Togolese females working in arabic countries: The dirty truth

Togolese females and males have been migrating to foreign countries in the West for over a decade in order to earn a better living and support their local communities. Being part of the Togolese diaspora is clearly regarded as an exclusive position and a privilege very few will ever have access to. Nevertheless, you don not necessarily need to migrate to become successful in Togo, or do you?

Well unfortunately, a big portion of the population find themselves with extremely limited opportunities due to the lack of educational support and financial resources. Being a male you have the chance to take on risky and dangerous jobs such as driving a taxi-motor, working at a construction site or transporting goods in lorries. If you are a female, it makes it even harder to find a solution as you cannot take on all kinds of jobs; this is where the problem of the topic arises. Imagine an affluent and well-behaved individual telling you and your family that they have a simple job for you in an Arabic country. All you have to do is to simply work as a house cleaner for a happy family in for instance Lebanon and earn your wages which you can also send back home. Your family will be paid, you will get a monthly salary and they will cover your travel cost. 

How does it sound bad? The majority of the concerned females will think it is a non-brainer: "I will fly over, work as a maid, earn some easy money, send it back to Togo and then move back home after a while".

With discreet and well-organized “trafficants” arranging the administrative part of the entire process, they obtain fake ID documents for the females in neighbouring countries such as Ghana and Benin before they are sent to countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon. The female's family normally receives a significant one-off payment with respect to the local currency before their child is taken out of the country.

So what happens to them once they are gone?

The Togolese community is currently in shock after discovering terrible videos of these young females in the specified Arabic countries. Besides from having limited to no contact with family and friends back home, they are exploited in all sorts of ways including rape, terrible working conditions etc. Circulating videos and testimonials have shown terrible examples of how these Togolese women are prone to extremely dangerous situations, resulting in physical and mental problems in the long-term, which may eventually lead to death in the end. 

YouTube: TogoVisions

This young women managed to return to Togo and explains her terrifying experience in Lebanon. 

The government have implemented a new rule blocking their way out from the airport in Lomé, but as mentioned earlier the “trafficants” have found ways to send them out via neighbouring countries.

Awareness around this topic needs to be raised in order to solve such a serious problem. Who are the trafficants? How do they operate? Moreover, how can we avoid this from happening? These questions can only be answered if we stand up and solve this problem together.