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Gambia Becomes Regional Hub for Forced Labour and Sex Trade
Saturday, 30 July 2011 01:37
(JollofNews) - The US State Department has described the Gambia as a sourced, transit and destination country for children
and women subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.In its 2011 "Trafficking in Person" Report, the State Department stated how women and girls and to a lesser extent, boys in the Gambia are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude.
“ Women, girls, and boys from West African countries − mainly Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Benin – are recruited for exploitation in the sex trade in the Gambia, in particular to meet the demands of European tourists seeking sex with children,” the State Department said.
The State Department added that many observers believe organised networks use travel agencies to promote child sex tourism in the Gambia, though none have been uncovered.
It added that although the Gambia prohibits all forms of trafficking through its October 2007 Trafficking in Persons Act, which was amended in October 2010 with increased penalties from 50 years’ to life imprisonment for all forms of trafficking, the Jammeh administration’s anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts have decreased during the reporting period.
The State Department further stated that Gambian authorities often conflated trafficking with migrant smuggling and no law enforcement officials were investigated, prosecuted, or convicted for involvement in human trafficking, although an international organisation reported suspicions that an official of the Gambian Embassy in Mauritania was complicit in a case of cross-border child trafficking between Mauritania and Sierra Leone.
It added that Government of the Gambia does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and despite efforts of to do so, they did not demonstrate increasing efforts to address human trafficking over the previous year.
“The Gambian government failed to use its adequate anti-trafficking legal framework to investigate or prosecute any suspected trafficking cases during the reporting period. While it began to designate staff to serve on the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons, it did not complete efforts to bring this agency into formal existence, as mandated by a 2007 law,” the State Department said.No protection
The State Department noted that although the Jammeh administration claimed to monitor boys in street vending and unaccompanied girls around the Tourism Development Areas known to be destinations of sex tourists, it did not identify or provide protective services to any victims among these populations.
It further added that although the government claimed to monitor the activities of children in Koranic schools who were forced into street vending, it did not rescue or provide services to any victims of forced street vending.
Recommendations
The State Department has called on the Jammeh administration to distinguish between human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and to increase efforts towards investigation and prosecute trafficking offenses. Another recommendation was to train law enforcement personnel to distinguish trafficking from smuggling and to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations. Examples of this include such as boys in street vending, unattended children in tourist resorts known to be sex tourism destinations, women in prostitution, and refer them to protective services.
It also urged the government to institute trafficking awareness trainings for diplomats posted abroad. This entails completing the formal establishment of the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons and continue to allocate sufficient resources to operate it. The scope of this intervention covers measures to decrease the demand for commercial sex acts, specifically those committed by sex tourists. Eventually, it aims at increasing efforts to raise public awareness about the dangers of human trafficking particularly in the sex trade for young persons.
Written by PK Jarju
Click here to read the report in full
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