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

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

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

Republic of Niger Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking near last on the United Nations Development Fund index of human development. It is a landlocked, Sub-Saharan nation, whose economy centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, and strong population growth have undercut the economy. A drought and locust infestation in 2005 led to food shortages for as many as 2.5 million Nigeriens. [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Niger is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Caste-based slavery practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, continue primarily in the northern part of the country. An estimated 8,800 to 43,000 Nigeriens live under conditions of traditional hereditary slavery. Children within Niger are trafficked for forced begging by religious instructors, forced labor in gold mines, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, and possibly for forced labor in agriculture and stone quarries.. - 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 Niger.  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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Africa: Slavery lives on

Last year, the Niger government eventually passed a law banning slavery outright. Under this law, a slavery conviction caries a ten-year prison term or a 1m CFA franc (about R10 000) fine. But tremendous poverty, illiteracy and desperate circumstances in which many people live make it virtually impossible to eradicate slavery.

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

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Niger serves as a source and transit country for children trafficked into for domestic service and commercial labor, including commercial sexual exploitation. Some Koranic teachers indenture young boys and send them to beg in the streets. Forced domestic service and commercial sexual exploitation of girls is a problem.

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

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Trafficking in persons generally was conducted by small operators who promised well‑paid employment in the country. Victims, primarily from neighboring countries, were escorted through the formalities of entering the country and found that their employment options were restricted to poorly paid domestic work or prostitution. Victims had to use a substantial portion of their income to reimburse the persons who brought them to the country for the cost of the trip. Compliance was enforced by "contracts," which were signed by illiterate victims before they departed their countries of origin; alternatively, traffickers seized victim's travel documents. A local NGO also reported that some rural children were victims of domestic trafficking in which the victim (or his/her family) was promised a relatively decent job only to be placed in a home to work as a servant.

African Slavery and Trafficking

www.wwenglish.net/t/d/voastan/2005/5/13865.htm

www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-03/2005-03-24-voa57.cfm?CFID=226184722&CFTOKEN=44642378

Early in March, the government of Niger canceled a ceremony to give 7,000 slaves their freedom. The human rights group Timidria planned to release the slaves in a region near Niger's border with Mali, but none of them appeared for the ceremony. The organization said Niger's government intimidated the slaves to keep them from showing up, a charge the government denies. Niger officially banned slavery two years ago, but human rights groups say about 43,000 people remain in bondage.

Still With Us

www.globalmarch.org/clns/clns-march-2005-details.php#10-3

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

A botched release of slaves in Niger points up an ugly truth: bondage is alive and well around the world

Niger Begins Enforcement Of Ban On Slavery

The chief of the In Ates region will free all slaves in the area under his control, where entrenched slavery means 95% of the population are owned and controlled by the other 5%.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 3   Civil Liberties: 4   Status: Partly Free

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

Slavery in Niger

okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2004/10/slavery_in_nige.html

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

[scroll down]

Almost 50,000 people still live as slaves in Niger.

Slavery has always been practised by the rulling classes in Niger and Northern Nigeria who still have an interest in keeping slavery in tact. Timidria's report found that

Slaves are owned and controlled by their masters, receiving a meagre amount of food and a place to sleep in return for their labour, the study found. "The master decides who a slave marries and whether their children go to school. Many of those interviewed in the survey had also been subjected to violence, rape, degrading treatment and threats."

Testimony: Former Niger slave

Assibit, 50, describes life as a slave in Niger, where 43,000 people are estimated to be in bonded labour. Assibit was born into slavery - as was her mother, her husband and her five children.

Africa: Slavery lives on

Last year, the Niger government eventually passed a law banning slavery outright. Under this law, a slavery conviction caries a ten-year prison term or a 1m CFA franc (about R10 000) fine. But tremendous poverty, illiteracy and desperate circumstances in which many people live make it virtually impossible to eradicate slavery.

Slavery in Niger: Historical, legal and contemporary perspectives [PDF]

www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/PDF/Full%20English%20Slavery%20in%20Niger.pdf

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

[page 13] INTRODUCTION - This study is aimed at contributing to the setting up of the necessary mechanisms to eradicate slavery in Niger. Indeed, it may seem absurd that at the dawn of the third millennium, a country like Niger, which is well known for being amongst the lowest ranking country according to the human development index, is being called to account on an issue such as slavery, a form of human social organisation that was thought to have been eradicated with the establishment of democracy. And yet slavery is present in the daily life of Niger. The issue is not to find a definition of slavery, but rather to free hundreds of men and women from the shackles of slavery. For them, each day brings its lot of humiliation, physical suffering, torture and uncertainty.

