† Determined by national law or regulation as hazardous and, as such, relevant to Article 3(d) of ILO C. 182.
‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182.

Children at Higher Risk

Parents facing a lack of economic opportunity often oblige children to help support their families. These children often find themselves confined to the worst forms of work, abandoning education and skills training at an early age. Boys from impoverished rural areas and children from countries neighboring Senegal’s borders are particularly vulnerable to forced begging, whose proceeds enrich corrupt Islamic teachers. An estimated 180,000 boys, known as talibés, are forced to beg for long hours and live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions at Koranic schools, where they often receive inadequate food and medical care and are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, which may be the result of trafficking networks in the region. Girls as young as 12 years old are forced into commercial sexual exploitation camps at gold mining sites—as belief persists in the mining communities that having sex in the mines increases the chances of finding gold—through an increasingly well-organized and growing sex trafficking industry across the regions of Tambacounda and Kédougou. Adolescent girls promised legitimate work are transported to the region with falsified documents from other countries, including a large number from Nigeria, as well as from Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Illegal mines—particularly in remote sites near the Malian border—are also a source of vulnerability to boys. Numerous children from Mali and Burkina Faso are found working in the mines. Children in these isolated circumstances may also be exposed to forced enrollment in neighboring terrorist groups. Finally, many girls as young as 9 years old—known as petites bonnes in French or mbidaan in Wolof—are sent from rural areas to urban households to work. Under the pretext of a traditional cultural practice called confiage, parents send children to live with family or acquaintances to be educated. However, many children are instead subjected to forced domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

Barriers to Education Access

Senegal has a shortage of schools and teachers, especially in rural areas. Students often have to pay for their own books, uniforms, and other school supplies, which discourages attendance. Lack of birth registration, transportation, and accommodations for children with disabilities impedes access to schools. Poor sanitation infrastructure, including a lack of clean running water and bathrooms, is also a barrier to education. Sexual harassment and abuse are widespread in secondary schools in Senegal; teachers sexually exploit girls, soliciting sex in exchange for money, goods, or good grades. One NGO reported that in certain cases, when girls rejected male teachers’ advances, they were penalized with lower grades and excluded from class activities. Research found that school directors were aware of sexual harassment or exploitation, they generally tried to resolve the situation on their own without reporting it to higher authorities or police, and girls were often stigmatized and faulted rather than the teacher. Girls were generally unsure of what constituted consent and harassment and did not know where to report exploitation. If girls became pregnant, they dropped out of school and were often shunned by their families.

Senegalese law does not criminalize use of a child for prostitution. Articles 323 and 324 of the Penal Code criminalize the procuring and offering of a child for prostitution, but not use. Ministerial Order No. 3749, Determining and Prohibiting the Worst Forms of Child Labor, bans the use of children in illicit activities, but neither this law, nor the Penal Code or the Labor Codes define specific criminal penalties for this offense. Section 245 of the Penal Code provides that “the act of seeking alms on days, in places, and under conditions established by religious traditions does not constitute the act of begging," which makes it unclear whether forced begging by Koranic schools is criminally prohibited. Senegal’s law does not prohibit the military recruitment of children by non-state armed groups. Further, because the minimum age for work is lower than the age of completion for compulsory education, children have an incentive to leave school before completing their studies. Order No. 3748 sets the working age at 15 and prohibits hazardous work for children under 18; however, Article 6 allows boys 16 and older to work excessive hours and night hours in hazardous conditions and manage dangerous equipment and processes. Order No. 3750 does not require adequate specific instruction and training to be provided when allowing hazardous work and authorizes persons under 16 years of age to perform certain types of hazardous work, contrary to international agreements. The lists of work forbidden to children do not indicate artisanal gold mining as hazardous work or legally classify mercury and cyanide as toxic elements. Furthermore, the types of hazardous work prohibited for children in Order 3749 do not include domestic work or street work, areas in which there is evidence of potential harm, including sexual abuse, to child workers.

In 2024, 111 labor inspectors conducted an unknown number of worksite inspections, and it is unknown whether child labor violations were found. It is also unknown whether investigations into suspected cases of the worst forms of child labor were conducted, prosecutions were initiated, perpetrators were convicted, or penalties were imposed.

* Policy was approved during the reporting period.

‡ Program is funded by the Government of Senegal.
† The government had other social programs that may have included the goal of eliminating child labor.

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