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Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the hands of traffickers

Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025                  gvnet.com/humantrafficking/CentralAfricanRep.htm

The Central African Republic

Subsistence agriculture, together with forestry, remains the backbone of the economy of the Central African Republic (CAR), with more than 70% of the population living in outlying areas. The agricultural sector generates more than half of GDP.

Distribution of income is extraordinarily unequal. Grants from France and the international community can only partially meet humanitarian needs.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Description: CentralAfricanRep

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. The majority of victims are children trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced ambulant vending, and forced agricultural, mine, market, and restaurant labor.

In addition, rebels conscript children into armed forces in the northwestern and northeastern regions of the country. Unable to survive as hunters and gatherers because of depleted forests, Pygmies are subjected to forced agricultural labor by Central African villagers. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009    Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Central African Republic.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular interest to you.  Would you like to write about Forced-Labor?  Debt Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc.  On the other hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to the subject of Trafficking.  Scan other countries as well.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

Crime & Society -  Comparative Criminology tour of the World - Central African Republic

Dr. Robert Winslow, San Diego State University, A Comparative Criminology Tour of the World

www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/central_african_republic.html

[accessed 28 January 2011]

www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Central-African-Republic-2018.pdf

[accessed 26 April 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS- The indigenous Ba'Aka often are coerced into agricultural, domestic, and other types of labor within the country. The Ba'Aka often are considered to be the slaves of other local ethnic groups, and subjected to wages far below those prescribed by the labor code. Additionally there have been credible reports of three cases in which persons obtained a Ba'Aka child by deception and subsequently sent the child to Europe for adoption. One of the cases reportedly involved the implicit cooperation of government authorities.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Central African Republic

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 30 March 2021

www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/central-african-republic/

[accessed 25 May 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

Employers subjected men, women, and children to forced domestic labor, agricultural work, mining, market or street vending, and restaurant labor, as well as sexual exploitation. Criminal courts sentenced convicted persons to imprisonment and forced labor … . Ba’aka, including children, often were coerced into labor as day laborers, farm hands, or other unskilled labor and often treated as slaves (see section 6, Children). No known victims were removed from forced labor during the year.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Child labor was common in many sectors of the economy, especially in rural areas. Local and displaced children as young as age seven frequently performed agricultural work, including harvesting peanuts and cassava and helping gather items subsequently sold at markets such as mushrooms, hay, firewood, and caterpillars. In Bangui many of the city’s street children worked as street vendors. Children often worked as domestic workers, fishermen, and in mines, often in dangerous conditions. For example, children were forced to work without proper protection or were forced to work long hours (i.e., 10 hours per day or longer). Children also engaged in the worst forms of child labor in diamond fields, transporting and washing gravel as well as mining gold, digging holes, and carrying heavy loads. Despite the law’s prohibition on child labor in mining, observers saw many children working in and around diamond mining fields. No known victims were removed from the worst forms of child labor during the year.

Children continued to be engaged as child soldiers. There were reports of ex-Seleka, Anti-balaka, and other armed groups recruiting child soldiers during the year (see section 1.g.).

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/central-african-republic/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Economic opportunity is heavily restricted by the widespread corruption and the presence of armed groups in many areas of the country. Many armed groups exploit gold and diamond mines, and forced labor and child recruitment for soldiering are common practices. The government has been unable to develop an anti-trafficking plan, and has not initiated a human trafficking prosecution since 2008, according to the US State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons report.

2017 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018

www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf

[accessed 17 April 2019]

www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf

[accessed 26 April 2020]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

[page 261]

CAR experienced a surge of violence in 2017, almost doubling the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) to 688,700, and militias controlled much of the country beyond the capital of Bangui. (14; 17; 23; 24; 25; 3; 26; 27; 12) Although the government worked with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR (MINUSCA), UNICEF, and other partner agencies to demobilize and reintegrate children into community life, there were allegations of abuse and commercial sexual exploitation lodged against UN peacekeepers. (2; 24; 4; 3) Non-state armed groups intensified the forcible recruitment of children during the reporting period as a result of the increase in violence. (2; 28; 12) UNICEF estimated between 6,000 and 10,000 children were associated with armed groups in 2017. (28).

The Protection Project - Central African Republic

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University

www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/car.doc

[Last accessed 2009]

www.protectionproject.org/country-reports/

[accessed 13 February 2019]

A Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children

FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - Deterioration of living conditions in rural areas and the search for unskilled and docile workers are blamed for trafficking in children from the Central African Republic to Cameroon. Poverty, coupled with large family size, is also a main contributing factor. Other factors include strong demand for labor in the informal sector, low awareness of trafficking among the local population, open borders, and corrupt officials.

