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/Guinea-Bissau.htm
Guinea-Bissau is a
source country for children trafficked to other West African countries and
within the country for forced begging, forced agricultural labor, and
commercial sexual exploitation. The majority of victims are boys who are
religious students, called talibe, who are
trafficked by religious instructors called marabouts to other West African
countries, primarily Senegal, for forced begging. Deceived into
believing that their children will receive a religious education, parents
often agree to send their child away with marabouts. Instead, the instructors
force the children to beg daily for up to 12 hours in urban centers and
physically abuse them if they fail to collect a certain quota of money.
Bissau-Guinean boys are also trafficked to Senegal for forced labor in cotton
fields. NGOs report that Bissau-Guinean girls who perform domestic work
within the country and in Senegal may be victims of trafficking, while girls
reportedly are trafficked to Senegal for forced domestic labor. Within
Guinea-Bissau, girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in
small bars and restaurants. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check
out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in 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 *** Guinea-Bissau-Senegal:
On the child trafficking route UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Bafata, 23
November 2007 www.irinnews.org/report/75485/guinea-bissau-senegal-on-the-child-trafficking-route [accessed 1 March
2015] Children, brought from
100,000 CHILD
BEGGARS
- In 2004, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated there were up to 100,000
child beggars in ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Guinea Bissau 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/guinea-bissau/
[accessed 8 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The law prohibits
all forms of forced or compulsory labor, but the government did not
effectively enforce the laws. Prescribed penalties were not commensurate with
those for other serious crimes, but the government did not use these or other
relevant laws to prosecute cases of forced labor. Forced child labor occurred
(see section 7.c). PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor
occurred in farming, fishing, domestic work, and street work. Forced child
labor occurred in domestic service; begging; agriculture and mining; shoe
shining; and selling food on urban streets. Some religious teachers, known as
marabouts, deceived boys and their families by promising a Quranic education
but then put the boys to work or took them to neighboring countries for
exploitation as forced beggars. Commercial sexual exploitation of children
also occurred (see section 6). Children in rural
communities performed domestic labor and fieldwork without pay to help support
their families. Minors in these situations as well as those who received some
pay were frequently subjected to violence and sexual assault. According to a
nongovernmental organization survey, nine in 10 domestic workers were
physically abused by their employers. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/guinea-bissau/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Guinea-Bissau is
one of the world’s poorest countries, with most families relying on unstable
employment in the informal economy or remittances from migrant workers
abroad. Public services have deteriorated in recent years amid irregular
payment of public-sector workers. Boys are vulnerable
to organized exploitation through forced begging and to forced labor in
sectors including mining and agriculture. Girls are frequently victims of
sexual exploitation or domestic servitude. Government officials have been
accused of complicity in trafficking activity, including sex tourism schemes
in the Bijagós islands. 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 28 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 482] In Guinea-Bissau,
organized networks of traffickers affiliated with Koranic schools force boys
to beg within the country and in The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal. (1)
Although many Koranic school teachers provide religious education as
traditionally intended, some force the students, known as talibés,
to beg on the streets for money and food. (7) Most talibés
originate from the predominantly Muslim areas of Bafatá
and Gabú in the east of the country. (9) Boys are
forced to work in street vending in Guinea-Bissau; they are trafficked for
forced labor in agriculture, mining, and street vending in Senegal. Boys from
neighboring countries are forced to beg and harvest cashews in Guinea-Bissau.
(1) Girls are subjected to forced labor in street vending and domestic work
in Guinea and Senegal. Girls are also engaged in commercial sexual
exploitation in the Bijagós Archipelago of
Guinea-Bissau, on mainland Guinea-Bissau in bars and hotels, and in Senegal.
(8; 1). Child victims of
human trafficking rescued in Guinea Bissau ASemana, 18 November 2007 www.asemana.publ.cv/spip.php?article27729 [accessed 8 February
2011] More than 50
children from Guinea Bissau were rescued by police in the city of Five Years After
Stockholm [PDF] ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC] ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 5 September
2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – UN alarmed at rise
in drug trafficking Integrated Regional
Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/57983/guinea-bissau-un-alarmed-at-rise-in-drug-trafficking [accessed 9 March
2015] The former
Portuguese colony is ranked 172 of 177 countries in the UN’s Human
Development Index. The cash-strapped government has no coastguard; police
have no cars and the navy no boats for patrolling national waters where
scattered tiny islands make a haven for smugglers. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 7th June 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/guineabissau2002.html [accessed 8 February
2011] [32] The Committee
is concerned that: (c) the common use of "informal adoption"
procedures can lead to the violation of children's rights. The
Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/bissau.doc [Last accessed 2009] TRAFFICKING
ROUTES
- Internal trafficking exists in NONGOVERNMENTAL
AND INTL ORGANIZATION RESPONSES - UNICEF is implementing a 5-year program
in ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61574.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law does not prohibit trafficking in persons, and there were reports
that children were trafficked from or within the country. The government has
not prosecuted any cases against traffickers. The Ministry of Interior has
responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts; however, the government had no
national plan to combat trafficking or the capability to monitor, interdict,
or prosecute traffickers. Some boys sent from
rural areas to attend Koranic schools in The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/guinea-bissau.htm [accessed 8 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 - In order to prevent trafficking, the law requires
that an individual responsible for a child traveling overseas submit
identification documents (birth certificates) to relevant authorities. According to the U.S. Department of State,
formal sector employers typically adhere to the minimum age requirements, but
child labor occurred in the informal sector without oversight or enforcement
by the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Civil Service and Labor.
There is no information available on the enforcement of laws pertaining to
trafficking or commercial sexual exploitation of children. 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 – Guinea
Bissau", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Guinea-Bissau.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
