UN addresses Africa's human trafficking scourge

Trafficking gangs are flourishing across Africa through the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of migrants, yet nations are failing to dismantle networks due to a lack of coordination, the UN has noted. It said more than 800 000 people have trafficked across international borders annually – often duped with promises of a better life overseas, then sold into forced labour, domestic servitude or sexual slavery. A report on the eNCA site note that many victims are migrants from African nations such as Eritrea and Somalia, yet countries are failing to curb the crime as they lack mechanisms to share cross-border intelligence and coordinate efforts to snare trafficking rings. Amado Philip de Andres, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Eastern Africa said ‘international cooperation has to get stronger and stronger’. ‘I am referring specifically to international police and judicial cooperation to dismantle criminal networks involved in human trafficking,’ he said. The eastern African region – located at the centre of traditional routes taken by migrants to get to Europe, the Middle East, the Gulf and South Africa – is particularly prone to traffickers who prey on vulnerable people.