (10)
Traditionally, under a practice known locally as vidomegon, children, up to
95 percent of them girls, live with relatives or family friends to perform
household services in exchange for educational opportunities; however, many
children become victims of labor exploitation and sexual abuse. (1; 2; 17;
20; 23; 24). A Study on Human Trafficking
for Sexual Exploitation within th Gulf of Guinea
countries James Okolie-Osemene PhD, Department of International Relations
and the Director of Research and Linkage Programme,
Wellspring University, Nigeria [Long URL] [accessed 14
February 2022] The objectives of
this study are to situate and examine the context, nature and networks of
human trafficking for sexual exploitation around the Gulf of Guinea in order
to identify the intersection between the sources, transit and destinations of
the illicit trade, interrogate the human rights implications of human
trafficking for sexual exploitation around the countries of the Gulf of
Guinea on the one hand, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats to the anti-trafficking activities on the other hand. Report by Special
Rapporteur
[DOC] U.N. Economic and Social
Council, Commission on Human Rights, Fifty ninth session, 6 January 2003 www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/217511d4440fc9d6c1256cda003c3a00/$FILE/G0310090.doc [accessed 23 January
2011] [28] Action to
combat trafficking has been mobilized since the well-publicized case in
April 2001 of the Etireno, a Nigerian-registered ship thought to be
carrying some 200 children from The Protection
Project - Benin The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/benin.doc [accessed 2009] www.protectionproject.org/country-reports/ [accessed 13
February 2019] A Human Rights
Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Benin, along
with Togo, has one of the greatest problems with child trafficking of all the
countries in West and Central Africa.
Child labor and sexual exploitation are the predominant forms of
trafficking. For example, children are trafficked from In September 2003,
a total of 116 Beninese boys between 5 and 17 years old were repatriated from
A tradition
involving the use of female slaves, known as trokosi or “wives of the deity,”
is a modern-day form of slavery that originated in the Ewe and Dangme peoples
in south and east Labour standards
violated in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali AFROL News, 30 June
2004 www.afrol.com/articles/13491
<<== CAUTION VIRUS ALERT [accessed 23 January
2011] Although 74 additional
trafficked children repatriated from UNICEF Press Centre,
16 October 2003 www.unicef.org/media/media_15016.html [accessed 23 January
2011] Another group of 74
trafficked children, between the ages of 4 and 17 years
old, was repatriated to This is the second repatriation
in 2 weeks of Beninese trafficked children coming from According to
Nigerian sources, there might be thousands of Beninese children exploited in In The Northwest:
Bully for those combating worldwide slave trade Joel Connelly, www.seattlepi.com/connelly/144536_joel20.html [accessed 23 January
2011] Human trafficking
remains huge -- about 6,000 children remain at work in Traffickers hold
thousands of children, women in bondage UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/47205/west-africa-traffickers-hold-thousands-of-children-women-in-bondage [accessed 8 March
2015] Silinu Sogbonsi was
five years old when unknown men seized him as he walked home from school in
Selinu, a little town in the southeast of LABOUR: Toye Olori, Inter
Press Service News Agency IPS, www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20511 [accessed 23 January
2011] www.ipsnews.net/2003/10/labour-nigeria-benin-join-forces-to-fight-child-trafficking/ [accessed 5
September 2016] The children, all
males and malnourished, were part of the inmates of about seven child-slave
camps discovered in the western Nigerian States of Ogun, Oyo and Osun, in a
major breakthrough by security operatives fighting cross-border crimes,
especially child trafficking and forced child labour. Ship Discovered
With Human Cargo Orando Yanquoi,
ExpoTimes ( www.diastode.org/Nouvelles/usnews190.html [accessed 23 January
2011] news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1281391.stm [accessed 17 January
2016] 250 children have
been discovered aboard a ship in the Gabonese port. The children who were
allegedly sold to human traffickers by their parents or guardians were taken
to According to
Zardzo, the children aboard the ship are between the ages of 9,10,and 11, who
are able to help government in the relocation of their parents or
guardians. These children are said to
have hailed from the two West African countries of Rogue Voyage of a
21st Century African Slave Ship Austin Baynow, On
Point, Strategy Page, April 19, 2001 www.strategypage.com/on_point/20010419.aspx [accessed 23 January
2011] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] On April 17, the
Etireno limped back into Realists wondered
if an even greater evil had occurred, with the human evidence drowned at sea. Modern Slavery -
Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic Ricco Villanueva
Siasoco, Infoplease, April 18, 2001 www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html [accessed 23 January
2011] SLAVE TRADING ON
AFRICA'S Sources: "Child Slave
Trade in "Fewer skilled
emigrants this year," The Star, August 6, 1997 migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1327_0_5_0 [accessed 22 July
2013] SLAVE CHILDREN - The New York
Times on August 10, 1997 reported that the slave trade in children seems to
be increasing in Central Africa, as well-dressed traders travel to poor rural
areas in Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) [DOC] UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 20 October 2006 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/af244100fbf1ad36c125723a003fa4ab/$FILE/G0644845.doc [accessed 23 January
2011] [71] While welcoming
the ongoing efforts by the State party to combat child trafficking, including
the new Law on the Suppression of Trafficking in Children, the National
Policy and Strategy on Child Protection, and the National Study on Child
Trafficking, the Committee is concerned at the information that a high number
