Laura Anyola Tufon

As the Northwest Regional Coordinator for the Justice and Peace Service in Cameroon, Laura Anyola Tufon has targeted child and forced labor.

Cameroon is a challenging environment in which to combat modern-day slavery. Various factors combine to create populations vulnerable to human trafficking; these include poverty, cultural factors, and other societal issues such as various traditions. Her organization, based within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda, was started in 2002, and she was appointed as the Coordinator at that time. Despite working on a variety of human rights-type issues within Cameroon, Ms. Anyola has made it a priority to combat human trafficking, and the exploitation of children. In 2009 the organization founded a program of prevention, enabling a community to come together and support at-risk children. Additionally, the community-based program is meant to stop survivors from being re-trafficked. She has continually engaged with victims, and provided support and services as necessary. As of 2013, almost 300 victims and families had received some form of assistance or education because of her organization’s efforts within the legal system to provide remuneration and compensation to trafficking survivors. In the year of 2012, she was able to help identify 80 victims, and provided assistance to over 100. She has not only tirelessly provided assistance to victims, but her organization continues to advocate at a policy-level for better implementation of the laws, including the prosecution of more traffickers. In 2013, Ms. Anyola was given a Hero Acting to End Modern Slavery Award in recognition of her efforts to combat trafficking.

In the 2014 TIP Report, Cameroon is listed as a Tier 2 country. It is a source, destination, and transit country for sex trafficking, and a source country for forced labor. Men are trafficked in forced labor situations throughout Europe, and Cameroonian women and children are trafficked internally and abroad for sexual purposes. While the government does prosecute traffickers, it needs to improve the amount of services and support available to victims.