GABON: FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON 2008 TRAFFICKING IN

UNCLAS LIBREVILLE 000179 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT ALSO FOR G/TIP V ZEITLIN AND AF/C S SARDAR E.O. 12958:N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM GB SUBJECT: GABON: FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON 2008 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT Ref: Libreville 0146 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Post has consulted closely with Ambassador Reddick, currently presenting credentials in Sao Tome, and provides these additional comments concerning trafficking in persons in Gabon and the proposed placement of Gabon on the Tier 2 Watch List. This cable reflects her views. Credible independent observers tell us that they believe the amount of child trafficking in Gabon has declined over the last 2-3 years, due to a combination or greater public awareness, better services to victims, and law enforcement efforts. We agree with those observations. Because Gabon has made progress on TIP criteria, we believe it is not appropriate to place Gabon on the Tier 2 Watch List. End Summary. -------------- Context -------------- ¶2. (SBU) We respectfully request that those carrying out the TIP Tier analysis consider the following additional points. As we understand it, most of the concern about Gabon's performance centers on Gabon's law enforcement response to trafficking, including prosecutions and convictions. Our comments therefore focus largely on these issues. ¶3. (SBU) Out the outset, however, we would like to point out that Gabon is a small and somewhat unusual country, heavily bureaucratic, without adequate systems for generating the statistical data that would do much to document better or worse performance on TIP criteria. Gabon has made, and continues to make, a serious effort to combat trafficking. Its reception centers, for instance, are well-organized and--we suspect--as good or better than any in sub-Saharan Africa. ¶4. (SBU) It is important to recognize the close collaboration between Government and NGO efforts to combat trafficking, and to avoid artificial distinctions between those efforts. Indeed, these are precisely the kinds of public-private partnerships that should be encouraged. As described in our reporting, Government has provided financial and other support to a call center where victims of trafficking can call in to get help. The government operates its own reception center, and supports and works closely with the two NGO-operated reception centers in Libreville. And, as detailed below, the police and other authorities collaborate closely with both the government-run center and the private centers and subsequent stages of the process, including rescuing victims, arresting traffickers, and taking appropriate follow-up action. ¶5. (SBU) Finally, we urge that Gabon's law enforcement response be considered in its entirety, and in view of the realities on the ground. We have therefore attempted to provide further detail on some of the ways Gabonese law enforcement system, including its system of arrest and prosecution, impacts the fight against trafficking. -------------- Law Enforcement Response: Rescue -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The police act on referrals from the call center, and on reports brought directly to them, and rescue victims of trafficking. The victims are either (a) brought for further evaluation by the responsible government ministry, or (b) taken directly to one of three reception centers. Thus the police regularly bring trafficking victims to both public and private receptions centers. -------------- Arrest -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Collaboration does not stop there. The police arrested at least 16 suspected traffickers in 2007. These suspected traffickers spent significant amounts of time in detention--and indeed some remain in detention awaiting trial. -------------- Detention Before Trial -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Detention following arrest should not be confused with a lack of due process. Indeed, lengthy detentions, and the lack of successful prosecutions and convictions, are attributable in part to the procedural rights which the accused enjoy in the Gabonese legal system. Arrest and detention are parts of due process, not contrary to due process. ¶9. (SBU) Nevertheless, lawful detention does function as a de facto punishment and a de facto deterrent to trafficking in Gabon. This is a reality acknowledged by all the participants in the process. -------------- Forcing Traffickers to Pay -------------- ¶10. (SBU) The assistant director reception centers informed us on April 14 that her center had repatriated 80 trafficking victims to their countries of origin last year. In almost all cases, the suspected traffickers paid for the repatriation--including the costs of air tickets, visas and other expenses. The police authorities were instrumental in forcing the traffickers to pay these costs. The police and other authorities also ensure that repatriations occur without interference from the traffickers and repatriations have proceeded without incident. -------------- Release Without Prosecution -------------- ¶11. (SBU) We obtained further information on one group of suspected traffickers--an official from one reception center said there were 10-15 such cases last year--who were arrested, detained, and subsequently released without prosecution. Most of these individuals, according to our source, were immigrants from Niger, many of whom had physical handicaps like blindness. When their children were observed begging or in other inappropriate circumstances--generally raising money for their parents--the children were brought to the reception centers and the parents were arrested. The parents protested that this kind of activity was normal in their "nomadic" culture, where children did not go to school. According to our informant, the authorities subsequently decided not to prosecute these cases, but only after officials from the reception centers, in collaboration with the police, were satisfied that the detainees had been properly advised on Gabonese law. Children were allowed to rejoin these families only after government officials were satisfied that they would not again be trafficked. ¶12. (SBU) These arrest outcomes, which involved active government participation, were not convictions. However, the traffickers experienced significant de facto punishment and government officials collaborated with reception center personnel to make a serious effort to ensure that the arrested persons would not return to trafficking. -------------- Prosecutions -------------- ¶13. (SBU) Post has already provided the data we were able to obtain from the government on prosecutions. However, it is important to note that Gabon has no centralized reporting system for tracking criminal prosecutions, including prosecutions related to trafficking. Therefore all "data" on this subject should be treated cautiously. We spoke April 14 to three officials at one Libreville reception center, all of whom agreed that during 2007 they were personally familiar with certain traffickers who had been both arrested and convicted. ¶14. (SBU) We have no/no confirmation of this assertion from government sources. The only data we were able to obtain--notably from the Ministry of Social Affairs, not the Ministry of Justice--has already been reported: 16 persons arrested in 2007, of whom five were released, three escaped and eight are awaiting trial and judgment. ¶15. (SBU) In this context government efforts to centralize crime reporting, and establish special courts to handle trafficking cases, clearly represent steps in the right direction. -------------- And Finally . . . -------------- ¶16. (SBU) More substantively, credible independent observers tell us that the number of child trafficking victims in Libreville has appeared to decline substantially in the last 2-3 years. We share this view--although this trend is This is difficult to quantify. And there are concerns that some child trafficking may have shifted away from open-air markets and similar public venues to private homes, and out of Libreville to provincial centers. But the observed decline in the number of child trafficking victims, and the fact that traffickers have been forced to either get out of the business or find other methods of trafficking, can be attributed to public awareness, good work by reception centers and others assisting the victims, and--yes--significant law enforcement efforts by the Government. We very much recognize that more needs to be done, and that we and others need to keep the pressure on. However, Gabon's efforts, including law enforcement efforts, are bearing fruit, and for that reason post respectfully contends that it is inappropriate to place Gabon on the Tier 2 Watch List. REDDICK