In 2001, the program of the International office of Work for the elimination of the child work (BIT-IPEC) published a synthesis of nine studies per country on the draft of the children in West Africa, conclusive that the roads of the draft went from country and areas where poverty was generalized, the levels of low education and the birth rates raised towards less populated and more developed zones.

Togo is included in the category according to the ILO of the countries of origin and was designated mainly as tel. It was also identified by report/ratio BIT-IPEC like a point “of destination” and “transit” like like a country sheltering a substantial internal trade (with being known inside its own borders).

The official estimates of the number of Togolese children directly affected by the draft are based on the number of children intercepted at the borders of Togo and the number of recovered” and repatriated children “from abroad. At a regional meeting on the draft of the children in January 2002, representing it of the Togolese government, reported that 297 children had been victims of the draft at the beginning of Togo in 2001 compared with 337 in 1999. 

According to the director of the UNICEF for Center and West Africa, poverty is a “major and omnipresent” cause of the draft of the children. In these countries of West Africa classified like country “of origin”, between 33 and 73 percent of the total population live with less than one American dollar per day. Study BIT-IPEC of 2001 on ninety-six children victims of the draft also found that a vast majority (87 percent) children victims of the draft came practitioner families an agriculture from subsistence. On the forty-five questioned parents, 70 percent of the mothers and 60 percent of the fathers had never attended the school. Approximately 74 percent of the studied hearths were polygamous. Moreover, 82 percent of the examined hearths had more than five children.

Concerning the girls, according to certain experts, the draft would come from a long tradition wanting that the parents use their daughters as servants rather than to send them to the school. In 2002, in Togo, one estimated that the girls had 20 percent less chance than the boys to be registered at the elementary school, 25 percent less chance to reach the college and at least 50 percent less chance to enter to the university.

If the reports/ratios of the UNICEF and the BIT-IPEC do not go back to the origins of the draft of the children, the study on Togo concluded that the practice, such as it is currently defined, had existed “for at least ten years” and is perceived like a prolongation of old practices such as the migration for the work and the work children.

Two major aspects of the draft in Togo:

Internal draft, mainly of the poor villages towards the urban centres or the fertile agricultural zones, in particular towards the Lome capital.

Transborder draft, in particular towards Nigeria, Gabon, the Ivory Coast , Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin or Ghana.  

Characteristics of the draft:

The draft concerns mainly the girls, primarily for house works, of sale on the markets (one speaks about the “portefaix”) or of guard of children.

The boys are generally recruited for pastoral work, of loading of trucks or as assistants of craftsmen.

It is difficult  to have a correct estimate of the number of children victims of the draft in Togo, in particular because of the clandestine character of the phenomenon but also because there isn't exist any common mechanism of data-gathering.

Each actor of ground  thus endeavours to make estimates, for better determining the phenomenon.

According to a study of the CNARSEVT in 2004 (Report/ratio of mission with the interior of the country, of December 6, 2004, CNARSEVT, Lome), 2458 children were intercepted or repatriated between 2002 and 2004.

The NGO Wao Africa estimated at 313 000 the number of old Togolese children from 5 to 15 years working in the urban centres in Togo or with  foreign in 2005 (For the price of a bicycle. Draft of the children in Togo, Plan Togo, Lome).

In 2005, according to the cumulated estimates several actors (local NGO distributed in various administrative areas, Service of the Social Affairs, DGPE, BICE, Terre des Hommes, Wao Africa), 2 695 children victims of the draft were identified. On this total, only 486 profited from measurements of accompaniment for their reintegration, always according to the estimates of these same actors.

That indicates a need in the field for the reintegration/rehabilitation of the children victims of draft. That is due to the lack of means for the installation of measurements of accompaniment and to the lack of common criteria, of common procedures. The procedures installation, by the ILO for example in 2004, or by  UNICEF, only are partially set up.

The organizations resulting from the civil society, international organizations, as well as the official actors often question on the relevance and the effectiveness of such programs, often expensive and which, established over short periods, do not allow  to evaluate the real impact on the children.