ADDIS ABABA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The African union Peace and Security Council on Monday approved a proposal to establish an African Migration Observatory to stem illegal migration.

In a press statement, the AU said the Observatory will be tasked with collecting data, ensuring information exchange and coordination between African countries to understand, anticipate and act on migration issues and support continental initiatives to stem illegal migration.

In particular, the Africa Migration Observatory is expected to work with initiatives like The Regional Operation Center (ROC) based in Khartoum, Sudan to enhance collaboration and intelligence sharing to combat criminal activity related to migration.

Every year tens of thousands of Africans are thought to be trafficked to Middle Eastern and European destinations where they are exploited in various informal sectors such as prostitution, physical labor and agricultural labor.

Despite regional and intra-African countries initiatives to stem illegal migration of Africans and stop their exploitation by criminals, so far there is largely an absence of an effective collaboration mechanism between the AU's 55 member states to curb illegal migration and crack down on criminal networks.

The prevalence of criminal networks trafficking humans has led to instability of member states and of facilitating links between terror groups and criminal gangs, according to the AU.