Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, surrounded by six countries: Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, and Togo. It has an area of 274,200 square kilometres (km) and has a population of 18.6 million inhabitants. Its capital is Ouagadougou, where the biggest airport of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou International Airport, is found. By 2021, a new airport should be operational at Dosin, located 30 km north from the capital. Having no access to the sea, Burkina Faso relies on the ports of its neighbouring countries for its commercial exchanges. Eighty per cent of the external trade of Burkina Faso is conducted by sea. The main ports available to Burkina Faso are Cotonou, Lomé, Téma, Takoradi, and Abidjan. In practice, the autonomous port of Abidjan is the main port of maritime entry and exit into Burkina Faso, having regained its lost market share caused by the crisis in Ivory Coast in September 2002. International roads link Ouagadougou to all neighbouring ports and a railway line operates between Ouagadougou and Abidjan.
Labour Migration and Structural Heterogeneity in West Africa