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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/Djibouti.htm

Republic of Djibouti

Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. The nation is, therefore, heavily dependent on foreign assistance to help support its balance of payments and to finance development projects. An unemployment rate of nearly 60% in urban areas continues to be a major problem. While inflation is not a concern, due to the fixed tie of the Djiboutian franc to the US dollar, the artificially high value of the Djiboutian franc adversely affects Djibouti's balance of payments. Per capita consumption dropped an estimated 35% between 1999 and 2006 because of recession, civil war, and a high population growth rate (including immigrants and refugees).  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Djibouti

Djibouti is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. Large numbers of voluntary economic migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia pass illegally through Djibouti en route to Yemen and other locations in the Middle East; among this group, a small number of women and girls may fall victim to involuntary domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation after reaching Djibouti City or the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor. Others fall victim to human trafficking after reaching their destinations in the Middle East. - 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 Djibouti.  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 ***

Protection Project - Djibouti [DOC]

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

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

[Last accessed 2009]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Displaced women and children fleeing conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia have ended up in prostitution in Djibouti. Some of them have also been trafficked to wealthy Arab states to work as domestic servants.

Child prostitution is on the rise in Djibouti. A government study, conducted in conjunction with UNICEF, found that 73.3 percent of street children were Ethiopian and that over a quarter of these children were exploited in the commercial sex industry. Most are girls from the Dire-Dawa region of Ethiopia. They are often brought by other girls to brothels, where they are forced into prostitution. In Djibouti’s most famous sex venue, Rue d’Ethiopie, children age 11 to 16 are forced to engage in prostitution. - htsccp

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Djibouti

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/djibouti/

[accessed 4 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

Citizens and migrants were vulnerable to forced labor, including as domestic servants in Djibouti City and along the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

According to the law, children are strictly prohibited in domestic jobs, hotels, and bars and drinking places, with the exception of jobs related to catering only. Child labor, however, including the worst forms, occurred throughout the country. Children were engaged in the sale of the narcotic chat, which is legal. Family-owned businesses such as restaurants and small shops employed children during all hours. Children were involved in a range of activities such as shining shoes, washing and guarding cars, selling items, working as domestic servants, working in subsistence farming and with livestock, begging, and other activities in the informal sector. Parents or other adult relatives forced street children to work, including to beg. Children were also coerced to commit petty crimes, such as theft.

Children experienced physical, chemical, and psychological hazards while working. In 2019 the Ministry of Labor quadrupled the size of its labor inspectorate from five to 21 inspectors, and the country’s police chief created a Brigade for Minors to handle crimes committed by minors as well as crimes committed against minors.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/djibouti/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

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

Many residents have difficulty finding employment in the formal sector, as the president and his allies tightly control all large-scale economic activity, especially around the military bases leased by foreign powers. Legal safeguards against exploitative working conditions are poorly enforced; migrant workers and refugees are especially vulnerable to abuse. A 2016 law on human trafficking includes strong penalties for perpetrators, but authorities have struggled to secure convictions and to effectively identify and assist victims.

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 27 April 2020]

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

[page 345]

Limited evidence suggests that children, including undocumented migrant girls, are vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation in Djibouti City and the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor. (11; 15) Girls from poor Djiboutian families may also engage in commercial sexual exploitation. (2).

Ethiopia is a source country for Human Trafficking and Sex Exploitation

Trafficking in Persons Report, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, June 2006

ovcs.blogspot.com/2008/01/ethiopia-is-source-country-for-human.html

[accessed 1 February 2011]

Ethiopia is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Children and adults are trafficked within the country for domestic servitude and, to a lesser extent, for commercial sexual exploitation and labor, such as street vending. Small numbers of men are trafficked to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States for low-skilled forced labor. Ethiopian women are trafficked to the Middle East, particularly Lebanon, for domestic servitude; other destinations include Egypt, South Africa, Sudan, and Djibouti. Small percentages of these women are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Transit countries for trafficked Ethiopians reportedly include Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan.

Trafficking in Persons Report - 2005

Trafficking in Persons Report, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, June 3, 2005

www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46617.htm

[accessed 1 February 2011]

VI. SPECIAL CASES - DJIBOUTI - Trafficking in persons is an undocumented problem in Djibouti. There is a dearth of solid evidence or statistics to make a concrete case that trafficking is a significant problem in the country, though anecdotal evidence suggests some trafficking occurs. Insufficient or non-existent monitoring of migration and labor statistics makes it difficult at this time to substantiate the magnitude of trafficking occurring within the country’s borders

*** 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/276993.htm

[accessed 21 March 2019]

www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/djibouti/

[accessed 21 March 2019]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

Citizens and migrants were vulnerable to conditions of forced labor, including as domestic servants in Djibouti City and along the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor. Parents or other adult relatives forced street children, including citizen children, to beg. Children also were vulnerable to forced labor as domestic servants and coerced to commit petty crimes, such as theft.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Child labor, including the worst forms of child labor, existed throughout the country. Children were engaged in the sale of the narcotic khat, legal under local law. Family-owned businesses such as restaurants and small shops employed children at all hours. Children were involved in a range of activities such as shining shoes, washing and guarding cars, selling items, working as domestic servants, working in subsistence farming and with livestock, begging, and other activities in the informal sector. Children of both sexes worked as domestic servants.

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/2005/61566.htm

[accessed 8 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The law does not prohibit trafficking in persons. Although there were no known reports of persons being trafficked to, from, or within the country, observers believed the country to be a destination for individuals trafficked from Ethiopia and Somalia and a country of transit to the Middle East. Trafficking could be prosecuted under various sections of the law, including "exploitation of the weakness or ignorance of persons" or "exerting pressure on a person so that the person engages in prostitution."

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/djibouti.htm

[accessed 1 February 2011]

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

CHILD LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The Labor Code sets the minimum age for employment at 14 years.  Night work is prohibited for children under the age of 16, and the hours and conditions of work for children are regulated.  Forced and bonded labor of children is also prohibited.

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