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| In West Africa, traffickers pose as Koranic school teachers and force young students to beg for food and money instead of allowing them to gain an education. In Europe, traffickers subject children—including Roma and disabled children—to forced begging. In South Asia, some traffickers maim children before subjecting them to forced begging to increase the children’s profits. (Photo taken from TIP 2016) |
A U.S. State Department Report released
on Thursday, June 30, has accused The Gambia Government of not fully meeting
the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
significant efforts to do so.”
“Within The Gambia, women, girls, and
to a lesser extent, boys are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic
servitude,” the 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report
indicated. “The Gambia is a source and destination country for women and children
subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.”
For three consecutive years, the small
West African country gets Tier 3 ranking. It means The Gambia does not fully comply
with the “minimum standards” and have not shown the U.S. they are making
significant efforts to do so.
In 2014 the U.S. State Department downgraded
The Gambia alongside Thailand, Malaysia and Venezuela to Tier 3, the lowest
possible ranking for a country’s response to fighting human trafficking and modern
day slavery.
Like previous reports, the 2016 TIP Report stated that women, girls,
and boys from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, and Benin are recruited for commercial sexual exploitation in
The Gambia.
“The majority of these victims are
subjected to sexual exploitation by European child sex tourists,” it stated. “Observers
believe organized sex trafficking networks use both European and Gambian travel
agencies to promote child sex tourism.”
Complicit in trafficking offenses
It also indicated that some corrupt or
unscrupulous marabouts in Koranic schools force Gambian boys into
begging and street vending.
The report states that Gambian children
have been identified as victims of forced labor in Ghana and Senegal, while women
and girls are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in Middle Eastern
countries, including United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Lebanon.
The State Department said during the
reporting period, the government repatriated and provided services to nine
victims subjected to trafficking abroad and continued to conduct sensitization
campaigns in key border regions.
However, it said the government did not
complete any prosecutions, secure any convictions, or identify any victims
within the country for the fourth consecutive year.
It said despite reports that government
officials were complicit in trafficking offenses during the reporting period;
the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any government
officials complicit in trafficking offenses.
Prosecute trafficking offenses
The June 2016 TIP report recommends
that The Gambia “vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses” and
ensure adequate sentencing for convicted trafficking offenders, including
complicit government officials.
It said the government should train law
enforcement personnel to identify trafficking victims proactively among vulnerable
populations, such as boys in street vending, unattended children in tourist
resorts known to be sex tourism destinations, and women in prostitution, and
refer them to protective services.
Also, it recommends for improved data
collection and public reporting on victim identification and law enforcement
efforts, and to develop standard procedures for referring trafficking victims
to NGO care services and inform government officials and the NGO community of
such procedures.
The U.S. State Department wants The
Gambia government to undertake cooperative efforts with anti-trafficking
officials from governments in the region to enable joint law enforcement
efforts, and the safe repatriation of victims to and from The Gambia.
It also wants it to provide adequate funding
and resources to the national coordinating body (the National Agency Against
Trafficking in Persons, NAATIP) to ensure its effective implementation of the
anti-trafficking national action plan.
Gambia dismisses allegations
Following the country’s downgrading in
June 2014, The Gambia Government stated that “the allegations contained in the U.S Department of
State's report, that many Gambian boys
attend Koranic schools and are forced into begging and street vending is,
therefore, a misrepresentation of the facts.”
“It should be noted that there are no
"almodos" in the streets of Banjul and its surroundings, as opposed
to what exists in other countries in the sub-region,” the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs said in a statement.
In July 2014, the authorities in The Gambia
also arrested, detained and release on bail a journalist who reported about the
problems the country's police face in investigating human trafficking.
Sanna Camara, also the publisher and
editor of Gambia Beat, was accused of
spreading false news after publishing a story in which the police admit facing problems
in fight against human trafficking.
The story, ‘Police admit 'problems' with human
trafficking’, whose original link is no longer accessible, was based on
an interview with police spokesperson Superintendent David Kujabi to get his
reaction to the U.S. State Department's 2014 TIP shortly after it was released.
Camara, who later fled the country and
now lives in exile in neighbouring Senegal, has since published a version of
the story on his blog, titled: ‘Problems’
of human trafficking in The Gambia’
Rankings interpreted:
Tier 1 countries include governments
fully compliant with the minimum standards.
Tier 2 Countries don’t fully comply,
but are making significant efforts to do so.
There is then a Tier 2 Watch List which
includes countries with a high number of victims, or where the numbers are
significantly increasing. It also includes countries where there’s insufficient
evidence of acceptable efforts to improve anti-trafficking programs.
Tier 3 countries do not fully comply
with the minimum standards and have not shown the U.S. they are making
significant efforts to do so.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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