Human Trafficking in [Mali] [other countries]
Street Children in [Mali] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Mali] [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

In the first ten years of the 21^st Century - 2000 to 2009

Republic of Mali Mali is among the 25 poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land area desert or semidesert and with a highly unequal distribution of income. Economic activity is largely confined to the riverine area irrigated by the Niger. About 10% of the population is nomadic and some 80% of the labor force is engaged in farming and fishing. Industrial activity is concentrated on processing farm commodities. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to fluctuations in world prices for gold and cotton, its main exports. [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Mali is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation. In Mali, victims are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers, agricultural zones, and artisanal mining sites. Victims are also trafficked between Mali and other West African countries. Some notable destination countries for Malian child victims are Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, and Nigeria. Women and girls are trafficked primarily for domestic servitude and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution, while boys are trafficked for forced begging and forced labor in gold mines and agricultural settings both within Mali and to neighboring countries. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report]

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Mali. 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.

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Chocolate and Slavery: Child Labor in Cote d'Ivoire

SLAVERY AND THE LINK TO CHOCOLATE - Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from the age of 12 to 16 from their home countries and are selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire. They work on small farms across the country, harvesting the cocoa beans day and night, under inhumane conditions. Most of the boys come from neighboring Mali, where agents hang around bus stations looking for children that are alone or are begging for food. They lure the kids to travel to Cote d'Ivoire with them, and then the traffickers sell the children to farmers in need of cheap labor (Raghavan, "Lured...").

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

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Mali is a source of trafficked children, most of whom are sold into forced labor in Côte d'Ivoire to work on coffee, cotton, and cocoa farms, or in domestic labor. Organized networks of traffickers promise parents that they will provide paid employment for their children, but then sell the children to commercial farm owners for a profit. Mali is also reported to be a transit country for children trafficked to and from neighboring countries.

CURRENT GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The Government of Mali is one of nine countries participating in the US DOL-funded ILO-IPEC project to combat the trafficking of children for exploitive labor in West and Central Africa. The government is also participating in a US DOL-funded program to increase access to quality, basic education to children at risk of child trafficking in Mali.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The country was a source, transit, and destination for trafficking. Most of the trafficking occurred within the country's borders during the year. Children were trafficked to rice fields in the central regions; boys were trafficked to mines in the south; and girls were trafficked for involuntary domestic servitude in Bamako. Victims are generally trafficked into agricultural work, domestic servitude and to a lesser extent into begging, gold mining, and prostitution. The victims were usually from the central regions of the country and not from a specific ethnic group. Women and girls were trafficked from Nigeria for sexual exploitation. Traffickers were mainly from the country.

Concluding Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - 1999

[23] The Committee welcomes the recent initiative undertaken by the State party in establishing the National Commission to Study inter-country Adoption and Combat Trafficking in Children. The Committee notes that the final report of the Commission, due in October 1999, will include legislative and other recommendations to protect the rights of children in situations of adoption and to prevent and combat the phenomenon of trafficking in children. The Committee remains concerned, however, at the absence of legislation, policies and institutions to regulate inter-country adoptions. The lack of monitoring with respect to both domestic and inter-country adoptions and the widespread practice of kalifa (informal adoptions) are also matters of concern.

[36] While the Committee notes the efforts of the State party, it remains concerned at the increasing incidence of sale and trafficking of children, particularly girls, and the lack of adequate legal and other measures to prevent and combat this phenomenon.

Protection Project - Mali [DOC]

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

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Child trafficking for forced labor predominates in Mali. In addition, women are trafficked to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to work as domestic servants. Girls are also recruited in Nigeria and brought to Mali for commercial sexual exploitation. An estimated 200 Malian girls younger than 17 years of age are working as domestic servants for wealthy people in Guinea. The death of three girls in a road accident in November 2003 led to investigations that uncovered a network that traffics children into Guinea from Mali for unpaid domestic servitude. The three who died were part of a group of eight Malian girls trafficked into the country. Women from Guinea reportedly travel to Bamako, the capital of Mali, to recruit young girls for domestic jobs in Guinea. Children from the areas of Mopti, Ségou, and Sikasso are trafficked to Côte d’Ivoire to work on cotton plantations. Most children are recruited by intermediaries and sold to plantation owners; others are sent through family networks to work on plantations, in mines, in construction, or in other types of manual labor. UNICEF estimates that more than 15,000 Malian children work in Ivorian plantations. These children work in slavelike conditions and receive little if any wages for their labor.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 2   Civil Liberties: 3   Status: Free

Mali Signs Agreement With Senegal To Curb Child Trafficking

Mali has signed its third agreement with a neighboring country to fight child trafficking, which UNICEF says occurs in 89 percent of African countries. Senegal joined Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso as signatories to the agreement, which mandates an annual survey of child trafficking to make sure children sent over their borders are kept safe.