ILO study finds forced labour and human trafficking on the rise

International Labour Organisation ILO News, Geneva, 25 May 2001

www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_007842/lang--en/index.htm

[accessed 28 August 2012]

While there is universal consensus on the definition of forced labor (essentially work performed under compulsion and subject to a penalty), some of the forms it takes are still sources of policy debate. Among the most contentious issues are those involving compulsory participation of citizens in public works in the context of economic development, a practice which prevails in a number of Asian countries (including Vietnam) and African countries (Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and Tanzania).

U.S. Government Urges Nigeria to Increase Prosecutions and Convictions of Traffickers in Persons

U.S. Department of State, U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria Press Release, June 6, 2006

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 31 August 2011]

Victims are trafficked for domestic servitude, street hawking, agricultural labor, and sexual exploitation.  Internationally, they are trafficked to the Central African Republic, Mali, Gabon, Sudan, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Austria.  Women and children are also trafficked to Nigeria from Togo, Benin, Chad, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Niger, and Ghana," the report also said.

Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children - Sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography - Note by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ofelia Calcetas-Santos, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, UN General Assembly, Fifty-second session, Agenda item 108, 16 October 1997

www.worldcat.org/title/promotion-and-protection-of-the-rights-of-children-sale-of-children-child-prostitution-and-child-pornography-note-by-the-secretary-general/oclc/38086274

[accessed 9 September 2014]

19. In the Central African Republic, the Special Rapporteur has received disconcerting information about the practice of families marrying their daughters as young as 11 or 12, for financial gain, to older husbands. The prevalence of such traditional practices, including the trokosi practice in Ghana, already mentioned in previous reports, is a matter of concern.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6 October 2000

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/centralafrica2000.html

[accessed 28 January 2011]

[50] The Committee joins the State party in expressing deep concern at the problems suffered by children in the context of domestic adoption, inter-country adoption and guardianship proceedings, and in particular at reports of the ill-treatment of children by guardians

[84] The Committee is concerned that children may be at risk of being sold or made to engage in prostitution.

Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide

www.hrw.org/africa/central-african-republic

[accessed 28 January 2011]

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 20 April 2018

www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/af/276981.htm

[accessed 19 March 2019]

www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/central-african-republic/

[accessed 25 June 2019]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

The labor code specifically prohibits and criminalizes all forms of forced or compulsory labor and prescribes a penalty of five to 10 years’ imprisonment for violations. The labor code’s prohibition of forced or compulsory labor also applies to children, although the code does not mention them specifically. The government did not enforce the prohibition effectively, however, and there were reports such practices occurred, especially in armed conflict zones. The failure of government enforcement was due to a lack of resources, a dysfunctional judicial system, and an inadequate inspection cadre. Employers subjected men, women, and children to forced domestic, agricultural, mining, market or street vending, and restaurant labor, as well as sexual exploitation.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Child labor was common in many sectors of the economy, especially in rural areas. Children continued to perform hazardous work and labored as child soldiers. No known victims were removed from the worst forms of child labor during the year.

Local and displaced children as young as seven frequently performed agricultural work, including harvesting peanuts and cassava and helping gather items subsequently sold at markets, such as mushrooms, hay, firewood, and caterpillars. In Bangui many of the city’s street children worked as street vendors. Children often worked as domestic workers, fishermen, and in mines, often in dangerous conditions. Children also worked in the diamond fields alongside adult relatives, transporting and washing gravel as well as mining gold, digging holes, and carrying heavy loads. Despite the law prohibiting child labor in mining, observers saw many children working in and around diamond mining fields.

Although there were no reports ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka recruited child soldiers during the year, both groups continued using child soldiers.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61560.htm

[accessed 7 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – There was strong agreement among NGOs and government officials that trafficking in persons was not widespread.  Trafficking was confined primarily to children, both girls and boys, who were primarily orphans. During the year there were reports that these children were forced into domestic servitude and commercial labor activities, such as street vending and agricultural work. In recent years, there were reports that children were brought in by members of the foreign Muslim community from Nigeria, Sudan, and Chad and that merchants, herders, and other foreigners doing business in and transiting the country brought girls and boys into the country. It was not clear whether children who were victims of trafficking were related to their caretakers. Child trafficking victims were not afforded the benefit of a formal education, despite the mandatory school age, and worked without remuneration for their labor. There were a few anecdotal reports of children being trafficked to Nigeria and several other nearby countries for use as agricultural workers.

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/central-african-republic.htm

[accessed 28 January 2011]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked to the Central African Republic generally from Nigeria, Sudan and Chad for work in domestic service, small shops, and agriculture.  Traveling merchants, herders, and other foreigners working in and transiting the country sometimes brought boys and girls with them.  Such children did not attend school and were not paid for their work.  There are some reports that children are trafficked from the country to Nigeria and other nearby nations for work in agriculture.

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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery – Central African Republic", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/CentralAfricanRep.htm, [accessed <date>]