According to a report produced by Rebecca Surtees for UNICEF in 2005, many children in Sierra Leone fall prey to trafficking when they move from rural to urban areas in search of work or education.  Many cases have been documented of relatives or other adults offering to take rural children to district capitols or Freetown to receive an education then forcing them to hawk goods on the street, work as domestic servants or, in extreme cases, work as petty thieves, miners or prostitutes.  While there are also documented cases of trafficking across borders for sex and labor, internal trafficking is particularly pernicious because it is often overlooked or misunderstood by communities.  Rural families often depend on extended families in urban areas to assist their children in accessing education.  Surtees’ report noted that this internal migration is generally seen as a part of Sierra Leonean culture, and many people are not aware of the abuses that could face their children as they travel away from home. 

Sierra Leone passed an anti-trafficking act in 2005, which established a legal structure to deal with trafficking in persons as well as a national taskforce to coordinate protection and prevention measures.  Unfortunately, most of the taskforce’s money comes from the US Embassy in Sierra Leone; there are few other donors to support this work.  (Apparently, ECOWAS could also come onboard with funding in the near future.)  The taskforce depends a lot on the work of a handful of international NGOs to address trafficking in persons: the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST) and Defense for Children International (DCI) are the primary players, along with UNICEF. 

Part of my research is to begin identifying local structures and organizations that are working on anti-trafficking initiatives or that could be well-placed to do so.  The first structures that come to mind are the Child Welfare Committees in the provinces.  These committees are supposed to coordinate child protection activities in their areas of operation, but many are weak or non-operational as they receive little to no support from government.  Local NGOs working on this issue are also hard to find.  Please stay tuned to learn more about my research, and if you have any contacts in Sierra Leone that could be of help please feel free to leave a comment!