COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: June 2025
The analysis below is based on the following EUAA COI reports and query: Country Focus 2024, 2.5.2, 2.5.3, 2.6.; Country Focus 2025, 1.3.(e), 1.4., 2.6.(a) (c) (d), 2.7.(b) (c) (d); Security 2025, 1.2.1. (c), 1.3.1.. Country Guidance should not be referred to as a source of COI.
The 2014 Anti-Human Trafficking Law criminalises sex and labour trafficking, with penalties of three to ten years' imprisonment for offences involving adult male victims and five to 20 years' imprisonment for offences involving adult female and child victims. Nevertheless, Sudan has historically been and continues to be a country of origin, transit, and destination for victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. See also 3.10.2. Child labour and child trafficking.
Step 1: Do the reported acts amount to persecution?
Trafficking in women and girls amounts to persecution.
In Sudan, common forms of exploitation for which trafficking is currently perpetrated include slavery, sexual slavery, forced and bonded labour, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation.
Step 2: What is the level of risk of persecution?
The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for a woman or girl to be (re)-trafficked should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as:
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Age: Girls under 18 are at the highest risk of trafficking for the purpose of child marriage or domestic work and sex exploitation.
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Home area: Women and girls from conflict-affected areas11 are exposed to a higher risk.
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Access to education/support services: women and girls with limited access to
education and health services, lack of awareness regarding available services, and insufficient service provision are reported to be more at risk. -
Absence of protection and shelter: homeless, orphaned and unaccompanied girls are exposed to a higher risk of persecution.
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Displacement: women and girls internally displaced are more vulnerable and, also due to lack of knowledge of the area of displacement, may be exposed to a higher risk.
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Socio-economic situation of the family: food insecurity, poor livelihood conditions of the girls and women and/or of their families expose them to a higher risk of being trafficked.
Step 3: Is there a ground for persecution?
Persecution of women and girls under this profile may be for reasons of membership of a particular social group. For example, women and girls victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation may be subjected to persecution based on their common background which cannot be changed (the past experience of having been trafficked) and a distinct identity, because they are perceived as being different by the surrounding society in Sudan (e.g. stigmatisation).
The individual circumstances need to be taken into account to determine whether a nexus to a reason for persecution can be substantiated for women and girls at risk of trafficking. See also 4.2.3. Criminal violence.
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Conflict-affected areas include regions assessed under “mere presence” category, “high level of indiscriminate violence” category as well as “not a high-level category”. See b) Assessment of indiscriminate violence per region.