NATIONAL STATISTICS

* According to a pamphlet published by the Ministry of Labor in 2000, more than 50 percent of children work, largely as domestics or in the agricultural or mining sectors. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, March 2002)

* For the year 2000, the ILO projects that there will be 679,000 economically active children, 317,000 girls and 362,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 43.46% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)

* In 1995, there were 688,000 economically active children between the ages of 10-14, representing 51.09% of this age group. Of these, 322,000 were girls and 366,000 were boys. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Many families entrust their children, mainly boys aged five or six, to the care of a religious leader, or marabout, with whom the boys live until the age of 15 or 16. The children, perform various tasks in the marabout's school or household. In addition, begging is considered to be part of the child's learning process. These students, known as garibou, live in poor conditions with up to 3,000 other students. (CWA, "Child Prostitution in Vietnam", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 10, No. 3, July -September 1994)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for internationally trafficked persons, including children. It is an occasional source country for women who travel to Europe to work as domestics, but, upon their arrival, are exploited sexually. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)

* Burkina Faso is a transit country for trafficked children, notably from Mali. Children in transit from Mali are often destined for Cote d'Ivoire. Trafficked Malian children are also destined for Burkina Faso. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)

* Destinations for trafficked Burkina children include Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)

* The Government of Burkina Faso reports that no sale, trafficking or abduction of children in Burkina Faso has been observed. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)

* Children from Burkina Faso are trafficked across the boarder to Ivory Coast to work in the cocoa plantations. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)

* Reports abound regarding the sale and trafficking of children in West and Central Africa, including Burkina children. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)

* In 1999 there were reports of trafficked Burkina children destined for Germany. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)

* In July, police in Divo broke up a ring of child traffickers, which had brought children from Burkina Faso to work on farms and plantations in Cote d’Ivoire. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as domestic servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* Suspected child trafficking activities have also been identified in, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. These networks feed the domestic labour market in the main urban centres of countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and the Congo. (UNICEF, The Issue of Child Domestic Labour and Trafficking in West and Central Africa, July 1998)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* There has been a visible increase of children in sexual exploitation. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996)

* According to Rädda Barnen the military school Prytanée militaire of Kadiogo accepts children between ages 11 and 13, but pupils are not members of the armed forces. (CSUCS, Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing Rädda Barnen)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* It is reported that in most of the regions of West Africa, children as young as 8 years are taken from the rural areas to towns and cities to work as domestics. Many of them work for over 12 hours a day and are subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as market traders and child beggars. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as domestic servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* Mining and Quarrying - Children working in small scale gold mines. (ILO, Small-scale Mines, 1999, citing unpublished ILO-IPEC Survey of Child Workers in Small-scale Gold Mining, 1998)