U.S. Dep't of State, 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Republic of the Congo

REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (Tier 2 Watch List) The Government of the Republic of the Congo does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period. The Republic of the Congo was granted a waiver, in accordance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards. Therefore, the Republic of the Congo remained on Tier 2 Watch list for the third consecutive year.

Efforts included adopting a new anti-trafficking National Action Plan (NAP) for 2025-2027, formally establishing its national anti-trafficking commission tasked with coordinating the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, and increasing anti-trafficking cooperation with foreign governments. However, the government’s efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and identify and protect trafficking victims remained inadequate. Limited anti-trafficking training and awareness campaigns hindered overall efforts. Official complicity in trafficking crimes remained a concern.

PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Empower the new inter-ministerial anti-trafficking task force to fulfill its mandate, implement the new NAP, and allocate sufficient resources. Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged traffickers, including officials allegedly complicit in trafficking, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. Proactively identify trafficking victims, including by screening for trafficking indicators, especially among vulnerable populations, including child laborers, women and girls exploited in commercial sex, unaccompanied children, Indigenous populations, refugees, and migrants, and refer victims to care. Train front-line officials, including law enforcement, immigration officers, and social workers on the indicators of trafficking and victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches to victim identification and provision of assistance.

Expand efforts to raise awareness on all forms of human trafficking. Increase the capacity of labor inspections to identify and refer labor trafficking victims to care, especially in the informal sector. Accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

Ensure the safe, humane, and, to the extent possible, voluntary repatriation of foreign victims, including through collaboration with relevant organizations and source country embassies, and provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face retribution or hardship. Establish labor standards to allow migrant workers to freely change employers without facing penalties or deportation. Proactively screen Cuban workers for trafficking indicators, including Cuban regime-affiliated and those in private facilities; offer trafficking victims legal protections and refer them to adequate services.

PROSECUTION

The government maintained inadequate anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The 2019 Combating Trafficking in Persons Law criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. The related provisions in Congolese criminal law prescribed penalties of five to 10 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with the penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. In 2024, the government reported investigating one case compared with none the previous year.

The government did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers for the second consecutive year. Observers reported law enforcement officials did not investigate potential cases with trafficking indicators because of alleged conflation of human trafficking with other crimes. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action. Observers reported some judicial officials allegedly accepted bribes in return for dismissal of charges.

Authorities did not report taking any action on previous complicity concerns. Anti-trafficking units and courts reported a lack of resources hindered their ability to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes. The court system remained dysfunctional, and many criminal cases continued to languish due to significant backlogs in the high court due to irregular court sessions, lack of centralized record keeping, and limited legal statistics. Observers reported limited presence, especially outside of the capital, hindered overall law enforcement efforts.

The government provided specialized anti-trafficking training to some judicial police and national Gendarmerie units. Anti-trafficking training remained institutionalized as part of a yearly training initiative for law enforcement officers. However, observers reported law enforcement officers received insufficient training in investigative techniques and a lack of interagency coordination hindered overall efforts. The government reported cooperating with Nigerian officials to investigate trafficking crimes and support repatriation of Congolese victims.

PROTECTION

The government made mixed protection efforts. The government reported training some front-line workers on victim identification and referral procedures; however, observers reported training remained a significant need. The government reported identifying and referring to care three child trafficking victims – all victims of unspecified forms of trafficking – compared with five trafficking victims identified and referred to care in the previous year. NGOs identified one additional trafficking victim.

Authorities provided assistance to reunify the trafficking victims with their parents. The government’s implementing regulations for the anti-trafficking law provided formal written procedures for victim identification. The government also had a formal process to refer victims to government or NGO services for care; however, limited resources prevented some officials from quickly making initial assessments and referrals. The government had limited capacity to provide comprehensive care services, in collaboration with international organizations and NGOs, for trafficking victims, including temporary shelter, medical care, basic necessities, and education.

The government did not allocate any funding for victim services and continued to largely rely on NGOs and international organizations to assist with the identification, referral, and provision of services for trafficking victims. The government did not operate any shelters available to trafficking victims, instead relying on a network of foster families to assist child trafficking victims. One NGO operated the only shelter available to assist trafficking victims, including adults and children, and had the capacity to assist 50 individuals. Observers reported the government had a limited ability to provide psychological support to trafficking victims, hindering its overall protection efforts.

