Chad: 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report Part 1

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NDJAMENA 000088 SIPDIS SIPDIS LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC ELAB PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG KCRM KFRD KWMN CD SUBJECT: Chad: 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report Part 1 REF: A) 06 State 202745, B) Ndjamena 0002 ¶1. Summary: The Government of Chad cooperates with United Nations (UN) agencies, local communities and church-based and other domestic and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in combating trafficking, primarily in the area of prevention. Due to intense rebel activity throughout 2006, heavy government spending on the military reduced the already limited resources and political will directed towards anti-trafficking and other social programs. Trafficking in Chad is primarily the internal trafficking of children as domestic workers, cattle herders and beggars. Chad does not have a significant number of trafficking victims entering, transiting or departing the country. There are no reports of adults being trafficked for labor or sexual exploitation. The Chadian Council of Ministers and Presidency have yet to approve a draft decree amending the penal code to include specific sanctions for child labor abuses. Chad signed the Multilateral Accord on Regional Cooperation (MARC) to Combat Trafficking in July 2006, but has yet to sign the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which includes more comprehensive anti-trafficking commitments. As a signatory of MARC, Chad is required to prepare a study on the trafficking situation in Chad, establish a national MARC follow-up committee, adopt a national anti-trafficking plan and pursue ratification of the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. End summary. ¶2. Embassy's trafficking in persons points-of-contact are P/E officer Rebecca Daley and Political Assistant Joel Mbaibarem. Ms. Daley and Mr. Mbaibarem can be reached at (235) 51-70-09 or via e-mail at daleyrh@state.gov and mbaibaremjx@state.gov. Two post officers spent 120 hours preparing this report. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - OVERVIEW OF CHAD'S ANTI-TRAFFICKING PERFORMANCE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶3. Chad is a minor source, destination, and transit country for trafficking in children. Chad's trafficking problem is primarily the internal trafficking of children as herders, domestic servants, beggars, and prostitutes. Reports in 2005 from the Governor of Doba Department and the NGO, Action for Development Cooperation (ACODE),of Cameroonian and Central African Republic minors trafficked to Chad's oil producing region for prostitution remain uncorroborated. Child herders follow traditional routes for the grazing of cattle and often cross international borders into Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Nigeria. Children are generally put into trafficking situations by their own families, who knowingly or unknowingly "lease" or give their children's services to relatives or intermediaries to work as domestics or herders and marabouts for Islamic education. Most children are trafficked within Chad Surveys of Chadian child herders in 1999 and 2001 conducted by UNICEF stated that it was not possible to quantify their number. ¶4. There have been no changes in the direction of trafficking and there are few reports of adults being trafficked for labor or sexual exploitation. In 2006, between 40 and 50 Bangladeshis found themselves victimized by an employment scam that left them stranded in Chad without jobs. A Chadian agent operating in Dacca charged the would-be workers approximately $1,000 per individual to locate a jobs for them in Chad and for processing related visas and work permits. Upon arrival in Chad, the Bangladeshis discovered that the jobs for which they had been recruited, did not exist. By the end of the year, only two of the forty Bangladeshis had been repatriated, while those remaining were unemployed and in the care of local Islamic charities. ¶5. The Government acknowledges that trafficking of children is a problem and has designated points-of-contact at the directorate level in the Ministries of Justice, Public Security, Social Action and Family, Labor, and Education with whom representatives of the United Nations agencies and other organizations work. The Chadian governments attention to combating rebel groups in the East was its highest priority in 2006. While government ministries concerned with trafficking continued to cooperate with UN, NGOs and local communities, it has yet to move from a supportive to a leadership role in the fight against trafficking and other social problems. ¶6. Chadian rebels, backed by the Government of Sudan, staged attacks throughout 2006 including an assault repelled from the outskirts of the capital in April 2006. Much of the Government's available resources were redirected to combating the rebels. This has reduced the very limited existing capacity and political will of the government to address social problems. However, the NDJAMENA 00000088 002 OF 004 government has offered to make some in-kind contributions such as land, buildings for rehabilitation shelters and social