GUINEA: Child trafficking from Mali revealed by car crash

www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=47772

The death of three girls in a road accident last month led to investigations which revealed the existence of a network the trafficks children into Guinea from neighbouring Mali for use as unpaid domestic servants. United Nations officials in the Guinean capital Conakry said the three who died were part of a group of eight Malian girls smuggled into the country for use as forced labour. The five surviving girls, two of whom were injured in the crash, were found living with a woman in Conakry and have since been returned home.

Attempts to prevent human trafficking are making conditions worse for voluntary migrants

A survey of close to 1000 migrants in Mali found that only four had been deceived, exploited, or not paid for their labour. Rather, young people voluntarily sought employment abroad to experience urban lifestyles, learn new languages, and accumulate possessions.

Mali rescues over 100 from child traffickers

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3728995/

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

Malian authorities have rescued more than 100 children and teenagers from suspected traffickers believed to be taking them into forced labor in rice fields, officials in the West African nation said Tuesday. Police stopped 112 minors aged between 10 and 18 as they traveled in buses over the weekend in the Segou region, northeast of the capital Bamako. They arrested two suspected traffickers.

Mali's dangerous desert gateway

The city of Gao in northeastern Mali was once the wealthy capital of the great Songhay Empire of West Africa. Today it has fallen on hard times and become the impoverished capital of human trafficking from West Africa to Europe.

Chocolate and Slavery: Child Labor in Cote d'Ivoire

SLAVERY AND THE LINK TO CHOCOLATE - Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from the age of 12 to 16 from their home countries and are selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire. They work on small farms across the country, harvesting the cocoa beans day and night, under inhumane conditions. Most of the boys come from neighboring Mali, where agents hang around bus stations looking for children that are alone or are begging for food. They lure the kids to travel to Cote d'Ivoire with them, and then the traffickers sell the children to farmers in need of cheap labor (Raghavan, "Lured...").

Africa: Migrants, Slavery

Mali and Slavery. There are an estimated 15,000 Malian youth ages 15 to 18 who are enslaved in the Ivory Coast, lured by smugglers who promise the youth and their parents high wages and training. Instead, most do manual labor in cocoa plantations.

A slave is defined by the ILO as someone "forced to work under physical or mental threat, and where the owner or employer controls the person completely - where a person is bought or sold."

Mali's children in chocolate slavery

At a run-down police station in Sikasso, a small town in Mali, the files on missing children are endless. The sad truth is that many have been kidnapped and sold into slavery. The going price is about US$30. The local police chief is in no doubt where the children have gone. "It's definitely slavery over there," he said. "The kids have to work so hard they get sick and some even die."

Child Slaves Caught in Glittering Traps

The next day, the Sylla brothers found themselves captive in a windowless hut -- caught in the web of smugglers who coax unknown numbers of young people out of impoverished Mali each year and sell them into hard labor in the prosperous country next door, Ivory Coast. The Sylla brothers sold for the price of a pair of shoes -- $63 apiece. The years that followed are a blur of backbreaking labor, vicious beatings, food deprivation and dark nights in captivity.

Mali's children in slavery

They number about 15,000 and their plight is enough to "make you weep", says Malian Minister of Woman and Family Affairs They are child slaves from Mali, between the ages of six and 16, and they work on plantations in neighbouring Ivory Coast, where Ms Thiero says they are regularly beaten, starved and locked in tiny dark huts to keep them from fleeing. "One small boy brought me to tears when he told of how he drank his own urine for three days because the plantation owners had locked him up without food or water,"

Labour standards violated in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali

Although Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali have ratified the core Conventions on Forced Labour, the practice does exist, Ms Kwateng denounces. "Many women and children are trafficked for forced prostitution, forced labour on plantations and domestic work," she adds. Moreover, many Beninese, Burkinabe and Malian children are reported to be sold to neighbouring countries - like Togo and Côte d'Ivoire - and forced to work on plantations or in domestic work under harsh and dangerous conditions while receiving very low pay, if any at all.

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Human Trafficking in [Mali] [other countries]
Street Children in [Mali] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Mali] [other countries]