The government could offer some victim-witness assistance to victims participating in investigations and prosecutions, including police accompaniment during trials, and had some procedures to protect victims’ confidentiality; however, it did not report providing any assistance during the reporting period. Due to inconsistent use of formal identification procedures and inadequate screening, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The government provided the same availability of services to national and foreign victims and could provide temporary residency status to foreign trafficking victims during judicial proceedings; however, Congolese law did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of trafficking victims to countries where they would face retribution or hardship. Courts awarded restitution to one victim during the reporting period.

PREVENTION

The government increased efforts to prevent trafficking. In March 2025, a presidential decree formally established the National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons to lead the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, expanded its mandate to be permanent, and devoted 20 full-time staff members to the Commission. The National Commission convened regularly during the reporting period. The government developed and adopted a 2025-2027 anti-trafficking National Action Plan (NAP) and dedicated resources to its implementation.

The government updated and disseminated its 2022-2026 action plan on child protection, which included child trafficking. Observers noted a lack of interagency coordination, in part due to overlapping mandates and limited funding, hindered overall anti-trafficking efforts. The government conducted limited awareness campaigns. There were no hotlines available to report trafficking crimes.

While the government did not prohibit worker-paid recruitment fees, the Ministry of Public Service, Labor and Social Security regulated such fees and imposed set limits. Migrant workers were not allowed to change employers without authorization from the government, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Labor inspectors overseeing working conditions in the country conducted irregular inspections, and observers reported most inspections occurred only at urban worksites. The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training for labor inspectors.

The Republic of the Congo was not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. The government maintained coordination with the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Benin to strengthen screening and identification of vulnerable unaccompanied children. The government reported it had an MOU with the Government of Benin to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts; however, it was outdated, and a draft MOU remained pending with the Government of DRC. The government reported some efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, including through awareness campaigns.

The government provided anti-trafficking training to its diplomats. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Republic of the Congo, and traffickers exploit victims from the Republic of the Congo abroad.

Forced labor involving adults and children remains a primary form of domestic trafficking, predominately in the subsistence agricultural sector. Most trafficking victims originate from Benin, Mali, and the DRC, and to a lesser extent Gabon and other neighboring countries. Traffickers exploit children, primarily from West Africa, in domestic servitude or traditional market vending in the cities of Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, Ouesso, Dolisie, and Nkayi. Reports indicate Beninese children make up the majority of children exploited in Brazzaville.

Congolese authorities and civil society representatives report fraudulent employment agents located in Benin, the Central African Republic, the DRC, and Gabon recruit victims into exploitative conditions in the Republic of the Congo. Foreign business owners and Congolese exploit most foreign victims in forced labor in domestic service, market vending, and the fishing sector. Some hotel owners and other criminal actors exploit adults and children in sex trafficking, with the most common victims being from the DRC. Parents in foreign countries, mostly West African countries, sometimes send their children to the Republic of the Congo with the expectation the child will send remittances or receive an education, but instead traffickers exploit the children in sex trafficking or forced labor.

Traffickers use online platforms such as WhatsApp and social media to lure, recruit, and exploit potential trafficking victims. Internal trafficking primarily involves recruitment from remote rural areas for exploitation in cities. Certain communities, including refugees and Indigenous populations, are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Individuals in the fishing industry and market shop owners exploit victims within the country.

Media and NGOs report unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa – Rwanda – South Asia, and South America for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites. Media report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are indicators of human trafficking. Traffickers exploit some members of minority Indigenous populations – Baka, Aka, and Kola, in forced labor in the subsistence agricultural sector, with Indigenous populations comprising the majority of internal trafficking victims. According to an NGO, there were Cuban regime-affiliated medical workers in the Republic of Congo.

The Cuban regime may have forced Cuban regime-affiliated professionals in the Republic of Congo to work. The same NGO reported survivor testimony of conditions indicative of forced labor – including exhausting work hours, passport confiscation, harassment, sub-standard and crowded living conditions, meager wages, and debt bondage – in a private hospital in Brazzaville, which was staffed with more than 100 Cuban medical professionals. Chinese nationals working in Chinese national-operated businesses in the Republic of the Congo may be operating under exploitative working conditions. North Koreans working in the Republic of the Congo may be at risk of labor trafficking.

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