2008 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT - MALI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BAMAKO 000096

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, AF/RSA, AF/W
DEPT PLEASE PASS USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG ASEC ML
SUBJECT: 2008 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT - MALI

REF: 08 STATE 132759

1.(U) This cable is Sensitive But Unclassified.

2.(U) Embassy Bamako TIP Point of Contact is
Economic/Commercial Officer, Manoela Borges: Office Tel:
(223) 2070-2436; Office Fax: (223) 2070-2387; Email:
borgesmg@state.gov.

3.(U) The following is post's 2008 TIP information report,
with responses keyed to questions 23-27 in reftel.

4.(U) THE COUNTRY'S TIP SITUATION (Reftel Question 23)

-- A. The lack of infrastructure, resources, and centralized
data collection make any attempt at a comprehensive
understanding of TIP statistics in Mali impossible. Some
information on TIP is available through non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) involved in anti-TIP activities and the
U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO). The data
collected by NGOs includes only those cases identified by NGO
networks; as such, this data can be assumed to comprise a
fraction of all trafficking cases. The Malian government
does not keep current data on TIP.

-- B. Mali is a country of origin, transit, and destination
for international trafficking. While there are notable cases
of international trafficking, most trafficking occurs within
Mali's borders for the purposes of forced labor. Press
reports and other sources indicate that many Africans,
including Malians, transit through Mali to Mauritania,
Algeria, or Libya in hopes of reaching Europe. Accurate
figures are not available; however, piecemeal data from NGOs
indicate children are trafficked between Mali and Niger, Cote
d'Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The
largely unpopulated and sparsely-governed northern region is
a common route for smugglers trafficking guns, drugs,
commericial goods and perhaps human beings. From April 2008
to February 2009, Malian NGOs identified the following cases
of trafficking:

- a group of seven children trafficked by a Koranic teacher
from Burkina Faso to Mali, December 2008
- a group of 22 children Malian children trafficked to
Burkina Faso, November/December 2008
- a group of seven Malian children trafficked to Niger,
December 2008
- a group of 22 children trafficked to Niger by Koranic
teachers, January 19, 2009

There have been no changes in this pattern since the 2007 TIP
report.

-- C. Victims are trafficked into a variety of situations.
Children are mostly trafficked into domestic servitude,
agricultural work, begging, and mining. Young girls are
predominantly trafficked into domestic positions and
agricultural work while boys are forced to work in
agricultural, begging, and mining positions.

-- D. While all groups risk being trafficked in Mali,
children comprise the vast majority of trafficked persons.
No singular ethnic group seems to be at particular risk, but
poor, rural communities are more often the source of
trafficked children than are urban or higher-income
communities. There is evidence that hereditary relationships
continue to informally link different ethnic groups,
particularly in the north. Additionally, members of the
black Tamachek community reportedly continued to live in
forced servitude and were deprived of civil liberties by
members of other ethnic groups, and forced servitude often
extended to their children.

-- E. Most traffickers are believed to be involved with
small, regionally-based groups or networks. There is no
evidence of large international organizations involved in
trafficking in or through Mali. Family friends, extended
family, acquaintances and strangers have all been used to
approach victims' families. Families are offered gifts or
money for their children, with promises of more to follow if
their children are allowed to work elsewhere. Another common
tactic is for traffickers to offer education, whether
religious or otherwise, to young boys to entice families to
release children to the traffickers' care. Victims are moved
using private vehicles and public transport.

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Mali is a large country. Its northern border is vast and is
largely unregulated, given the lack of government resources.
Border officers along other frontiers may occasionally be
bribed to facilitate international trafficking. There is no
evidence of regular use of certain businesses as a front for
trafficking.


5. (U) SETTING THE SCENE FOR THE GOVERNMENT'S ANTI-TIP
EFFORTS:

-- A. Mali's government acknowledges that trafficking is a
problem in the country.

-- B. Four government ministries are involved in
anti-trafficking efforts: the Ministry for the Promotion of
Women, Children, and the Family (MPFEF),the Ministry of
Labor, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal
Security and Civil Protection. MPFEF is the lead ministry
and has, within its organization, an anti-trafficking
department.

