The Government of Cameroon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Cameroon remained on Tier 2. These efforts included increasing investigations and convictions of traffickers. The government increased international cooperation on cross-border trafficking investigations and drafted a new National Action Plan (NAP), pending final adoption. The government drafted a handover protocol, in collaboration with an international organization, for the transfer of children allegedly associated with armed groups, including potential trafficking victims, to protection actors. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government prosecuted fewer traffickers and did not identify any trafficking victims. Protection services for victims remained limited. The government did not amend its anti-trafficking law to remove the requirement of force, fraud, or coercion for child sex trafficking and to clearly distinguish between trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling crimes. Despite serious and sustained allegations of official complicity in trafficking crimes, the government did not report any law enforcement action against allegedly complicit officials.
As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cameroon, and traffickers exploit victims from Cameroon abroad. According to a 2022 government study, traffickers use the Gulf of Guinea to transport Cameroonian children to Côte d’Ivoire and exploit them in labor trafficking in cocoa farming. Traffickers also bring Malian, Burkinabe, Beninese, or Togolese children to Cameroon via the Gulf of Guinea and exploit them in labor trafficking on farms in the North, West, and Northwest regions of Cameroon. High unemployment rates and economic uncertainty continued to drive many individuals, especially women, to contemplate economic migration under questionable circumstances, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers. Members of the Tupuri ethnic group and seasonal workers on sugar cane plantations in Northern Cameroon are vulnerable to labor trafficking. Government officials, NGO representatives, and media outlets report more than one million IDPs face an increased risk of human trafficking due to insecurity in some regions, a diminished police and judicial presence, and deteriorated economic and educational conditions. Several years of intermittent school closures in the Northwest and Southwest regions have resulted in some parents sending their children to stay with intermediaries who, instead of providing education and safety, exploit the children in domestic servitude.
Observers report vulnerable populations such as orphans, persons with disabilities, victims of GBV, and the marginalized Mbororo community in Bali Nyonga, Northwest Region, remained at risk of trafficking. Avenue Kennedy in Yaoundé remains a gathering point for children who use the streets as a source of livelihood; traffickers may exploit this population in human trafficking. Traffickers often use the promise of education or a better life in urban areas to convince parents in rural areas to entrust their children to intermediaries who then exploit the children in sex or labor trafficking. Observers reported children in privately-run artisanal gold mines owned or operated by People’s Republic of China (PRC) entities are vulnerable to labor trafficking. PRC workers may be exploited on gold mining worksites owned or operated by PRC entities. Criminals coerce women, IDPs, children experiencing homelessness, and orphans into sex and labor trafficking throughout the country. Some labor recruiters lure children from economically disadvantaged families to cities with the prospect of employment and then exploit victims in sex or labor trafficking. Traffickers exploit children in labor trafficking in domestic service, agriculture (onion, cotton, tea, palm oil, and cocoa plantations), restaurants, street vending, sand extraction from rivers, and forced begging. A 2022 government study reported criminals transport children through Cameroon en route to Gabon, where traffickers exploit them in domestic servitude. Media reporting indicates there is labor trafficking in Cameroon’s fishing sector.
Foreign business owners and herders force children from neighboring countries, including Benin, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria, to labor in spare parts shops or cattle grazing in northern Cameroon; many traffickers share the nationality of their victims. International Organizations reported there were 1,036,774 IDPs and 658,544 IDP returnees in Cameroon as of March 2024, a slight decrease from 1,209,838 reported in 2023. There were approximately 477,715 refugees and asylum seekers in the country as of March 2024. Traffickers may exploit IDPs and refugees because of their economic instability and sometimes limited access to formal justice. Boko Haram’s activities on the border with Nigeria continued to displace many of these refugees. There continued to be reports of hereditary slavery in northern chiefdoms.
Observers previously reported government security forces engaged in commercial sex with women in the Southwest Region divisions of Ndian, Buea, Ekona, and Muyuka, using food insecurity and their authority as leverage. Observers reported Boko Haram continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers, including girls, in its attacks on civilian and military targets in the northern part of the country. Some community neighborhood watch groups, known as vigilance committees, may also use and recruit children in operations against Boko Haram and other non-state armed groups. Separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions recruited and used child soldiers in combat roles and to gather intelligence, according to observers. Observers reported Russian authorities recruited and used Cameroonian undocumented migrants in Russia in combat and support roles in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine; authorities reportedly offered the migrants the option to enlist as an alternative to detention and deportation, but observers noted authorities required the migrants to sign a contract in a language they did not understand, did not provide a “defined period” of military service in the contract, and did not provide the promised salaries or training to some of the recruits.
Traffickers exploit Cameroonians from disadvantaged social strata, particularly from rural areas, in sex and labor trafficking in the Middle East (especially Kuwait and Lebanon), Thailand, Europe (including Switzerland and Cyprus), the United States, and other African countries (including Benin and Nigeria). Most Cameroonians exploited abroad are between the ages of 20 and 38 and come from the Northwest, Southwest, Littoral, Center, South, and West regions. Fraudulent labor brokers recruit some Cameroonian women for domestic work in the Middle East, where traffickers exploit them in sex trafficking or domestic servitude. Traffickers reportedly exploit internally displaced women and children from conflict-affected areas in Cameroon, including the northwestern region.
Trafficking networks generally include local community members, including religious leaders and trafficking victims who have become perpetrators. These networks advertise jobs through the internet, as well as other media, and recruit and sell other Cameroonians directly to families in need of domestic workers. Traffickers increasingly use social media and messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, to recruit victims through fake websites, highlighting opportunities in trades such as the fashion industry, modeling, entertainment, education, and information technology. Cameroonians were especially vulnerable to online forms of exploitation in Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. Advocates report intermediaries often operate with discretion, directing victims to travel to the Middle East through neighboring countries, including Nigeria. International organizations, NGOs, and migrants report Cameroonian trafficking networks in Morocco coerce women into sex trafficking.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
