 |
Guinea-Bissau ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2007. [1]
|
Guinea-Bissau ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2007. [1]
In 2010 Guinea-Bissau was a source country for children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, principally begging, and forced prostitution. Boys were sent to Senegal, and to a lesser extent Mali and Guinea, under the care of Koranic teachers called marabouts, or their intermediaries, to receive Islamic religious education. These teachers, however, routinely beat and subjected the children, called talibé, to force them to beg, and subjected them to other harsh treatment, sometimes separating them permanently from their families. UNICEF estimated that 200 children were taken from Guinea-Bissau each month for this purpose, and in 2008 a study found that 30 percent of the 8,000 religious students begging on the streets of Dakar were from Guinea-Bissau. Men, often former talibés from the regions of Bafata and Gabu, were the principal traffickers. In most cases they operated in the open, protected by their stature in the Muslim community. Some observers believed girls were also targets, and may have been subjected to domestic labor in Guinea-Bissau or Senegal. [2]
The Government of Guinea-Bissau did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so, despite limited resources. Despite these efforts, the government demonstrated weak overall progress in combating trafficking during the reporting period, particularly its lack of any effective law enforcement action; therefore, Guinea-Bissau was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year. [2]
The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 3" in 2017 [3] and 2023. [4]
In 2023, the Organised Crime Index noted the prevalence of the crime as well as new legislation. [5]
The Government of Guinea-Bissau did not increase efforts to prosecute and punish trafficking offenders during the reporting period. Bissau-Guinean law does not prohibit all forms of human trafficking, though it prohibits forced labor under article 37 of the country’s penal code, which prescribes a sufficiently stringent penalty of life imprisonment. In the previous reporting period, the National Assembly drafted legislation prohibiting child trafficking, though it was not adopted before the legislature was dissolved in August 2008. Guinea-Bissau does not specifically prohibit forced prostitution. The government could use existing laws to punish trafficking cases, such as the laws against removing children, sexual exploitation, abuse, and kidnapping of children, but did not do so during the reporting period. The government neither investigated nor prosecuted human trafficking offenses during the reporting period, due largely to systemic failures that pervaded the judicial system, such as lack of institutional capacity and corruption. [2]
The Government of Guinea-Bissau continued to demonstrate efforts to protect and repatriate victims. However, the government did not demonstrate proactive efforts to identify trafficking victims. While the government did not operate victim shelters or provide other victims services directly, it continued to fund an NGO shelter for child trafficking victims in Gabu, providing about $16,000 to the annual operating budget of the facility. Police continued to refer victims to that NGO shelter, as well as a shelter operated by a separate NGO in Bafata. The government continued efforts, as allowed under Guinea- Bissau law, to intercept and return victims domestically and repatriate victims from abroad. The government, together with the Government of Senegal and the Bissau-Guinean Embassy in Dakar, repatriated 43 children during the reporting period. As part of the repatriation process for talibés, parents must sign a contract with the regional court accepting responsibility for the safety of their children, and can be subject to criminal sanction should the children be trafficked again. The government held some child victims in transition shelters until it could successfully reunite them with family and ensure that the family would not be involved in the child’s re-trafficking. No special protections are afforded to witnesses. Police coordinated their repatriation efforts with NGOs, in the last year referring 160 victims to NGO providers of victim services. Victims were frequently too young to contribute meaningfully to any prosecution. However, the government encouraged family members of the victim to assist in any investigation or prosecution of trafficking offenders. Given the widespread cultural acceptance of sending young boys away from home for a religious education, family members often were reluctant to support law enforcement efforts against traffickers. [2]
The Government of Guinea-Bissau continued to make minimal efforts to raise awareness about trafficking during the reporting period. A government-supported NGO trained border guards to identify potential trafficking offenders. Guards detained male adults who could not prove they were the fathers of children trying to cross the border and arranged for their transportation to police headquarters in Gabu. Border guards did not refer these cases to police for investigation, and suspected traffickers were generally released while guards contacted parents to collect their children. National anti-trafficking coordination efforts were hampered by the government’s failure to implement new programs in 2009 or adopt a previously drafted national action plan. An inter-ministerial committee, chaired by the president of the Institute of Women and Children, met regularly in an effort to coordinate the government and civil society response to human trafficking, but undertook little action. The government did not take measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor during the year. Guinea-Bissau is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. [2]
Senegal ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in October 2003.
Armenia ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in July 2003.
Austria is a destination and transit country for women, men, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor.
Benin ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in August 2002.
Bolivia Bolivia ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in May 2006.
Botswana ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in August 2002.
In 2009, Papua New Guinea was a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Women and children were subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude; trafficked men were forced to provide labor in logging and mining camps. Children, especially young girls from tribal areas, were most vulnerable to being pushed into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor by members of their immediate family or tribe. Families traditionally sold girls into forced marriages to settle their debts, leaving them vulnerable to involuntary domestic servitude, and tribal leaders trade the exploitative labor and service of girls and women for guns and political advantage. Young girls sold into marriage were often forced into domestic servitude for the husband's extended family. In more urban areas, some children from poorer families were prostituted by their parents or sold to brothels. Migrant women and teenage girls from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines were subjected to forced prostitution, and men from China were transported to the country for forced labor.