services. The Government has difficulty paying civil servant salaries regularly. ¶7. To date, the government has yet to engage in the formal collection of trafficking information or the compilation of related data. According to the government, lack of paved roads, electricity, computers, and telephone coverage in most parts of the country make it difficult for the Government to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts and collect information. Case documentation is kept in paper files and the ability to replicate and distribute it is constrained by the unreliable availability of electricity and lack of repair capacity. The capital, N'Djamena, often lacks electricity. Only the privileged have generators. Most information is collected through face-to-face meetings between officials during long, difficult road trips to the interior. It can take 3-5 days to drive to major towns in northern Chad. During the rainy season, the roads are often impassable and eastern Chad is intermittently inaccessible by road from the capital. ¶8. Corruption at the highest levels of government remains a significant problem. There is no evidence, however, suggesting widespread trafficking-related corruption. The Ministry for Moralization (i.e. Anti-Corruption) is responsible for investigating government corruption and for promoting anti-corruption as an important national value. ¶9. The Chadian Government denies recruitment of under-age soldiers into the Chadian Army, but acknowledges that some under-age volunteers may have provided false documentation to gain entry into the army. To address the broader issue of child soldiers in both rebel and Chadian army ranks, the government has endorsed preparation of a comprehensive survey of child soldiers to be conducted in 2007 in cooperation with UNICEF. ¶10. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that some children were among those recruited by Sudanese rebels from its refugee camps in Chad in early 2006. UNHCR estimates that over 2,000 males from the camps joined Sudanese rebel groups, and among them was a small number of children as young as thirteen years of age. UNHCR launched a media campaign stressing that UNHCR camps be respected as centers of refuge for non-combatants. Occasional reports were also received from press and other sources claiming to have observed under-age males in the Chadian army. While press reports indicated that the child soldier phenomenon was not common and did not accuse the army of recruiting child soldiers, photographs were published of what appeared to be under-age Chadian army soldiers. ¶11. According to the editor of the Notre Temps weekly newspaper, a poor 2006-growing season in parts of southern Chad increased pressure on families and villages to lease children to cattlemen as child herders. The editor alleged that a combination of economic pressures, social acceptance of the practice in many areas of the country, and the complicity of many local and central government authorities has frustrated efforts to reduce this form of trafficking. He added, however, that the public awareness raising efforts of the ministries (education and social action),the Catholic Church and NGOs has put a spotlight on the issue and, in particular, reduced the involvement of local government officials. -------------- Prevention -------------- ¶12. The following paragraphs are keyed to questions raised in paragraph 28 A through G of ref A. ¶13. The Government acknowledges that trafficking of children is a problem and is taking steps to raise public awareness in cooperation with UN and other organizations through programs administered at the directorate level in the Ministries of Educatin, Justice, Labor, Public Security, and Social Action and Family. The Ministry of Social Action and Family, which includes a Special Protection Unit, coordinates various governmental anti-trafficking activities. The Director for Children's Issues at the Ministry of Social Action is responsible for overall monitoring of the issues. ¶14. The Government lacks capacity and resources and therefore depends to a significant degree on UNICEF, religious institutions, and non-governmental organizations to raise public awareness and assist victims. To date, the crux of the Governments approach has NDJAMENA 00000088 003 OF 004 been prevention. ¶15. While the government continued to cooperate with UN, community and non-governmental organizations in 2006 to counter trafficking through awareness raising and education, UNICEF reported that these activities had their greatest success at the local levels through community-based organizations. In the absence of strong enforcement mechanisms, at this stage, raising the awareness of the public and changing public attitudes is at the forefront of efforts to reduce trafficking activities in Chad. For example, one approach taken to reduce the practice of parents leasing their children to cattlemen to serve as herders is to convince families and village elders that children who remain in the village and are educated will ultimately contribute more to the community than the one cow every six months typically paid for the services of a child herder. ¶16. The focus of public awareness raising and other efforts to counter the exploitation of children as herders