Madam Ndioro Ndiaye, Deputy Director-General of International Organization of Migration (IOM), has asserted that the phenomenon of child trafficking has significantly worsened because of what she called the transformation of ancient cultural practices, such as putting children in the care of relatives or sending them in search of Qur'anic education. This, according to her, has had the negative effect of jeopardising children’s social development to economic profit.

In her keynote address at the first two-day programme on the Annual sub-Saharan Training Summit Against Trafficking in Human Beings and Illegal Migration, and the second Annual Sub-Saharan Africa Youth cycling race and Public Awareness Campaign organized by the African Tourism and Development Organization on the theme “Addressing the root causes of sub-Saharan Africa Trafficking in Human Beings, Sex Exploitation in Travel and Tourism and Illegal Migration through Prevention, Demand, Reduction and Victim Assistance as an African Development Goal,” Madam Ndiaye said that human trafficking is one of the most serious human rights violations.
She added that each year, throughout the world, several hundreds of thousands of people are lured by fake promises and transported, often beyond their borders, as objects of sexual and economic exploitation. “Their survival and growth are threatened, as are their rights to education, access to proper health care and protection against abuse,”

According to the IOM Deputy Director-General, if current statistics are correct, some 700,000 people a year find themselves reduced to slavery outside of their home countries.

Turning to migration, she noted that the reasons pushing people to migrate within West Africa are manifold, adding that some leave in search of better opportunities, while others are propelled by the need to flee from conflict, persecution, violence, poverty, natural disasters or human rights abuses.

“In today’s West Africa, it is recognized that agriculture, mining, the informal sector and domestic work, are labour- intensive activities in which working conditions are often close to exploitation.”

She however expressed conviction that through such collaborative action as maintaining a continuous dialogue between origin and destination countries, legal migration free from any exploitation will be facilitated in the interest of all.

The training summit was chaired by Mr. Dodou Bammy Jagne, The Gambian Ambassador to the United States of America.