-- C. Mali's efforts are hampered by severe resource
constraints. Mali ranked 173 of 179 on the UNDP's 2008 human
development index, a ranking that clearly illustrates the
limitations faced by Malian authorities seeking to combat
trafficking. Security forces and the judiciary are
underfunded and corruption is pervasive. Compounding these
constraints is an apparent lack of communication between the
various ministries charged with implementing anti-TIP
activities. Poor government coordination on anti-TIP
activities, widespread poverty, and lack of resources remain
the largest obstacles to addressing TIP in Mali.

-- D. The Malian government lacks centralized monitoring and
reporting mechanisms.


6. (U) INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS

-- A. Mali's law for criminalizing the trafficking of
children is Article 244 of the criminal code enacted in 2001.
It does not differentiate between victims of internal and
external trafficking. This article defines the trafficking
of children as "the process by which a child is displaced in
or outside the country under conditions that treat the child
as merchandise with one or more people participating,
regardless of the reasons for displacement. All acts dealing
with the recruiting, transport, bartering, or sale of the
child; and all acts which contribute to the displacement of
the child inside or outside of a country will be punished by
imprisonment of five to 20 years of any person convicted of
trafficking a child." Articles 242 and 243 prohibit
servitude and other unfair labor practices. Pimping is
proscribed by Article 229. This law covers both internal and
transnational trafficking. There are also laws prohibiting
forced work, including forced prostitution. These laws are
used for prosecuting trafficking cases. No new legislation
has been enacted since the 2007 TIP report.

-- B. The penalty for sex trafficking, forcible sexual
assault or rape is five to 20 years in jail. If the victim
is younger than 15, the penalty is 20 years. There have been
no changes since the 2007 TIP report.

-- C. The penalty for exploiting forced labor ranges from
five to 20 years in jail. For labor recruiters who engage in
the recruitment of workers using knowingly fraudulent or
deceptive offers with the purpose of subjecting workers to
trafficking in the destination country, the Malian laws
regarding trafficking only apply if the recruiting occurred
in Mali. There have been no changes since the 2007 TIP
report.

-- D. The penalty for rape or forcible sexual assault is the
same as for sex trafficking, five to 20 years in jail.

-- E. During the reporting period, the government has not
prosecuted any cases against human trafficking offenders.
Three alleged traffickers who had been placed under arrest in
March 2008 and were awaiting trial for the trafficking of 26
children - 2 Malian and 24 Guinean - were subsequently
released, purportedly pending further investigation. There
are no known cases of prosecution of labor recruiters using
fraudulent practices for the purposes of trafficking, nor
prosecutions in cases of employers who confiscate workers'

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documents or employ other methods to maintain workers in a
state of service.

-- F. There is no uniform training for officials. In the
reporting period, the government organized two training
sessions on the collection and sharing of information on
child trafficking. The training was addressed to personnel
in charge of collecting information about trafficking.

-- G. Collaboration between Mali and neighboring countries
remains good, resource limitations notwithstanding. During
the reporting period, the Malian government collaborated with
the governments of Niger, Guinea and Burkina Faso on two
known trafficking cases to secure the repatriation of
victims. No statistics or information about other joint
investigations are available.

-- H. There have been no reports of extraditions or requests
for extradition during the reporting period.

-- I. There is no evidence to suggest the Malian government
has been involved in trafficking at the local or
institutional levels. There may be a perception amongst some
officials that some types of trafficking - such as the case
of a parent or family member entrusting a child to a Koranic
teacher who then exploits the child for labor - are less
egregious and difficult to discern. This perception
sometimes impedes the investigation and prosecution of
alleged traffickers.

-- J. There are no known cases of government officials
involved in trafficking over the reporting period.

-- K. Prostitution is legal in Mali; the legal minimum age
for prostitution is 18. Profiting from the activities of
prostitution, or pimping, is prohibited and punishable by one
to three years in prison.

-- L. Approximately 100 members of the Malian military are
deployed worldwide in peacekeeping and observer missions.
There have been no reports of them being involved in
trafficking or exploitation.

-- M. Mali does not have an identified problem of child sex
tourists coming to the country. Mali's laws pertain only to
activities committed within its borders.


7. (U) PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS

-- A. The government is unable to provide protections for
victims or witnesses.

