They go to a foreign city as au pairs or trust traffickers on a journey to a supposed better future: The victims often only realize over time, or during the journey, that they have fallen into the clutches of human traffickers.

Migration routes across Africa are full of danger. In addition to the perils of the journeys themselves, there is also a serious risk of people ending up trafficked and exploited.

Lately, much of the spotlight in the migration debate has been on West Africa: More and more people from Nigeria, Mali, Niger or Senegal decide to undertake these journeys, hoping for a better life in Europe or elsewhere.

But many end up in the hands of traffickers even before they get to take on the Sahara desert, or the shores of the Mediterranean, from which they hope to reach Europe. 

Human trafficking: a lucrative business

According to estimates by the human rights organization anti-slavery, nearly 50 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery.

Out of that number, one in every four people is a child. According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking generates $150 billion in profits annually.

The driving factor behind this growth in  human trafficking in Africa is the difficult political and social situation of the people in various African countries, says Elvis Adjetey Sowah, a migration researcher at the University of Ghana.

 "We have to look at their entire situation in order to tackle the problem," Sowah told DW. A shortage of food, housing, and jobs, as well as the worsening security situation in various crisis regions, are the main factors driving people to make the journey. Along the way, many are exploited by scammers and traffickers."

Another factor is simply how desperate people are in response to all these challenges: Migrants from Mauritius, Lesotho and Botswana are the least likely in Africa to fall prey to traffickers while those from Eritrea, Mauritania and South Sudan are particularly prone to fall victim to such modern-day slavery practices.

Thousands die in migration each year

The lack of criminal prosecution has also encouraged many human traffickers to continue to ensnare people in need with the promise of delivering them to a better life in Europe. However, many end up dead along the way.

According to a report published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March of this year, at least 8,565 people died on international migration routes in 2023 — more than 3,100 of them drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, and a further 1,900 died while still in Africa, with many perishing in the Sahara Desert. 

This makes 2023 the deadliest year for migration since IOM began keeping records. 

The latest IOM reports meanwhile suggest that more people die in the desert than at sea, with most deaths not even being recorded.

EU funds divisive interception of migrants

Leonie Jantzer from the human rights organization Medico International told DW that "people who became victims of human trafficking often try to flee from their perpetrators of violence to other countries," adding that some migrants who manage to make their way to other countries this way become victims of human trafficking all over.

Women and girls are particularly at risk; middlemen promise to take them to Europe or at least the Maghreb states but instead, they suddenly "find themselves in the clutches of human traffickers, forced to sell their bodies and engage in sex work," says Jantzer.

Getting out of this situation seems particularly difficult, although there are some theoretical solutions and ideas to interrupt the business model of human traffickers:

"If migration were legal, the traffickers' business wouldn't work at all," Jantzer suggests, adding that in the global context, migration on the African continent is particularly being criminalized, which she believes only encourages human trafficking.

Among other things, there are currently more waves of deportations of migrants to states that are deemed as safe countries of origin, for example from Algeria to Niger.

Migrants who reach the northern shores of Algeria, dreaming of new opportunities on the other side of the Mediterranean, are thus sent back home under full sanction — and pressure — from the EU, which gives millions each year to the governments of countries on migration routes to intercept migrants.

The EU first launched these controversial partnerships with the security forces of African states in the early 2000s, effectively moving its external borders to the African continent.

Jantzer highlights that migration movements are, therefore, somewhat prevented, with EU funds making sure that coastal areas, border crossings, and intra-African routes are policed this way.

For example, members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) work closely together with Interpol and Afripol to curb migrant smuggling, but this often only encourages traffickers more, promising better journeys on second and third attempts to migrants.

Traffickers hiding online

Still, there are also some success stories to highlight: Last year, police officers from 54 African countries took part in their first joint operation against traffickers, "Operation Flash-Weka." The coordinated raids resulted in more than 1,000 arrests and the discovery of thousands of victims of criminal networks.

Despite such partial successes, the measures against human trafficking fall short of the goals set, according to "Walk Free."

This is partly due to the fact that much of the trafficking process is now hidden from view:

Human traffickers are increasingly turning to modern communication technologies to exploit their victims in multiple ways: from recruiting migrants to blackmailing them with compromising photos and videos taken against their will. Several such tech-trafficking networks have been uncovered in recent years in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea and Mali.

"Walk Free" demands that governments cooperate more closely together, not criminalizing migrants but rather implementing existing laws against human trafficking more consistently and thus bringing the perpetrators of modern-day slavery to justice.

Boycotting forced labor

The aid organization is also calling for a boycott of goods and services produced using forced labor. However, in a globalized economy, where supply chains span continents and where the cheapest bidder is often the one who gets the commission, it is difficult to implement such practices.

Agreeing on cut-off points for what constitutes exploitation and forced labor is also proving to be difficult for the international community, as child and forced labor practices are part of many supply chains in everyday products.

And so the vicious cycle continues, with migration remaining the focus of a narrative where the main criminal elements continue to operate unabatedly.

Isaac Khaledzi contributed to this article from Accra, Ghana

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson