Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Internal trafficking occurs in Sudan, including in areas outside of the government's control. Sudanese women and girls, particularly those from rural areas or those who are internally displaced, and labor migrants and refugees are vulnerable to domestic servitude. There are an increasing number of street children from Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, and, in some instances, West Africa, some of whom are vulnerable to trafficking, including forced begging.
Sudanese girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking in restaurants and brothels. Government security forces recruited and used children as combatants and in support roles. In , an international organization reported four children between the ages of 13 and 15 years were observed in Sudanese Armed Forces SAF uniforms carrying weapons.
Non-governmental armed groups recruited and used children under 17 years old. In , Sudanese children in Darfur and South Sudan were forcibly recruited as child soldiers and used by various armed groups, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. In , the whereabouts of these children could not be confirmed. Artisanal gold mining continued in Darfur without regulation, some of which was undertaken with forced child labor.
One advocacy group reported inter-tribal ethnic clashes over control of mines resulted in an increase in the use of child laborers. Migrants, including some refugees and asylum seekers from East and West Africa, South Sudan, Syria, and Nigeria smuggled into or through Sudan are highly vulnerable to exploitation. Eritrean nationals are abducted from Sudan-based refugee camps or at border crossings, while some are willingly smuggled out of Eritrea and are subsequently extorted for ransom money and brutalized by smugglers, many of whom are linked to the Rashaida tribe; some are forced to perform domestic or manual labor.
Some refugee and asylum seeker abductees are increasingly taken from Khartoum, where they endure severe abuses and are subjected to forced labor or transferred to other countries for similar purposes. Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Filipina women are subjected to domestic servitude in Sudanese homes. Bangladeshi adults migrate legally to Sudan for work in factories, where some are subjected to forced labor. East African and possibly Thai women are subjected to forced prostitution; agents recruit women from Ethiopia with promises of employment as domestic workers, with the intent to force them into prostitution in brothels in Khartoum.
