Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06NIAMEY748
2006-07-12 15:27:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Niamey
Cable title:  

TIP INTERDICTION HAS HAPPY ENDING BUT UNDERSCORES

Tags:  PHUM PREF ELAB KCRM KFRD SMIG NG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6818
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #0748/01 1931527
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121527Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2649
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 3316
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0449
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 000748 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT. FOR: AF/W, BACHMAN; G/TIP FOR ZEITLIN; AF/RSA FOR
HARPOLE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREF ELAB KCRM KFRD SMIG NG
SUBJECT: TIP INTERDICTION HAS HAPPY ENDING BUT UNDERSCORES
NEED FOR LEGISLATION

REF: NIAMEY 034

NIAMEY 00000748 001.2 OF 002


-------
SUMMARY
-------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 000748

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT. FOR: AF/W, BACHMAN; G/TIP FOR ZEITLIN; AF/RSA FOR
HARPOLE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREF ELAB KCRM KFRD SMIG NG
SUBJECT: TIP INTERDICTION HAS HAPPY ENDING BUT UNDERSCORES
NEED FOR LEGISLATION

REF: NIAMEY 034

NIAMEY 00000748 001.2 OF 002


--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. A recent case of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in the
northern Nigerien city of Agadez - for centuries a key
caravan town and trade hub uniting sub-Saharan and North
Africa - offers many lessons on the nature of the challenge
posed by TIP in Niger. The liberation and reinsertion of
eight child victims shows what local NGOs and the Government
of Niger can achieve when they work together with support
from an international partner. However, the release of their
two traffickers underscores the need for a comprehensive
anti-TIP law. The publicity engendered by the case may help
to move the GON toward passage of a draft anti-TIP law during
this fall's legislative session. END SUMMARY


2. From June 2 through 4, the Nigerien NGO AFETEN (Action en
Faveur de l'Elimination du Travail des Enfants au Niger),
UNICEF, and the Government of Niger's (GON) Ministry for the
Promotion of Women and Protection of Children conducted an
education session on Trafficking in Persons for members of
the teamsters' union and their employers in the northern city
of Agadez. The session was well targeted, as Agadez is a
known transit point for TIP victims being moved toward North
Africa, and trucking companies and their employees are well
placed to either observe, facilitate, or blow the whistle on
such practices. The session resulted in the creation of a
"regional vigilance committee" for the fight against
trafficking in children. On June 26, the committee scored a
major success when it discovered eight children who were
being trafficked to Libya via Algeria. As a consequence of
the collaboration between the committee, AFETEN and local GON
authorities, the children were rescued, their case
investigated, and they were returned to their village where a
public education session on TIP was organized for locals by
AFETEN and UNICEF.

--------------
RESCUE AND REINSERTION
--------------


3. AFETEN reported that members of the vigilance committee

discovered eight children between 13 and 17 years of age
traveling in the company of two adults on the evening of June

26. The children, discovered in a 4 x 4 vehicle, were on
their way to Libya via Jannet, Algeria. The committee
informed the regional coordinator of AFETEN, who proceeded to
the city's vehicular transit station with the local police,
who identified the eight victims as children from a village
in the southern region of Tahoua. The two traffickers and the
children were brought before a local magistrate that same
evening for an investigation, which determined that the case
was indeed one of TIP. The adults taken in with the children
reportedly intended to take them to Libya where they would
perform domestic service. After spending the night at the
police station, the children were formally transferred to
AFETEN's welcome and transit center by the authorities. In
the absence of a law specifically banning TIP, the two
traffickers were released from jail on the afternoon of the
27th. However, the money the children's parents had paid to
them was seized by the police and given to AFETEN.


4. On June 29, AFETEN returned the children to their
village, and used the opportunity afforded by their visit to
conduct a public education session on TIP with the
cooperation of the village chief. AFETEN also interviewed the
children's families to discover the reasons behind their
trafficking. Apparently, the local vogue for migration to
Libya derived from the experiences of several local adults
who had gone there and enjoyed some measure of success. The
children wished to follow suit - hoping to make enough money
to set themselves up as shepherds upon their return. The
parents, illiterate and without much of an alternative vision
for the children, consented and paid an unidentified party in
Tahoua to move the children north. The two traffickers who
actually accompanied the children were apparently in the
employ of the person in Tahoua.

--------------
A WORD ON AFETEN
--------------


5. AFETEN, founded in 2001, is a credible partner

NIAMEY 00000748 002.2 OF 002


organization that has worked with UNICEF in the past. It
received the French Republic's Human Rights Prize in 2005,
for its work to promote children's rights in Niger. AFETEN is
currently partnered with UNICEF in an effort to provide TIP
victim assistance in Agadez and in key areas along Niger's
borders with Nigeria and Benin. Their efforts will be
supported, this year, by $100,000 in FY '05 TIP ESF money,
which will enable them to identify many additional TIP
victims such as the children in the Agadez case, provide them
with safe shelter, basic medical and psychological care, and
offer them life-skills training that will help them to
reintegrate into their villages. AFETEN and UNICEF will also
help victims' communities with micro-credit loans for income
generating activity. Post has requested an additional
$115,000 for the second year of this project from this year's
TIP ESF funds (reftel).

--------------
LESSONS LEARNED
--------------


6. While the rescue and reinsertion of the children (which
AFETEN will accompany with some form of material assistance
for their families),the public education sessions on TIP,
the cooperation afforded by GON police and judiciary, and the
formation of the vigilance committee are all enormously
positive developments in the fight against TIP in Niger, the
release of the two traffickers points to a major gap
remaining on the enforcement side. While traffickers can be,
and occasionally are, prosecuted under statutes relating to
sexual exploitation, kidnapping, and child labor, none of
Niger's existing laws apparently fit the exact conditions of
the Agadez case. However, the circumstances of that case -
minors paying a third party to be transported as labor for
another party - are perhaps most typical of Nigerien TIP
cases. Legislation that punishes traffickers - even "small
fry" in the employ of a larger trafficker - is essential if
the fight against TIP in Niger is to be won. The GON's
Ministry of Justice showed considerable initiative earlier
this year when it sought and obtained technical assistance
from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in drafting an anti-TIP
law. The GON must show more by moving the law toward
adoption, first by the Council of Ministers, and then by the
National Assembly. Post has made that point in repeated
working-level meetings with GON contacts, and we will make it
again in our forthcoming anti-TIP action plan.
ALLEN