Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have been trafficking refugees, orphans and displaced families in crisis-stricken nations and regions to generate profits that directly finance terrorist activities, human rights experts said.
The extremists have been preying on the most vulnerable populations in Africa's Sahel region and in nations such as Somalia, Syria and Yemen, they added.
Al-Qaeda has been using orphaned children and women without guardians as forced labor in areas under its control, Germany based human rights researcher Mohammad Taher Qayoumi told Salaam Times.
In some cases, the group has pushed them into sexual exploitation networks.
"This inhumane behavior is not only a blatant violation of human rights but also highlights the crimes of a group that exploits poverty, insecurity and people's defenselessness for its own gain," Qayoumi said.
"Many of these children become victims of sexual exploitation or are used as forced labor in camps and on frontlines," he said.
"This is a violent and corrupt process that increases the suffering of innocent people while secretly financing terrorism."
The income from these crimes is funneled into purchasing weapons, paying fighters and sustaining terrorist operations, Qayoumi said, urging the international community to view this issue as a serious threat.
Exploiting the vulnerable
In Somalia's Hiran region and other war-torn areas, al-Qaeda targets orphaned children who have no protectors, Middle East political researcher Nabiullah Fatemi told Salaam Times.
The group abducts these children, or lures them in with false promises before drawing them into trafficking networks, said Fatemi, who is based in France.
"For al-Qaeda, human trafficking is not only a survival tool but also a means of spreading chaos," Fatemi said.
"By destabilizing border regions, the group drives populations into displacement and then exploits those same refugees as human and financial resources."
The shift toward human trafficking reflects al-Qaeda's desperation as it reels from external military pressure, internal rifts and declining financial resources, said Ankara-based political affairs analyst Mohammad Sarwar Nemati.
"The group exploits the vulnerability of these people, forcing them into servitude without consent and under inhumane conditions," he told Salaam Times.
"These actions signal al-Qaeda's structural and moral decline, as a group that once claimed ideological motives has resorted to exploiting the most defenseless people to survive," Nemati said.
The exploitation of orphaned children, widows and displaced people is a "grave crime against humanity," Kabul-based religious scholar Mawlawi Abdul Hafiz Haqyar told Salaam Times.
"Islam strongly condemns the exploitation of human beings," he said. "Terrorist groups should not force children and women to commit barbaric acts under the guise of religion."
