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/Gambia.htm
The Gambia is a
source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked
for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Within
The Gambia, women and girls and, to a lesser extent, boys are trafficked for
commercial sexual exploitation, in particular to meet the demand for European
child sex tourists, as well as for domestic servitude. Anti-trafficking
activists report that in the last few years commercial sexual exploitation of
children has moved from large hotels to small guest houses and private homes
as a result of large hotels' enforcement of a voluntary code of conduct
against child sex tourism. Boys are trafficked within the country for forced
begging by religious teachers and for street vending. - 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 the Gambia. 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 *** GHANA-GAMBIA: Sex
slave children trafficked by Ghanaian fishermen Integrated Regional
Information Networks IRIN, Banjul, 26 February 2004 www.irinnews.org/report/48765/ghana-gambia-sex-slave-children-trafficked-by-ghanaian-fishermen [accessed 24
February 2015] According to the
Gambian National Intelligence Agency, the girls were smuggled into the
country without official papers to work as sex slaves for their Ghanaian
masters. Ceesay confirmed this. She said the girls were forced to "satisfy
the sexual desires of older men" and some were working full-time as
prostitutes within the 5,000-strong Ghanaian community. The Gambian
authorities said that the girls were also made to work long hours smoking
fish and selling gari, a popular Ghanaian staple made from cassava. Some boys
smuggled into the Gambia were made to work as fishermen. Meanwhile, their
masters' own children went to school and had all their usual domestic chores,
like washing their school uniforms and even cleaning their shoes, done for
them by the trafficked children. The trafficked children told Gambian
officials they had been forbidden to contact their parents at home. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: The Gambia 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/gambia/
[accessed 7 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The constitution
and law prohibit all forms of forced or compulsory labor, including that of
children, but the government did not effectively enforce the law. Women and children
were subjected to forced labor primarily for domestic labor and commercial
sexual exploitation. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor
occurred primarily in the informal sector and was largely unregulated. Rising
school fees combined with stagnating incomes prevented some families from
sending their children to school, contributing to the vulnerability of
children to child labor. Additionally, many children completed nine years of
compulsory schooling at age 14, rendering them vulnerable to child labor. In
urban areas some children worked as street vendors, domestic laborers, or
taxi and bus assistants. There were instances of children begging on the
streets, including cases of forced begging. Children between ages 14 and 17
also worked in carpentry, masonry, plumbing, tailoring, and auto repair.
Children in rural areas worked on family farms, often under hazardous
conditions. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/gambia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Enforcement of
labor laws is inconsistent. Women enjoy less access to higher education,
justice, and employment than men. Although child labor and forced labor are
illegal, some women and children are subject to sex trafficking, domestic
servitude, and forced begging. The government has recently made an increased
effort to address human trafficking, including by training security officials
and border guards to identify victims, and by providing better services to
those identified. However, the impact of these changes has been modest. 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 433] In The Gambia,
children are internally trafficked and subjected to commercial sexual
exploitation, forced labor, and domestic work. Girls and boys from West African countries,
including Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and
Sierra Leone, are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in The
Gambia. (3; 4) Tourists from Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands,
and Canada also subject children to commercial sexual exploitation in
brothels and motels in tourist areas. (14; 3) In The Gambia, it is
a common practice to send boys to receive education from Koranic teachers, or
marabouts, who sometimes force Koranic students, or almudus, to beg in the
streets for money and food and conduct street vending. (14) However, a source
indicated that reported incidents had reduced during the year. (15). Gambia to Sign
Agreement On Child Trafficking International Center
on Child Labor and Education ICCLE, Youth Network for Children's Rights YNCR,
August 2005 CAUTION … This link
may pose a threat to your PC … www.iccle.org/newsletter_children/0508/index.php3#7 [accessed 11
November 2010] The problem of
trafficking in children in The Gambia is underreported and this can be
attributed to lack of awareness of the general public of what trafficking is,
how it is done, mode/type and who are involved. The first case of child
trafficking that was reported to the Department of Social Welfare was the
Ghana Town case in 2004, in which twelve identified children were trafficked
from Ghana to The Gambia. High human trafficking
profits increases practice in Ghana Ghana News Agency
GNA, 20 Feb 2007 www.modernghana.com/news/124311/1/high-human-trafficking-profits-increases-practice-.html [accessed 6 February
