Global Issues

Niger

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

• Caste-based slavery practices continue primarily in the northern part of the country.

• Nigerien children, primarily girls, subjected to prostitution along the border with Nigeria.

• Nigerien girls reportedly entered into “marriages” with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, whereby they were forced into domestic servitude upon arrival in these countries.

• In the Tahoua region, girls born into slavery were reportedly forced to marry men who bought them and subsequently subjected them to forced labor and sexual servitude.

• Transit country for women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo migrating en route to Algeria, Libya, and Western Europe.

• Nigerien women and children are recruited from Niger and transported to Nigeria, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude and sex trafficking.

• Rape is a widespread problem.

 

Sources: U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011