This report is part of a Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment (TOCTA) on the Sahel, focusing on Burkina Faso, Mali, and the Niger, with information on Chad and Mauritania also incorporated. It explores the smuggling of migrants in the Sahel by examining the supply and demand for smuggling services, the main routes and market dynamics, the roles and responsibilities of smugglers, and the enablers, including corruption, of migrant smuggling in the Sahel. The report concludes with several policy implications.

The quantitative and qualitative data come from the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) in West Africa. Interviews were conducted by MMC’s 4Mi teams in Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger with key informants, smugglers and facilitators. Both the quantitative surveys and the in-depth qualitative interviews were carried out in line with the relevant methodological guidelines, ethics and code of conduct of the UNODC Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants.

The report was launched in a joint online event with UNODC on 23 March 2023.