Human trafficking in Cameroon

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In 2009 Cameroon was a country of origin, transit, and destination for children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, and a country of origin for women in forced labor. Individual trafficking operations usually involved the trafficking of two or three children at most, as when rural parents handed over their children to a seemingly benevolent middleman who may promise education and a better life in the city. A 2007 study conducted by the Cameroon government reported that 2.4 million children from Cameroon’s ten regions involuntarily work in forced domestic servitude, street vending, and child prostitution, or in hazardous settings, including mines and tea or cocoa plantations, where they are treated as adult labourers. An unknown number of these children are trafficking victims.^[1]

Nigerian and Beninese children attempting to transit Cameroon en route to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, or adjacent countries also fall into the hands of traffickers who force them to stay in the country and work. An unknown number of Cameroonian women are lured abroad by fraudulent proposals of marriage on the Internet or offers of work in domestic service and subsequently become victims of forced labor or forced prostitution - principally in Switzerland and France, and according to reports in 2009, as far away as Russia. This trafficking reportedly is facilitated by corrupt officials who accepted bribes for the issuance of travel documents.^[1]

The State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017.^[2] The country was moved to Tier 2 in 2023.^[3]

Cameron ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in February 2006.^[4]

In 2023, the Organised Crime Index gave Cameroon a score of 6.5 out of 10 for human trafficking.^[5]