Global Issues

Angola

• Source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

• Angolan women and children more often become victims of sex trafficking within Angola rather than in other countries.

• Reports of underage girls, as young as 13, in prostitution in the provinces of Luanda, Benguela, and Huila.

• Angolan women and children are subjected to domestic servitude in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, and some European nations, primarily Portugal.

• Vietnamese, Chinese, and Brazilian women in prostitution in Angola may also be victims of sex trafficking.

• Exploitive labor practices included forced prostitution

• Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal and punishable by up to eight years’ imprisonment; however, limited investigative resources, poor forensic capabilities, and an ineffective judicial system prevented prosecution of most cases.

• According to the UN Human Rights Office, between January and February 2009, 9,205 Congolese allegedly were expelled from the country, including 1,943 women of whom 304 allegedly were raped.

 

Advocacy:

• Organization of Angolan Women operated a shelter in Luanda that offered special services for rape victims.

• National Children’s Council created in 2007 to combat violence against children, including unlawful child labor, trafficking, and sexual exploitation

Sources: U.S. State Department country report 2010, US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011