COTE D'IVOIRE: ILO-UNHCR TO PUBLISH REPORT ON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABIDJAN 000227 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR PRM/AFR-MNICHOLSHON AND AF/W-RKAMINSKI DEPT PASS TO USAID/OFDA/DDEBERNARDO GENEVA FOR RMA BRUSSELS FOR MMEZNAR DAKAR FOR USAID/OFDA/RDAVIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PHUM PREL EAID SOCI IV SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: ILO-UNHCR TO PUBLISH REPORT ON EXPLOITATION OF REFUGEE CHILDREN REF: A. ABIDJAN 93 ¶B. ABIDJAN 152 ¶C. ABIDJAN 168 ¶D. STATE 229909 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: ILO and UNHCR will publish a report on the exploitation of refugee and displaced children in Cote d'Ivoire almost two years after its completion. ILO-UNHCR identified labor and sexual exploitation as the two main forms of exploitation for refugee and displaced children in Cote d'Ivoire. The draft study also shows that conflict in Cote d'Ivoire since September 2002 has increased the vulnerability of refugee and displaced children to exploitation throughout the refugee welcome zone (ZAR) along the border with Liberia. Officials with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) have worked with some 50 children suffering from various forms of exploitation since July 2003 in seven villages around Tabou where they operate. UNHCR has not shared their findings with IRC. The study's findings provide further reason for UNHCR to engage in an active return promotion phase for Liberian refugees in local communities and in the Nicla camp and Tabou Transit Center (TC) in Cote d'Ivoire. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) ILO and UNHCR officials confirmed plans to publish the findings of a report on exploitation of refugee and displaced children in Cote d'Ivoire almost two years after its completion. Refugee Coordinator (RefCoord) learned from PolOff working on the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report that UNHCR had participated in this study with ILO in 2004, but for one reason or another had not authorized ILO to publish the results of the study until now. RefCoord met with Kimbimbi Sanda, UNHCR Representative, on February 17. Sanda appeared nervous and uncomfortable and only after a long discussion did he admit that UNHCR was responsible for the delay in publication. Sanda gave a draft copy of the report to RefCoord with the understanding that it would not be cited in the TIP report until official publication. ILO RECEIVES AUTHORIZATION -------------- ¶3. (SBU) RefCoord met the Head of ILO's Abidjan Office, Ben Lakp Low, and their Child Trafficking Focal Point, Boua Bi Semien Honore, on February 22. Honore explained that ILO had entered into the joint-study with the Protection Unit at UNHCR in 2004. He said the Protection Officer in charge at that time, Mr. Van der Castel, was concerned about the possibility of child exploitation among the refugee population living in the Refugee Welcome Zone (ZAR) established by the Government of Cote d'Ivoire along the western border with Liberia. (Note: the ZAR stretches from the region west of Guiglo to the south around the city of Tabou. End note.) Refugees in the ZAR are mostly integrated into local villages. Current estimates put the Liberian refugee population in Cote d'Ivoire around 40,000 with a small percentage living in the Tabou Transit Center (approximately 2,500 refugees) and in a refugee camp near Guiglo (approximately 6,000 refugees). ILO and UNHCR agreed to look at the impact of the Ivoirian crisis on both refugee and displaced children in the ZAR region for the study. ¶4. (SBU) Although ILO had the lead role in the study, Honore explained they could not publish it without UNHCR's approval. Honore confirmed that UNHCR had changed personnel involved in the study and that this probably played some role in UNHCR's delay. However, he also believed the results revealed what he called "sensitive" issues in refugee child protection and felt UNHCR was uncomfortable with the results. Interestingly, Honore said they had just received UNHCR's authorization and expected their own consultant to prepare a final version within ten days, after which ILO will move to publication. DRAFT STUDY SHOWS REFUGEE CHILDREN IN PRECARIOUS SITUATION -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) ILO-UNHCR identified labor and sexual exploitation as the two main forms of exploitation for refugee and displaced children. Although the study points out that it can be difficult to distinguish between exploitation refugee children suffer to that experienced by displaced children, it concludes that refugee children are vulnerable due to their ABIDJAN 00000227 002 OF 003 status as refugees (i.e., they are without their normal social support networks in the host-country),the loss of wealth as a result of their fleeing to Cote d'Ivoire, hostilities within the ZAR region itself (33% of refugee children began working after 2002),and the fact that they represent a cheap and easily