and domestic workers was concentrated in the South where, according to UNICEF, ninety percent of the children affected originate. The Government, UNICEF and its partners staged two large public-awareness raising rallies during 2006 in the cantons of Metekaga and Nderguigui at which some 6,000 people were present. In a concerted program, the Catholic Action Movement staged special masses, the film, For a Cow, was presented followed by discussion sessions with primary and secondary school students, 70 children received training in child rights and 60 local officials and chiefs of itinerant cattle communities and from local villages were instructed on the provisions of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. ¶17. The Government cooperated with UNICEF, Oxfam, the Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and the National Justice and Peace Commission on programs to celebrate the African Childs Day and the Week of the African Child. ¶18. The NGO, National Justice and Peace Commission (CDPJ),held a conference in February 2006 on child domestics and herders at Koumra in the South. The 98 participants who attended the conference included village chiefs, representatives of the Islamic and Christian (Catholic and Protestant) religious communities, s, parents, cattle herders and children who worked as herders and domestics. The conference set as objectives the development of action plans to eradicate the exploitation of child herders and domestics, the preparation and dissemination of child rights information and an advocacy campaign to garner parliamentary support. ¶19. In March 2006, a workshop to establish a system to rescue and reintegrate child herders back to their communities was held in the Moyen Chari-region town of Sarh. Two programs to identify, rescue and reintegrate affected children have since been initiated in Moyen Chari and Mandoul through the establishment of community committees in 17 cantons. These committees are charged with raising public awareness of parental responsibilities and child rights, identifying child victims, denouncing persons suspected of mistreating and/or sexually abusing children and, in the case of child herders, following up on their reintegration into their communities. ¶20. A memorandum of cooperation was signed between UNICEF and the Association for Child Rescue and Rehabilitation (ACEE) providing for the identification, rescue and reintegration of child herders. According to UNICEF, the ACEE and other parties identified, rescued and returned to their communities 360 child herders in ¶2006. This figure compares with a total of 264 child herders reported as having been rescued and returned to their communities in 2004 and 2005 contained in the Governments 2006 report on implementation of the UN Child Rights Convention. ¶21. Government-run television showed anti-trafficking documentaries. These included a series on anti-trafficking programs in Burkina Fasso and the Republic of Benin concerning the rights of children and the roles of border police, customs officials and the gendarmerie in identifying and rescuing child victims of trafficking. Government-radio broadcast anti-trafficking spots focused on parents responsibilities to protect their children from m traffickers throughout the year and continued programming on child herders. In response to negative reporting on abuses to children in koranic schools at the end of 2005, the High Islamic Commission sponsored radio broadcasts on the exploitation of children by marabouts (koranic teachers),specifically warning against their NDJAMENA 00000088 004 OF 004 mistreatment and use as beggars. ¶22. Government-owned daily newspaper reporting focused increasingly on the governments military and political responses to the rebellion and largely ceased to cover stories of child trafficking, forced begging and other exploitation of children in 2006. ¶23. Independent radio stations and newspapers also publicized the issue of trafficking. During 2006, a private station ran twice weekly, 45-minute programs on human rights issues that included trafficking and the legal rights of victims in an interactive (call-in) format. This provided the opportunity for listeners to pose questions and seek legal advice. A prosecutor was the guest on one of the programs. In several cases this led to the intervention of government authorities, including the recovery by the police of a 16-year-old who called in to report that she was being held (chained) against her will by a man. ¶24. The Ministries of Social Affairs and Health work closely with UNICEF on nationwide programs promoting education for girls, birth registrations, and microfinance programs. The Government is also following an IMF-backed poverty alleviation program. ¶25. The Government and UNICEF have carried out several studies of child labor and child trafficking. A survey of child domestic workers completed in June 2005 was the impetus for a multi-city public awareness campaign. A workshop for various government ministries was also conducted on the implications of the study. The study provided the first systematic examination of child domestic workers between the ages of five and eighteen. The study also explored the process through which children are placed in exploitative situations. WALL