of children under 18, especially adolescent girls, are still being trafficked
for the purpose of sexual exploitation and domestic labour in other
countries. [67] The Committee is
deeply concerned at the prevalence of child labour among young children under
the age of 14, at the traditional practice of domestic servants or
vidomégons, and at the increased number of children working in the informal
sector. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 4 June 1999 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/benin1999.html [accessed 23 January
2011] [33] While the
Committee notes the efforts of the State party, it remains concerned at the
increasing incidence of sale and trafficking of children, particularly girls,
and the lack of adequate legal and other measures to prevent and combat this
phenomenon. In the light of article 35 and other related articles of the
Convention, the Committee recommends that the State party review its legal
framework and strengthen law enforcement, and intensify its efforts to raise
awareness in communities, in particular in rural areas. Cooperation with neighboring
countries through bilateral agreements to prevent cross-border trafficking is
strongly encouraged ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/benin/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 23 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Human trafficking is
widespread in Benin, despite a recent uptick in prosecutions for the crime.
Trafficking of children is illegal; legislation that specifically addresses
adult trafficking remains under review. The practice of sending young girls
to wealthy families to work as domestic servants has led to cases of
exploitation and sexual slavery. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/benin.htm [accessed 23 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Benin is a source, destination and transit country
for the trafficking of children.
Children from 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/af/276969.htm
[accessed 16 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/benin/ [accessed 24 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor
occurred, including domestic servitude and bonded labor by children. Forced
labor was mainly found in the agricultural (e.g., cotton and palm oil),
artisanal mining, quarrying, fishing, commercial, and construction sectors.
Many traffickers were relatives or acquaintances of their victims, exploiting
the traditional system of vidomegon, in which
parents allow their children to live with and work for richer relatives,
usually in urban areas. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT To help support
their families, children of both sexes, including those as young as age
seven, worked on family farms, in small businesses, on construction sites in
urban areas, in public markets as street vendors, and as domestic servants
under the practice of vidomegon. Under vidomegon many rural parents sent their children to
cities to live with relatives or family friends to perform domestic chores in
return for receiving an education. Host families did
not always honor their part of the vidomegon
arrangement, and abuse and forced labor of child domestic servants was a
problem. Children often faced long hours of work, inadequate food, and sexual
exploitation; factors indicative of forced labor and exploitation of children
in domestic servitude. Sometimes the child’s parents and the urban family
that raised the child divided between themselves the income generated by the
child’s activities. Up to 95 percent of children in vidomegon
were young girls. Several local NGOs led public education and awareness
campaigns to decrease the practice. A majority of
children working as apprentices were under the legal age of 14 for
apprenticeship, including children working in construction, car and motorbike
repair, hairdressing, and dressmaking. Children worked as laborers with
adults in quarries, including crushing granite, in many areas. Children were
at times forced to hawk goods and beg, and street children engaged in
prostitution (see section 6). Children under age 14 worked in either the
formal or informal sectors in the following activities: agriculture, hunting
and fishing, industry, construction and public works, trade and vending, food
and beverages, transportation, and other services, including employment as
household staff Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61554.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The traditional practice of vidomegon, in which
poor, often rural, families placed a child in the home of a more wealthy
family to avoid the burden the child represented to the parental family,
increasingly involved abuse. While originally a voluntary arrangement between
two families, the child often faced forced labor, long hours, inadequate
food, and sexual exploitation. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of the children
in vidomegon were young girls. Children were sent
from poorer families to Cotonou and then sometimes
on to Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Central African Republic to help in
markets and around the home. The child received living accommodations, while
the child's parents and the urban family that raised the child split the
income generated from the child's activities. Children were
trafficked to According to a 2000
UNICEF study, four distinct forms of trafficking occurred in the country.
"Trafic‑don" was when children were
given to a migrant family member or stranger, who turned them over to another
stranger for vocational training or education. "Trafic‑gage"
was a form of indentured servitude, in which a debt was incurred to transport
the child, who was not allowed to return home until the debt was repaid.
"Trafic‑ouvrier" involved children
of ages 6 years to 12 years, who worked as artisans, construction laborers,
or agricultural or domestic workers. This was the most common variant,
estimated to be 75 percent of the total traffic of the three provinces UNICEF
surveyed in 2000. Finally, "trafic‑vente"
was the outright sale of children. All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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