The Anti-Slavery Award

www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/award.htm#link3

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

PREVIOUS ANTI-SLAVERY AWARD WINNERS – Timidria received the 2004 Anti-Slavery Award for its pioneering work against slavery in Niger. It spearheaded the anti-slavery movement in Niger, raising awareness of the issue and helping former slaves to integrate into society and successfully campaigning for amendments to the in Penal Code in 2003, which defines, prohibits and punishes slavery. The organisation is campaigning for the law to be implemented and for survivors of slavery to be given the help they need to rebuild their lives.

Drama as Niger slaves are freed

Dozens of slaves have been set free at a ceremony in Niger despite an attempt by the local authorities to stop the event being reported. The ceremony in Tahoua in central Niger was disrupted by police, who seized equipment from journalists.

In May this year, acting under pressure Niger's parliament banned the keeping or trading in slaves but the law has not been fully implemented. Local human rights group say there are still some 20,000 slaves in Niger.

Slavery in Niger

www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2003-niger.htm

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

Signs, such as the wearing of particular ankle bracelets, are used to identify those of a slave caste as being distinct from the general population. In this way those born into the slave caste are constantly subjected to social discrimination and it is extremely difficult for them to move beyond their given status, for example in terms of work or marriage. Overt violence or coercion are not always required in order to ensure that slaves continue to function within the traditional social structures, which prescribe them a subordinate status. Social conditioning, societal pressure, lack of education or a perceived lack of alternatives may be sufficient to retain control over the individual.

NIGER: Survey finds over 870,000 are still slaves

Although Niger recently passed new tougher laws against slavery, more than 870,000 people - about seven percent of the country's population - still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.

Niger 'slave' flees castration

DISOBEDIENCE - Talking about his ordeal, Mr Mohamet explained that he was being whipped everyday because he was suspected of wanting to rebel against his master. He said he had recently been sold to a new owner, known for his cruelty towards his slaves. His new master accused him of rebellion and disobedience. Mr Mohamet said if he had not escaped, he would have been castrated this week. His master tried to control his slaves by castrating them or using amputation.

ICFTU Releases Report On Labour Standards

The situation concerning child labour is alarming. The vast majority of children in Niger (70 percent) work, whereas around 40 percent of Senegalese children work. Most are active in subsistence agriculture and urban informal activities. In Niger child labour in mining occurs under extremely hazardous conditions.

Rescued Niger slaves 'tortured'

Aid workers have been giving details of the physical and psychological trauma suffered by 10 slaves rescued on Monday in the Tahoua region of northern Niger. One human rights official, Iglass Weiller, said the 10 men, women and children, who had been slaves all their lives, had suffered torture and starvation. He told a press conference in the capital Niamey on Wednesday that the owner of the slaves - who has not yet been apprehended - had raped the women and girls regularly.

NIGER: IRIN Focus on slavery

One of them, Oumou Raicha, told Timidria that for many years, she was repeatedly raped by Waglassane. "Since I was a small child, my master used to force me to sleep with him," she was quoted as saying. "I had many suitors, but the master opposed my marriage on many occasions. What I want now is to have a family and live freely." She had three daughters by her master, two of whom died. The third, eight-year-old Aggada, was taken from her by Waglassane and given to his "legitimate" daughter as a "marriage gift".

Child labor and child slaves

NIGER MINING INDUSTRY - Niger, one of the poorest countries in Africa, provides a typical example of child exploitation. Uranium, gold, phosphates, tin, coal, limestone, salt and gypsum mining are prominent in Niger. In Madaoua, a major gypsum mining town in Niger, 43 percent of the mining workers are children. Of these 6.5 percent are 6 to 9 years of age and 16 percent are of 10 to 13 years of age. These children are exposed to innumerable safety hazards. During extractions they are at risk of injury from their tools and from exhaustion as they have to cover a huge area in search for gypsum. Other risks are snake and scorpion bites and foot injuries, as most of them are barefoot, from stones and wood splinters.

Liptako is a major gold mining area in Niger. Gold ores are obtained in difficult and dangerous conditions, as the method of work is primitive without any source of mechanical or electrical or any other power. Children are fully involved in most of the activities in gold production. 17 percent of the workers are children. They are also involved in related activities like transport, drug selling and prostitution. In the extraction phase, children are used as carriers of ores and waste products to the surface.

The child laborers manually carry sacks that weigh 5-10 kg. In addition to the danger of falling rocks, the children can also fall down mine shafts. They are exposed to risks such as explosions, asphyxiation, dust, dermatoid, flooding and drowning in the mines. They also face very high or very low temperatures, dangerous air and space, bilharziosis due to polluted water where they wash gold ores and dangerous materials used in mining and processing. The nearest medical facilities are 60 km away.

Child Labour Persists Around The World: More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed

www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/96-18.htm

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

"Today's child worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne.

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