An estimated 33% of children aged 5 to 17 in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province have experienced child trafficking and 36% have experienced child labor, according to new research from the African Programming & Research Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) at the University of Georgia's Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach (CenHTRO). 

“Child Trafficking and the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Sierra Leone" is the largest scale household survey on the topic ever undertaken in Sierra Leone and offers key detail into how and why child trafficking happens in the West African country. 

The report specifically describes child trafficking and child labor in the Sierra Leone's Eastern Province, which comprises three rural districts near borders with Guinea and Liberia and is among the poorest areas in what is considered one of the world’s poorest countries. 

The nature of trafficking in Sierra Leone results in Eastern Province children being taken outside the region, often to more urban areas. The report’s insight and recommendations therefore have the potential to improve children’s lives across the country. 

“Without reliable estimates of child trafficking and child labor, government and NGOs cannot have a baseline to work from, making it impossible to know if we are making progress in reducing the problem,” said CenHTRO Director David Okech, principal investigator for the report. UGA faculty Tamora Callands, Jody Clay-Warner, Nathan Hansen, and University of Liverpool professor Alex Balch served as co-investigators.

Okech added, “The high number of children in trafficking and labor is quite significant, and our goal is to partner in prevention, prosecution, and protection efforts to reduce the problem over time.”

Trafficking most commonly occurred when a child was relocated away from their biological family by someone offering the promise of educational opportunities, according to the report. Instead, away from home, the child experienced forced labor, was denied necessities like food and shelter, and lacked access to school. In some instances, relatives or acquaintances trafficked the child. 

“I am the only one doing all the work and she did not send me to school,” one survivor said in an interview. 

“While her own children went to school, I was left at home to undertake the household chores,” another survivor reported. 

Survivors primarily described being forced into domestic work or street vending. Others participated in hazardous labor in the fishing, mining, or construction industries. The report defines child trafficking, in accordance with the United Nations’ Palermo Protocol, as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a person under the age of 18 for any form of exploitative labor or commercial sex act. Child labor is any work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

Policymakers, service providers, and communities can employ the data to guide programming, legislation, and policies that will mitigate future exploitation of children in Sierra Leone. 

“This comprehensive study provides new evidence of the nature of the problem in the country,” said Sierra Leone Minister of Social Welfare Baindu Dassama. Multiple Sierra Leone ministries partnered with APRIES on the study. “Government welcomes the research findings because it provides us a toll for enhancing our existing response and prevention interventions through appropriate policies, programs, and actions.” 

Read the full story and download the Baseline Report, an Executive Summary, and Recommedations for Policy on the CenHTRO website. 

In Fall 2021, CenHTRO launched the first-ever course on human trafficking at the University of Georgia.

The course, “Foundations of Human Trafficking,” was taught by CenHTRO Pre-doctoral Fellow Elyssa Schroeder, under the mentorship of CenHTRO Director Dr. David Okech, for graduate students in the School of Social Work.

The class explored the complicated, global implications of modern-day slavery, and featured guest speakers from anti-trafficking professionals in CenHTRO. 

“I wanted to create the class I needed when I was a 22-year-old already working in the anti-trafficking movement, but didn't have an expansive knowledge,” Schroeder said. 

In the future, CenHTRO plans to expand human trafficking education opportunities to a wider body of students.

Watch a short documentary about the course👇