As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Equatorial Guinea, and traffickers exploit victims from Equatorial Guinea abroad. Despite continued education and awareness-raising efforts by the government, many civil society members and government officials still lack an understanding of human trafficking, hindering the country’s ability to identify victims and address the crime. Observers reported traffickers are adjusting their tactics to increasingly use online platforms to recruit and exploit victims.
Observers reported Equatoguineans exploit the majority of trafficking victims in forced labor in domestic service and commercial sex in the cities of Malabo, Bata, Mongomo, and Ebebiyin, where relative wealth and security attracts Central and West African migrant workers. Equatoguinean traffickers exploit local and foreign women in commercial sex in these cities, with the Malabo neighborhoods of Banapa and Paraiso and the city center primary areas of concern. Foreign national men were susceptible to deceptive employment offers and forced labor in construction, agriculture, domestic work (security guards), and other low-skill jobs.
Observers noted that the sustained economic downturn due to decreasing oil prices and oil production—exacerbated by the global economic contraction caused by the pandemic—resulted in Equatoguineans in urban centers replacing some foreign domestic workers with children from rural areas in Equatorial Guinea, whom they then exploited in forced labor. Some business owners involved in the hospitality and restaurant sectors exploit hotel and bar workers in forced labor and commercial sex within the country’s urban centers. Observers report LGBTQI+ youth are often left homeless and stigmatized by their families and society, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Measures to control the pandemic’s spread—including border closures and mandatory curfews—may have increased the vulnerability of migrants and informal sector workers by reducing their ability to maintain a stable income.
Equatoguinean business owners reportedly exploit children from nearby countries—primarily Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria, and Togo— in forced labor as domestic workers, market laborers, vendors, and launderers. Over the past five years, observers reported Equatoguinean traffickers, some of whom may be associated with the country’s elites, may exploit women from Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and the PRC in commercial sex at nightclubs, bars, and brothels in the country. Traffickers may exploit Equatoguineans in Spain. During the reporting period, there were reports alleging members of the Equatoguinean military falsified identity documents to facilitate a sex trafficking ring in Menorca, Spain, involving women and girls.
Some business owners recruit women from Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and other African countries for work in Equatorial Guinea and exploit them in forced labor or sex trafficking in markets, hair salons, or commercial sex. PRC national-owned firms recruit PRC nationals to migrate to Equatorial Guinea for work or to engage in commercial sex; some of these businesses then confiscate workers’ passports, which increases their vulnerability to forced labor or sex trafficking. Observers noted the government contracted highly-skilled professionals, such as Cuban doctors and teachers, to work in its public schools and hospitals. A small number of North Koreans working in Equatorial Guinea may have been forced to work by the North Korean government. Companies in the construction sector, among others, also sometimes held the passports of foreign workers, increasing their vulnerability to forced labor. Observers reported some corrupt and complicit government workers, including senior officials and elected representatives, participated in trafficking- related crimes during the reporting period.