SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE:
Somalia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Information regarding trafficking in Somalia remains extremely difficult to obtain or verify.Victims are primarily trafficked within the country from Somalia’s southern and central regions to the regions of Puntland and Somaliland in the north. In Somaliland, women act as recruiters and intermediaries to take victims to Puntland, Djibouti, and Ethiopia for domestic servitude or sex trafficking. Despite the decline of piracy in 2014, reports indicate these criminal groups continue to subject Somali women and girls to domestic service and sexual servitude as alternative income sources. In Somali society, Somali ethnic Bantus and Midgaan remain marginalized and sometimes kept in servitude by more powerful Somali clan members as domestic workers, farm laborers, and herders. Due to poverty and an inability to provide care for all family members, some Somalis willingly surrender custody of their children to people with whom they share familial ties and clan linkages; some of these children may become victims of forced labor or sex trafficking. Most child laborers work within their own households or family businesses. Children may be forced into labor in agriculture, domestic work, herding livestock, selling or portering khat (a mild narcotic), crushing stones, or in the construction industry.

During the reporting period, an international NGO released a report documenting cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of Somali women and girls, including trafficking victims, by Ugandan and Burundian AMISOM personnel.An African Union investigation into the allegations concluded there was evidence of the existence of sexual exploitation and abuse by AMISOM personnel.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain vulnerable to trafficking for sex and labor.“Gatekeepers” in control of some IDP camps, at times allegedly in collusion with Somali officials, reportedly force girls and women to provide sex acts in exchange for food and services available within the camps.They continue to charge rent or fees for otherwise-free basic services and sell the area they control within a camp to other “gatekeepers,” establishing a cycle of debt for IDPs that makes them vulnerable to inherited bondage. Traffickers and smugglers reportedly prey on women and children, mostly IDPs from southern and central Somalia already vulnerable to trafficking, at times using false promises of lucrative jobs in Europe and North America.
Traffickers transport Somali women, sometimes via Djibouti, to the Middle East, particularly Yemen and Syria, where they frequently endure domestic servitude or forced prostitution. Somali men experience conditions of forced labor as herdsmen and workers in the Gulf States.Traffickers transport children to Saudi Arabia through Yemen and force them to beg on the streets. Dubious employment agencies facilitate human trafficking by targeting individuals desiring to migrate to the Gulf States or Europe for employment. Federal government officials allegedly sell falsified travel documents to travel brokers and traffickers. NGOs and international organizations report Somalis increasingly seek to move to other African destinations, including Kenya and South Africa. Authorities in Somaliland report an increase in the transporting or kidnapping of children and unemployed university graduates, who later move through Ethiopia and Sudan and perhaps are held hostage by networks in Libya en route to Europe and other destinations in the Middle East. Members of the Somali diaspora use false offers of marriage to lure unsuspecting victims, many of whom include relatives, to Europe or the United States, where they force them into prostitution and domestic servitude.
Traffickers reportedly subject Somali children fleeing al-Shabaab and seeking refuge in Kenya to forced labor or sexual exploitation. Trucks transporting goods from Kenya to Somalia return to Kenya with young girls and women; traffickers acquire these young girls and women and place them in brothels in Nairobi or Mombasa or send them to destinations outside Kenya. Somali traffickers known as “makhalis” control the networks, but truck drivers also exploit these girls in prostitution.The estimated 20,000 undocumented Ethiopians in northern Somalia also remain vulnerable to trafficking as they seek employment in Puntland and Somaliland to fund subsequent travel to the Middle East.Traffickers smuggle Ethiopian women through Somalia to Yemen and other destinations in the Middle East, where they subsequently force them into domestic servitude and prostitution. Ethiopian children travel to Somaliland seeking employment but may instead be forced to beg on the streets.
Child Soldiers: During the year, there were continued reports of the Somali National Army (SNA) and allied militia, Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a (ASWJ), and al-Shabaab using child soldiers. The FGS expressed its commitment to eliminating the use of child soldiers among the ranks of the SNA and promulgated a code of conduct in 2014 prohibiting recruitment of children.The SNA

made limited but incremental progress to implement the action plan on the recruitment and use of child soldiers signed in 2012. In February 2014, the federal government signed standard operating procedures for the reception and handover of children separated from armed groups and later established a child protection unit (CPU). International organizations and CPU staff gained access to the Jazeera training camp to monitor for the presence of minors in 2014. While screenings of soldiers conducted during the year did not identify child soldiers among new recruits, the UN continued to report the SNA and allied militias used child soldiers during the reporting period, including to man and inspect vehicles at checkpoints.The government referred some children to an international organization for assistance; however, reports indicated the SNA continued to arrest and detain children allegedly associated with al-Shabaab, and the UN expressed concern over a lack of transparency and personal liberty in the referral process. Most Somalis lacked birth certificates, and without an established birth registration system or standardized method for recruitment, verifying claims of child soldiering remained difficult. In addition, unverified reports indicated anti-al-Shabaab militias may recruit former al-Shabaab child  soldiers.
Throughout areas beyond state control, al-Shabaab frequently recruited children for use by its militias, typically through abduction and deception.This terrorist group forced recruitment at mosques, Koranic schools, and facilities for neglected children. Al-Shabaab used children for direct participation in hostilities and other support functions in southern and central Somalia, including for planting roadside bombs and other explosive devices, serving as human shields during incursions, carrying out assassinations, providing intelligence, portering, and working in domestic service.The UN reported al-Shabaab’s recruitment, from April to September 2014, of 150 children. Al-Shabaab also forcibly recruited young girls, exploited them in sexual servitude, and bound them in marriages with militants.