Illicit financial flows from migrant smuggling: Trends and responses in West Africa

By Ndubuisi Christian Ani and Jennifer Shahid

Despite robust anti-money laundering and anti-migrant smuggling policies, this study finds that there are few money laundering investigations and charges against smugglers in Senegal and Sierra Leone. Those countries’ financial investigative agencies lack adequate resources and expertise to uncover the illicit proceeds of smugglers, which are often processed through cash and informal channels. This is compounded by a lack of reporting of suspicious transactions by entities vulnerable to money laundering, such as informal money remitters and real estate companies

OCWAR-T Research Report 4 . Africa: ECOWAS, 2023. 24p.