Birth registration to help trafficked children in Togo

Plan’s birth registration campaign helped more than 30,000 Togolese children obtain birth certificates, which in turn could have helped prevent child trafficking. It has been estimated that 12 per cent of children in Togo, West Africa, were being removed from their homes in rural areas and sent to work for little or no pay.

In a region where 55 per cent of children born annually are not registered at birth, the absence of formal identification systems has led to sophisticated child trafficking networks. Issuing birth certificates can play an important role in a strategy to prevent child trafficking. For instance, legally recognised forms of identification can strengthen the capability of the police to monitor and control national borders. A child with a birth certificate also has the opportunity to pass school exams, making them less likely to drop out of school and become vulnerable to trafficking.
A study by WAO-Africa estimated that more than 300,000 Togolese children between the age of five and 15 were sent to work in foreign countries or distant cities as unpaid, or at best extremely low-paid, domestic or agricultural labourers. 

Plan has called on policy-makers to strengthen legal frameworks and policies for child protection. The organisation also stated that individuals, communities and international development institutions could take action by increasing awareness of trafficking at a local and national level.