manageable labor force. ¶6. (SBU) The report shows that refugee children are working at an increasingly earlier age (35% between the ages of 5-14),they often accept the worst jobs, they are often injured at work, and they are not guaranteed regular salary payments. The report concludes that all children in the ZAR region are increasingly exploited in mining work and on palm-oil plantations, are susceptible to recruitment into militia groups, and are increasingly involved in child prostitution. The report states that female refugee children are most often found working in prostitution and exposed to a range of physical violence, an increased potential for HIV/AIDS infection, and unwanted pregnancies. IRC UNAWARE OF REPORT'S FINDINGS -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has worked in Cote d'Ivoire as one of UNHCR's main implementing partners in the Tabou region. Sanda mentioned that UNHCR worked with IRC in gender-based violence (GBV) activities in the west but admitted he had not shared results of the 2004 study with IRC. Maurizio Crivellaro, Acting Country Director for IRC, stated IRC was also disappointed with UNHCR's support in lobbying for recognition of schooling for refugee children in the ZAR region. Having their school studies officially recognized would aid refugee children returning to Libeia or help them integrate into the local school ystem if they chose to remain in Cote d'Ivoire. The ILO-UNHCR report also alludes to schooling for children in the ZAR region as one of the problems in the post-2002 context. ¶8. (SBU) IRC established a Child Protection Program in 2003 to address child abuse and exploitation and other child protection concerns in the villages in the Tabou region where they are present. IRC treated 55 children between July 2003 and December 2005 who were victims of sexual abuse, labor exploitation on plantations, and refugee children living with heavily impoverished parents who were subjected to various forms of abuse and exploitation as a result. PROTECTION: DID UNHCR DROP THE BALL? -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Sanda told RefCoord that many of the refugee children in Cote d'Ivoire received their status at a time when the government granted refugee status on a prima facie basis to all Liberians. The report itself mentions that it was difficult for researchers to determine which Liberian refugee children were actually holding refugee status and which were simply Liberians engaged in long-standing cross-border movements who claimed to be refugees. Although it is possible that a large number of the refugee children covered in the study might not have held refugee status, the study affirms that the exploitation taking place in the ZAR region was common to all children, regardless of their status as refugees, displaced, or migrants. ¶10. (SBU) The report's findings that conflict within the ZAR region after 2002 led to increased risk of exploitation for displaced and refugee children would seem to stand in direct contradiction to Sanda's often stated position that Liberian refugees are well integrated in local communities. We have noted that almost all of UNHCR's facilitated returns to Liberia from Cote d'Ivoire (more than 13,000 officially assisted) have come from the local communities, not the Nicla camp or the Tabou Transit Center (TC). UNHCR claims a further 20,000 have returned on their own from these same communities. ¶11. (SBU) At the same time, Liberian refugee camps and populations continue to be located in areas of extreme volatility. Recent ethnic clashes near Guiglo and Tabou in just the last month have resulted in some 20 deaths and the displacement of hundreds of people (refs. A and B). Violence against UNHCR's own offices in Guiglo in January has left them dependent on local Caritas staff who do not even have ABIDJAN 00000227 003 OF 003 proper equipment to distribute food rations (ref. C). Against this backdrop, it does appear the study's conclusions might have pointed to shortcomings in UNHCR's ability to provide adequate protection to refugee children in Cote d'Ivoire they would have preferred not to reveal. Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) If UNHCR has an advocacy role to fill in Cote d'Ivoire it should be in support of the rights of refugee children. At a minimum, the study's findings should have been shared with UNHCR's NGO and UN partners working in the ZAR region to enable them to prepare some specific activities in response to information ILO-UNHCR had worked to produce. The findings of the report would also seem to bolster further the need for UNHCR to move forward with an active promotional phase for return to Liberia for both the local and camp-based refugee populations. Post requests that PRM follow-up on this issue with UNHCR Geneva to make sure our concerns on the delay of the report's publication are conveyed and that UNHCR Abidjan has a clear plan to implement UNHCR's promotion return phase for Liberian refugees in Cote d'Ivoire. Hooks