Togo's parliament passed a law criminalising child trafficking marking an important step forward in the country's effort to clamp down on this abuse.

Under the new law, passed in July, traffickers face up to five years in prison and fines ranging from 500,000 to 10 million CFA (US$1,000-$20,000). If the child is subject to violence, disappears or dies, the sentence is doubled to 10 years. The law applies to traffickers regardless of where the children are taken to or from. Prior to this, traffickers were held only for a few days with no penalties.

Parliament's move follows the United States Government ranking Togo in Tier three of the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report, reserved for the worst offenders which face sanctions if they fail to take action against trafficking.

Although child rights activists welcome the new law, there are concerns that it fails to provide measures to help children once they have been found. It is also a missed opportunity for the Government to address trafficking as a whole, rather than limiting it to children.

Last year, 3,000 children were intercepted at the border as they were being trafficked to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and Ghana, Togo's Ministry of Social Affairs said. Each year tens of thousands of children as young as five years old are trafficked across West and Central Africa into a range of work, including as domestics, market sellers, in fishing, agriculture, begging and prostitution.