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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Gabon. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to verify their
authenticity or to validate their content.
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FEATURED ARTICLE ***
Written statement from Anti-Slavery International for
agenda item 13 of the provisional agenda
www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2000-02Item13.htm
At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Traffickers promise good money and
training in order to persuade the parents to send their children abroad.
However, after the children arrive in Gabon neither the child nor their
parents are paid for the work they do. The children interviewed in Gabon often told harrowing stories of their
journey from Bénin to Gabon and many complained of bad
working conditions and being deprived of food once they arrived. Over half of
the children interviewed said that they had been beaten by their
employers. Even where children are
rescued from these conditions, they are likely to encounter feelings of
alienation from their own family and culture and must undergo a long and
difficult task of reintegration.
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ARCHIVES ***
U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are also reported to be trafficked into Gabon from Equatorial Guinea. Children who are purchased in Benin, Togo
and Mali for as little as
USD 14 may be sold to commercial farms in Gabon
and Côte d’Ivoire
for up to USD 340. A social practice
known as “placement” is also reported to be a problem. According to
tradition, poor families send their children to more affluent homes where the
children receive an education in exchange for performing various services for
their host families. However, the practice has degenerated, and placed
children are allegedly trafficked or subjected to commercial sexual
exploitation
Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Children
(especially girls), primarily from Benin
and Togo,
worked as domestic servants or in the informal commercial sector. Nigerian
children, also victims of trafficking, worked in the informal commercial
sector as mechanics. Trafficked children generally worked long hours, were
subjected to physical abuse, received inadequate food, and received no wages
or schooling. No statistics were available on the number of trafficking
victims in the country, but estimates ranged from 3 thousand to 25 thousand.
SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
An unknown number of children‑‑primarily foreign‑‑worked
in marketplaces or performed domestic duties; many of these children were
reportedly the victims of child trafficking. Such children generally did not
attend school, received only limited medical attention, and often were
exploited by employers or foster families.
Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2002
[59] While noting the criminalization
of trafficking of children in a recent Act of 2001 and the establishment of a
national inter-ministerial committee to fight against trafficking in
children, and the serious commitment of the State party with regard to this
issue, the Committee is deeply concerned at the large number of trafficked
children, particularly children coming from abroad, who are still exploited,
mostly in the informal labour market, or enslaved.
War is Boring:
U.S. Navy Renders Aid to Gabonese Trafficking Victims
www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=3638
It's a crisis that intersects with
another. Across Africa, but especially in
the central part of the continent, boys are sold, coerced or kidnapped into
military service in both government and rebel armies. Many of these child
soldiers also flee their captors, especially during combat, and end up
homeless on the streets of major cities, where aid groups struggle to find
and care for them. Children represent
a major commodity in a dark economy of violence and exploitation that is
perhaps most prominent in West and Central Africa. Escudero
described Gabon
as an importer of child slaves, "either for cheap manual labor or to
work in people's homes or factories. Often these kids win up on streets, if
they've been abused at home or mistreated where they're working."
Gabon cracks down on child trafficking
www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xbreve.php3?id_article=1378
At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Child trafficking to Gabon gained
momentum in the 1970s, when the country's oil wealth made it a magnet for the
nationals of poorer neighbouring states. According
to the ministry of social and family affairs, there are currently about 25
000 exploited children in Gabon
-- about half of whom come from Togo,
Nigeria and Benin.
Rights-Gabon:
Hopefully, the Beginning of the End for Child Traffickers
This article may possibly still be
accessible [here]
although registration may be required
For the first time in its history,
the country is to try persons accused of these crimes. Eight nationals from Benin and Togo who have been indicted for
trafficking and exploitation face imprisonment of up to five years if
convicted - and fines of between 200 and 2,000 dollars. These penalties are
stipulated in a law aimed at protecting children against exploitation that
was adopted in 2002, but which has yet to be enforced.
The
Protection Project - Gabon [DOC]
FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Children are trafficked
primarily for domestic labor, as well as for work as street and
market vendors. The majority of children
trafficked from Togo and Benin are girls, and
most of the children coming from Nigeria are boys. Traffickers taking children into Gabon
commonly pose as their parents or caretakers.
Children are often taken to Gabon under the guise of going to
school there. However, after arriving in Gabon, the children are denied
any education and are forced to work for their “host” families. Then, when
the anticipated date of graduation from the promised school approaches, the
families accuse the children of stealing money and kick them out into the
street.
In addition, children from Nigeria may be trafficked to Gabon for prostitution and menial labor. Some of the Togolese girls initially
trafficked to Gabon
as housemaids are driven into prostitution there if they manage to escape
from domestic servitude.
Child labor is extremely
widespread. An estimated 53,000 of the 132,000 children living in Gabon are
forced to work. According to another
report, an estimated 5,000 are foreign children working in Gabon.
GABON: Laws fail to curb child
trafficking racket
www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=52911
At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Gabon passed a law against trafficking and child
exploitation in 2002, but the first police roundup of child traffickers and
their victims only took place on the 24 January - nearly three years
later. The authorities arrested 60
young people from Benin, Togo, Nigeria,
Ghana and Niger, along with 20 of their suspected adult
employers, who were all immigrants from West Africa
themselves. The youths, ranging in age
from eight to 26, were taken into care prior to being reunited with their
families. But to the disappointment of
childrens' rights activists, the "uncles"
and "guardians" to whom they were forced to surrender their earnings, were released from custody three days later.
Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 4 Status:
Partly Free
UNICEF:
War fuels Africa human trafficking
"Every country represents a
different problem," Rossi told reporters at a meeting of African Union
ministers in Benin.
"But at the national level in Africa
there is a lack of capacity to collect data."
Nigeria and Gabon are the
major destinations for individuals trafficked from neighboring countries in
West Africa, including strife-hit Ivory Coast,
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
WEST AFRICA: Traffickers hold thousands of
children, women in bondage
www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=47211
Most children and women rights
activists say much will not be achieved towards eradicating human trafficking
without first dealing effectively with widespread poverty in West Africa because poverty is the single major cause
of the trade. Sharp losses in revenue
by cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire,
Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon
and Gabon have actually become an
incentive for farmers to take in cheap, child labourers
to cut costs, the activists say. Among
the poorer countries in the region, relatively affluent countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and oil-rich Nigeria and Gabon
remain attractive destinations for parents to send their children to work in
the care of intermediaries.
West
Africa: Stop Trafficking in Child Labor
www.hrw.org/en/news/2003/04/01/west-africa-stop-trafficking-child-labor
hrw.org/english/docs/2003/04/01/togo5489.htm
Girls interviewed by Human Rights
Watch were told to board ships for Gabon, where they worked as
housemaids or in markets. In a September, 2001 case documented in the report,
a boat ferrying hundreds of trafficked girls sank off the coast of Cameroon,
killing nine. Other cases document girls being treated as virtual slaves,
forced to work day and night peddling goods in the market, fetching water,
and caring for young children. Most endured beatings and psychological abuse,
including death threats and warnings they would never see their parents
again.
Children’s testimony from Borderline Slavery
www.hrw.org/press/2003/04/togo040103-test.htm
At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
ON THEIR RECRUITMENT BY CHILD
TRAFFICKERS - My
friend had an aunt in Gabon,
and she came and saw the conditions we were living in. She said she had a
good job in Gabon,
so I should accompany her there and work with her. My mother was very seriously
ill, and my friend’s aunt said that when we got to Gabon, she would find me a job as
a trader so that I could send money to my mother for medicine…I was willing
to go because of how she spoke about it. She never said how much money I
would be making. - Dado
K., age twenty-nine, trafficked to Gabon when she was sixteen
Modern-Day
Slavery? - The scope of trafficking in persons in Africa
INTRODUCTION - Chikezie
is a 13-year-old from Nigeria
who was in fourth grade when a man from his area promised his family to
educate him. Upon arrival in Libreville,
Gabon, he was
forced to hawk water and nylon bags for his ‘master’, who beat him when he
did not earn as much as expected. His ‘master’ also burned him with a hot
iron. Chikezie escaped to the Nigerian embassy in Gabon, which
assisted his repatriation. He is now at home studying to be a chemist.
TYPES AND EXTENT OF TRAFFICKING IN
AFRICA - TRAFFICKING FOR FORCED LABOUR - The ILO also estimates 200,000 to 300,000 children are
trafficked each year for forced labour and sexual
exploitation in West and Central Africa. …..
UNICEF estimates 25,000 foreign children are working in markets and farms in Gabon; 7,000
of them are likely trafficking victims.
Rogue Voyage of a
21st Century African Slave Ship
The West African child slave
traffic works like this: Smugglers coax families in flat-broke countries like
Benin and Togo into
"giving up" their kids. They promise education and a better life.
The going price for a child: $15. The smugglers sell the boys to plantations
in wealthier places like the Ivory Coast
and Gabon. If they're lucky, the
girls end up as household workers. Many girls end up in brothels.
African
"slave ship" highlights spread of child slavery
On March 30, the MV Etireno set sail from Benin
for Gabon.
The manifest of the Nigerian-registered ship said it was carrying 139
passengers. It had room for 200. The ship was turned away from Libreville, Gabon, after the Transport
Ministry issued a press statement claiming there were 250 Nigerian children
aboard, destined to be used as slave labour.
Written statement from Anti-Slavery International for
agenda item 13 of the provisional agenda
www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2000-02Item13.htm
At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Traffickers promise good money and
training in order to persuade the parents to send their children abroad.
However, after the children arrive in Gabon neither the child nor their
parents are paid for the work they do. The children interviewed in Gabon often told harrowing stories of their
journey from Bénin to Gabon and many complained of bad
working conditions and being deprived of food once they arrived. Over half of
the children interviewed said that they had been beaten by their
employers. Even where children are
rescued from these conditions, they are likely to encounter feelings of
alienation from their own family and culture and must undergo a long and
difficult task of reintegration.
New
Global Treaty to Combat "Sex Slavery"
CHILDREN SOLD OR KIDNAPPED - According to Anti-Slavery
International, children aged 8 to 15 years are "recruited" or
kidnapped from backward villages of the poorest countries in Africa, such as Benin or Togo,
and sold as slaves to households, plantations or brothels in neighbouring countries, including Nigeria and Gabon.
All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery - Gabon",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Gabon.htm, [accessed <date>]
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