ABSTRACT
Trafficking in human beings (THB) is, in short, a modern form of slavery that continues to shame and challenge humanity to take action to end it. THB is growing in scale and repercussions in Africa. Africa is, today, seen as a major source of human trafficking. There are inter-and intra-country forms of trafficking within the continent – especially in the movement from poorer to wealthier countries – and also internal trafficking from rural to urban or major cities. Although very difficult to quantify, the problem is nonetheless hugely underestimated; not just because of its insidious, complex and dynamic nature, but largely due to lack of capacity, uncoordinated mechanisms for data collection and peculiar migration configurations and conundrums – especially in the West African sub-region, where there is free movement of people within the ECOWAS region. As one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the world, THB results in serious breaches of human rights and dignity of trafficked persons. Trafficking occurs within and across national borders, often with victims crossing many borders to reach their final destination. 1 Trafficking knows no borders, and affects countries within the African continent as either source/sending, transit, or destination/receiving States, and, in some cases, a country can be all three at once, in varying degrees.