2011] Statistics from the
United Nationa's Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicated that human trafficking
was rated the World's third most profitable illicit business venture apart
from drugs and prostitution. Subsequently, the number of children trafficked
from Afram Plains in the Eastern, Yeji in the Brong Ahafo, and Atitekpo in
the Volta Regions countries such as The
Gambia and Côte d'Ivoire in particular, for hazardous occupation had increased. Gambia Makes More
Progress in Monitoring Human Trafficking Alieu Badara
Mansaray, The Daily Observer (Banjul), Washington DC, 17 January 2007 wow.gm/africa/gambia/banjul/article/2007/1/19/gambia-makes-more-progress-in-monitoring-human-trafficking [accessed 16 July
2013] allafrica.com/stories/200701180107.html [accessed 27 April
2020] The government did
even better in opening a shelter in Banjul that can accommodates 48 persons
and establish a hotline. They also established a hotline for reporting
trafficking crimes and information centre for victims. Cracking down on nine
cases of trafficking in persons, the government with Child Protection
Alliance (CPA-an NGO umbrella group) conducted sensitisation programmes. Human Trafficking,
A Serious Crime - Says Dr Henry Carrol Alhagie Mbye &
Yusupha Jallow, The Point Newspaper, 20 December 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5
September 2011] According to Dr
Carrol, as far as the Laws of The Gambia are concerned, there is presently no
law on our Statute Books which prohibits the trafficking of adult
persons. He therefore expressed the urgent need for the Gambia
Government to expeditiously pass the required legislation in the National
Assembly, with a certificate of urgency, to combat this fast growing menace. The State of
Gambian Children Ejatou Jallow, The
Independent (Banjul), April 2, 2004 beta.globalmarch.org/clns/clns-apr-2004-details.php#5-3 [accessed 30 August
2012] allafrica.com/stories/200404020780.html [accessed 27 April
2020] The Gambian child today
like many other children on the African continent is faced with so many
difficulties such that it is very difficult to determine the extent of their
predicament. Gambian children are faced with problems such as child labour,
child trafficking, child exploitation, child sexual abuse to name a few. Report For The WTO
General Council Review Of The Trade Policies Of Gambia [PDF] International
confederation of Free Trade Unions ICFTU, Geneva, 4 & 6 February 2004 actrav.itcilo.org/library/english/08_Unions/ICFTU/reports/wto/clsgambia2004.pdf [accessed 8
September 2014] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Gambia has
ratified the Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour and the Convention
on Forced Labour. Forced labour exists such as forced prostitution
(trafficking of women and girls) and forced domestic labour by trafficked
girls. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
- 2001 UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 12 October 2001 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/591a51d686b9a0dcc1256aed0044ea6a?OpenDocument [accessed 6 February
2011] Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 3 February
2019] [62] In light of
the current economic situation and the increasing number of school drop-outs,
the Committee is concerned about the large number of children engaged in
labor and the lack of information and adequate data on the situation of child
labor and economic exploitation within the State party. The Committee also
notes with concern that there is no legal minimum age for employment in
accordance with ILO Convention No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission
to Employment. Grave concern is expressed about the increasing number of
child laborers, including domestic servants. The Protection
Project - The Gambia [DOC] The Paul H. Nitze School
of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gambia.doc [Last accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Nigerian girls have
been lured to The Gambia with promises of legitimate jobs, but instead the
girls end up working in bars and are forced to provide sexual services to
customers. Children are taken from Senegal and Sierra Leone and are used as
domestic servants or sex slaves. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 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/2005/61571.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
- Most trafficking victims were forced into prostitution and/or begging; a few
became domestic servants. Trafficking victims mostly came from
conflict-ravaged countries, such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. Victims from
Senegal, Guinea Bissau, and Sierra Leone told CPA that foreign residents
obtained permission from their home country families to employ them as bar
waitresses or domestic maids. After their arrival the local employers
informed them their duties entailed commercial sex work. 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/gambia.htm [accessed 6 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Child trafficking is also a problem. As a transit
and destination country, the Gambia is a transfer point where children are trafficked
for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced domestic and
commercial labor. Most children are seized from rural areas and moved to
urban centers. Many, ultimately, are trafficked to Europe or South America
where they are exploited by the pornography industry. All
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OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human
Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - The Gambia",
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