Human trafficking in Niger

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2018)

In 2009, Niger was a source, transit, and destination country for children and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Caste-based slavery practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, continued primarily in the northern part of the country. Children are trafficked within Niger for forced begging by religious instructors known as marabouts; forced labor in gold mines, agriculture, and stone quarries; as well as for involuntary domestic servitude and forced prostitution. The ILO estimates at least 10,000 children work in gold mines in Niger, many of whom may have been forced to work. Nigerien children, primarily girls, were also subjected to commercial sexual exploitation along the border with Nigeria, particularly in the towns of Birni N'Konni and Zinder along the main highway, and boys are trafficked to Nigeria and Mali for forced begging and manual labor. There were reports Nigerien girls entered into "false marriages" with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates: upon arrival in these countries, the girls are often forced into involuntary domestic servitude. Child marriage was a problem, especially in rural areas, and may have contributed to conditions of human trafficking. Niger is a transit country for women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo en route to Northern Africa and Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger as domestic servants, forced laborers in mines and on farms, and as mechanics and welders. To a lesser extent, Nigerien women and children were sometimes trafficked from Niger to North Africa (even if "very few people are involved in human trafficking through the Sahara,^[1]) the Middle East, and Europe for involuntary domestic servitude and forced commercial sexual exploitation."^[2]

In 2009, the Government of Niger did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, including two convictions for traditional slavery offenses, the Nigerien government lagged in enforcing sentences and in providing victim assistance, particularly to victims of traditional slavery, during 2009.

The country ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2004.^[3]

The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017.^[4] By 2023 it had moved to Tier 2.^[5]

In 2023, the Organised Crime Index gave Niger a score of 7.5 out of 10 for human trafficking.^[6]