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IOM Sierra Leone and Government Partners Strengthen Their Whole-of-Society Approach to Fight Human Trafficking
Human trafficking continues to pose a serious threat to local populations in Sierra Leone, where traffickers recruit and transport victims from rural districts to urban areas and mining centers, or to countries abroad, for exploitation in sex trafficking or forced labor.1 The recruitment process often targets women and is based on false promises of stable livelihoods; jobs as nannies, hairdressers, and office assistants disintegrate into darker realities of unpaid domestic servitude and sexual abuse. The consequences of climate emergencies also cause displacement, poverty and the loss of economic opportunities in Sierra Leone, particularly in the poorest and most rural districts. This increases the vulnerability of people to human trafficking.
IOM and the Government of Sierra Leone are engaged in a variety of initiatives that strengthen mutual institutional support, expand local capacities, and create new sustainable workplans to counter the trafficking of human beings. Since 2017, IOM has directly assisted over 500 Sierra Leonean victims of trafficking (VOTs), yet there are still many more in need of support.2 The mission regularly collaborates with the Ministry of Social Welfare and its Anti-Trafficking in Persons (A-TiP) Secretariat to raise awareness of the crime, increase victims’ access to protection mechanisms, collect testimonies, and train local volunteers in identifying, referring, and providing immediate assistance to VOTs.
This year the international community recognized its 10th annual World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. For the occasion, IOM Sierra Leone and the A-TiP Secretariat published a policy brief on the Gender Dimension of Trafficking in Persons and launched, alongside other key partners, a new National Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons 2024-2028 (NAP). Key initiatives include the establishment of new District Task Forces and a revised National Referral Mechanism, which is an important tool to protect VOTs, investigate the crime, collect reliable data, and prosecute offenders.
The IOM and Government teams have deepened their commitment to ground-level community support and a whole-of-society approach following the launch of the NAP. The partners facilitated a community session in the town of Waterloo, which is a critical area to raise trafficking awareness given its location between the populous Freetown peninsula and the country’s rural districts. The event convened community members, local law enforcement, and returned VOTs.
“Almost everyone here has a connection to human trafficking, whether it be their family, their friends, or themselves,” says Brima Bendu, a Project Assistant with IOM Sierra Leone. “And despite the prevailing opinion that human trafficking only takes place in cities, this is a crime that affects urban and rural alike. ”
Sallay is a victim of trafficking who hails from Waterloo and recently returned from Lebanon. She went there after being promised a stable office job, an opportunity which quickly vanished. Instead, Sallay was trafficked, forced into domestic servitude and incessantly mistreated, sexually abused, threatened at gunpoint, and forced to work extreme hours while her salary was withheld for months at a time. She eventually escaped and returned to Freetown with IOM assistance.
“There were days when I woke up far from home and thought, today is not worth living,” Sallay shares. “But now I am back in Sierra Leone and look forward to beginning a new business. Now I thank God for my life.”
IOM and its government partners continue the fight against human trafficking in Sierra Leone. The teams will soon unveil new awareness-raising materials at Freetown’s International Airport and organize a National Counter-Trafficking Town Hall, an event which will engage diverse stakeholders to foster collective action on this urgent crime.
Partnership, collaboration, and a whole-of-society approach are central to fighting human trafficking. In Sierra Leone, IOM and its partners reaffirm their engagement with stakeholders and commitment to putting these principles into practice.