Portugal ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in May 2004.
In 2009 Namibia was a country of origin, transit, and destination for foreign and Namibian women and children, and possibly for men subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution. Traffickers exploited Namibian children, as well as children from Angola and Zambia, through forced labor in agriculture, cattle herding, involuntary domestic servitude, charcoal production, and commercial sexual exploitation. In some cases, Namibian parents unwittingly sold their children to traffickers. Reports indicate that vulnerable Namibian children were recruited for forced prostitution in Angola and South Africa, typically by truck drivers. There was also some evidence that traffickers move Namibian women to South Africa and South African women to Namibia to be exploited in forced prostitution. Namibian women and children, including orphans, from rural areas were the most vulnerable to trafficking. Victims were lured by traffickers to urban centers and commercial farms with promises of legitimate work for good wages they may never receive. Some adults subjected children to whom they are distantly related to forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Small business owners and farmers may also participated in trafficking crimes against women or children. Victims were forced to work long hours to carry out hazardous tasks, and may have been beaten or raped by traffickers or third parties.
Nicaragua ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in October 2004.
In 2009, Niger was a source, transit, and destination country for children and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Caste-based slavery practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, continued primarily in the northern part of the country. Children are trafficked within Niger for forced begging by religious instructors known as marabouts; forced labor in gold mines, agriculture, and stone quarries; as well as for involuntary domestic servitude and forced prostitution. The ILO estimates at least 10,000 children work in gold mines in Niger, many of whom may have been forced to work. Nigerien children, primarily girls, were also subjected to commercial sexual exploitation along the border with Nigeria, particularly in the towns of Birni N'Konni and Zinder along the main highway, and boys are trafficked to Nigeria and Mali for forced begging and manual labor. There were reports Nigerien girls entered into "false marriages" with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates: upon arrival in these countries, the girls are often forced into involuntary domestic servitude. Child marriage was a problem, especially in rural areas, and may have contributed to conditions of human trafficking. Niger is a transit country for women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo en route to Northern Africa and Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger as domestic servants, forced laborers in mines and on farms, and as mechanics and welders. To a lesser extent, Nigerien women and children were sometimes trafficked from Niger to North Africa the Middle East, and Europe for involuntary domestic servitude and forced commercial sexual exploitation."
Gabon ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2010.
The Gambia ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in May 2003.
In 2009, Ghana was a country of origin, transit, and destination for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. The nonconsensual exploitation of Ghanaian citizens, particularly children, was more common than the trafficking of foreign migrants. The movement of internally trafficked children was either from rural to urban areas, or from one rural area to another, as from farming to fishing communities.
Guinea ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in November 2004.
Mali ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in April 2002.
In 2009 Human trafficking in Mauritania was considered to be a controversial human rights issue. Mauritania was a suspected source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Supposedly, some women, men, and children from traditional slave castes were subjected to slavery-related practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, which continue to exist in a limited fashion in both rural and urban settings. These individuals, held for generations by slave-holding families, may have been forced to work without pay as cattle herders and household help. Mauritanian and West African boys - referred to as talibes - were recruited to study at Koranic schools, but were sometimes subsequently subjected to forced begging within the country by religious teachers known as marabouts. Girls have been trafficked internally and from neighboring West African countries such as Mali, Senegal, and Gambia for involuntary domestic servitude. Mauritanian girls have been married off to wealthy men from the Middle East and taken there in some cases for forced prostitution. Mauritanian women were forced into prostitution within the country, as well as in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
In 2010 Mongolia was a source country, and to a much lesser extent, a destination for men, women, and children who were subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Mongolian men, women, and children were found in these conditions in China, Macau, Malaysia, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Mongolian men and women were found in conditions of forced labor in Turkey, Kazakhstan, and the Czech Republic. Visa-free travel of Mongolians to Turkey resulted in a significant increase in the number of both labor and sex trafficking cases of Mongolian labor migrants in Turkey. There remained concerns about involuntary child labor in the Mongolian construction, mining, and industrial sectors, where children were vulnerable to injury and face severe health hazards. The problem of Mongolian women subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude after engaging in brokered marriages - mainly to South Korean men - continued. Trafficking within Mongolia often involved women and girls forced to work in saunas or massage parlors where they were subjected to forced prostitution. Anecdotal reports continued to indicate that South Korean and Japanese tourists engaged in child sex tourism in Mongolia.
Bulgaria ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in December 2001.
In 2009, The Republic of the Congo (ROC) was a destination and transit country for children subjected to trafficking in persons for the purposes of forced labor and forced prostitution. Most sources agreed that up to 80 percent of all trafficked children originated from Benin, with girls comprising 90 percent of that group. Togo, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Senegal were also sources of victims found in the Congolese Republic. Internally trafficked children represented 10 percent of all child victims, the majority of which originated from the Pool region. Many child victims were subjected to forced labor, including in domestic work, market vending and fishing; girls were also exploited in the sex trade. Child victims generally experienced harsh treatment, long work hours, and almost no access to education or health services; they received little or no remuneration for their work. Other village children, however, lived voluntarily with extended relatives in cities, attend school, and did housework in exchange for food, in a traditional cultural and familial pattern that id not entail abuse.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .