Source: http://paei.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164232.htm

Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Trafficking in Persons Report 2011

THE GAMBIA (Tier 2 Watch List)

The Gambia is a source, transit, and destination country for children
and women subjected forced labor and sex trafficking. Within The
Gambia, women and girls and, to a lesser extent, boys are subjected to
sex trafficking and domestic servitude. In the past, boys attending
Koranic schools run by teachers known as marabouts were often forced
to beg in the streets, but the Government of The Gambia reports that
an increasing number of marabouts now force children into street
vending, where they are more difficult to identify. 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. Observers believe organized networks use travel agencies to
promote child sex tourism, though none have been uncovered. There are
reports that Europe-bound smuggling operations transiting Cape Verde
and the Canary Islands using fishing boat include trafficking victims,
but these reports may be based on a failure to distinguish human
trafficking from the separate crime of migrant smuggling.

The Government of The Gambia does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, the government
did not demonstrate increasing efforts to address human trafficking
over the previous year; therefore, The Gambia is placed on Tier 2
Watch List. 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
government claimed to monitor boys in street vending and unaccompanied
girls in resorts known to be destinations of sex tourists, though it
did not identify or provide protective services to any victims among
these populations.

Recommendations for The Gambia: Distinguishing between human
trafficking and migrant smuggling, increase efforts to investigate and
prosecute trafficking offenses; train law enforcement personnel to
distinguish trafficking from smuggling and to identify trafficking
victims 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; institute trafficking awareness trainings for diplomats
posted abroad; complete the formal establishment of the National
Agency Against Trafficking in Persons and continue to allocate
sufficient resources to operate it; begin to take measures to decrease
the demand for commercial sex acts, specifically those committed by
sex tourists; and increase efforts to raise public awareness about the
dangers of trafficking.

Prosecution

The Government of The Gambia's anti-trafficking law enforcement
efforts decreased during the reporting period. The Gambia prohibits
all forms of trafficking through its October 2007 Trafficking in
Persons Act, and in October 2010, The Gambian National Assembly
approved an amendment to increase prescribed penalties to 50 years' to
life imprisonment for all forms of trafficking. These penalties are
sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for
other serious crimes, such as rape. The Gambia's 2005 Children's Act
also prohibits child trafficking, though it does not include forced
labor in its definition of trafficking, prescribing a penalty of life
imprisonment, and the 2003 Tourism Offenses Act explicitly prohibits
child sex trafficking, prescribing a penalty of 10 years'
imprisonment. The government failed to convict any trafficking
offenders during the year, though it reported initiating a prosecution
of a marabout arrested in March 2011 for transporting boys to Senegal
for forced begging. Authorities often conflated trafficking with
migrant smuggling. No law enforcement officials were investigated,
prosecuted, or convicted for involvement in human trafficking,
although an international organization 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.

Protection

The Gambian government undertook inadequate efforts to protect
trafficking victims during the year. Although it 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. The government repatriated seven Gambian
children who had been found on the streets in Senegal, but made no
efforts to determine whether they were victims of trafficking. In
March 2011, the Department of Social Welfare repatriated 20 children
who had been forced to beg in Senegal and provided them with
protective services. The government operated a 24-hour hotline and
allocated approximately $11,500 toward running a shelter and drop-in
center that were available to trafficking victims; six boys who were
victims of child sex tourism and 20 children repatriated from Senegal
received medical screening and counseling at the shelter before being
returned to their families. The Department of Social Welfare continued
to maintain an electronic child protection database, which includes
information on trafficking cases. No victims assisted in the
investigation of trafficking offenses, but six boys served as
witnesses in the trial of a suspected child sex tourist. The
Trafficking in Persons Act allowed foreign victims to obtain temporary
residence visas for the duration of legal proceedings, though the
government did not offer long-term legal alternatives to the removal
of foreign victims to countries where they face hardship or
retribution. It is not known whether any victims were detained, fined,
or jailed for unlawful acts committed as a result of being trafficked.
Police conducted raids of brothels and detained or deported
individuals in prostitution without employing efforts to identify
trafficking victims among the population. The government provided
staff to assist an NGO in conducting two three-day anti-trafficking
training seminars for law enforcement officers and stakeholders in the
tourism industry.

Prevention

The government made limited efforts to prevent trafficking during the
year. The Department of Social Welfare reports rescuing 19 street
children who were at risk of being trafficked, and with assistance
from an international NGO, repatriating 14 of these children to Mali,
Guinea, Senegal, and Mauritania. Child sex tourism was a problem in
The Gambia. The Tourism Security Unit (TSU) and The Gambia Tourism
Authority claimed it compiled a list of suspected pedophiles and
traffickers, though only one was identified during the year, a child
sex tourist from Norway arrested in December 2010 for sexually
exploiting six boys. Authorities report removing unattended children
from resort areas, in accordance with a policy to combat child sex
tourism, but this effort did not lead to the referral of any child
trafficking victims to protective services or the apprehension of any
traffickers. Members of the National Task Force for Combating
Trafficking in Persons, which the government disbanded during the
previous reporting year, continued to informally share information
among themselves, but did not report taking any additional action. The
Ministry of Justice began to recruit staff for the newly forming
National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons, mandated by the 2007
Trafficking in Persons Act; a new Board of Directors was appointed in
January 2011 and met twice since that time. The Agency has not yet
entered into formal existence, and the government did not release the
approximately $36,000 it budgeted for it during the previous year;
this amount has been re-allocated for 2011. The government provided
anti-trafficking training to Gambian troops before their deployment
abroad on international peacekeeping missions.

--
-Laye
==============================
"With fair speech thou might have thy will,
With it thou might thy self spoil."
--The R.M

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