-- B. Due to a lack of resources, most services and
facilities available to any trafficked victims are provided
by NGOs and funded entirely through foreign grants. The only
care facilities available to trafficked victims, all run by
NGOs, are in Segou, Sikasso and Mopti. Some smaller
facilities throughout Mali, run by religious institutions,
may also provide some assistance to trafficked victims on an
ad-hoc basis. No distinction is made between foreign and
domestic victims by the NGOs. Most of these facilities
specialize in the care of children. The Malian central
government provides non-monetary assistance to these NGOs,
including land and buildings. NGOs must pay the travel and
per diem costs for government officials involved in public
awareness campaigns and repatriation activities. The
government is unable to quantify the value of assistance
given.

-- C. The government relies on NGOs to assist with access to
legal, medical, and psychological services.

-- D. Due to enormous resource constraints, the government
focuses its assistance to foreign trafficking victims on
repatriation.

-- E. The government does not provide longer-term shelter or
housing benefits to victims or other resources to aid victims
in rebuilding their lives.

-- F. While there is no formal referral process to transfer
victims detained, authorities are well aware of local NGOs
that provide assistance to trafficking victims. In addition,
each of Mali's nine regions has a trafficking committee to
provide coordination among village level surveillance

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committees.

-- G. Victims are usually identified by and referred to
various NGOs. There are no figures available on the number
of persons referred to the government or NGOs.

-- H. There is no formal system for authorities to identify
victims of trafficking among high-risk persons with whom they
come into contact. However, a number of NGOs have trained
some government officials in regional workshops covering
identification of trafficked victims and trafficking
prevention.

-- I. Malian authorities respect the rights of trafficking
victims. There have been no reports of jailing, fines, or
mistreatment of victims.

-- J. Victims are not discouraged from assisting in the
investigation of trafficking. No prosecutions have taken
place over the reporting period. Victims may sue traffickers
and employers. Post is unaware of any attempts to impede
access to legal redress by victims. As children comprise the
vast majority of victims, the preference is to repatriate
them to their home countries and families. The primary means
by which a victim may obtain restitution is by civil suit.

-- K. In 2007, the government introduced a child trafficking
component in the curriculum of the national police training
academy. It focuses on identifying trafficked children. No
specialized training is given to Malian diplomats. Mali's
embassies and consulates do not have ongoing relationships
with NGOs and IOs that serve trafficking victims, but do turn
to them when seeking assistance for repatriating victims to
Mali. There have been no reports on trafficking victims that
have been assisted by Malian missions abroad during the
reporting period.

-- L. The government relies on NGOs to assist with medical
needs and reintegration of repatriated trafficking victims.

-- M. UNICEF, Save the Children, IOM, ILO, and local NGOs,
such as Mali Enjeu and ENDA Tiers Monde, all work with
trafficking victims. In addition, several religious missions
are involved in anti-trafficking activities. These
organizations undertake a broad range of activities,
including research into trafficking and child labor, the
primary reason for child trafficking; public awareness
campaigns; the training of public officials; the provision of
assistance with repatriation; and the provision of assistance
to victims of trafficking, such as shelter. Local officials
rely on these organizations for their anti-TIP activities,
which would otherwise be severely restricted. The government
is supportive of these activities.


8. (U) PREVENTION

-- A. The government participated in one public education
campaign over the reporting period. This campaign was
organized by a local NGO and travel and per diem costs of the
participating government official was paid by the NGO. There
is no estimate available of how many people were reached by
this campaign. The campaign targeted potential trafficking
victims, primarily children, as well as their families and
communities. In addition, NGO campaigns target border police
and bus, taxi, and truck drivers to help in identifying child
trafficking and to encourage these groups to report
suspicious activity to the authorities.

-- B. The government does not have the capacity to monitor
immigration and emigration patterns for evidence of
trafficking. Mali's borders are porous, and monitoring of
the sparsely-populated northern region, thought to be a
primary route for traffickers, is costly and difficult. Save
the Children works with border officials to assist them in
recognizing trafficking cases. In such cases, the children
are repatriated with the assistance of Malian government
officials and NGO networks.

-- C. Mali continued to work toward the creation of
trafficking committees in each of Mali's eight regions to
provide coordination among local surveillance committees,
NGOs and the government. A National Steering Committee,
established in 2006, met five times over the reporting
period. The Committee is comprised of 43 members, including
government ministries, NGOs, and civil society

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representatives.

-- D. The government of Mali's 2002 National Plan was
drafted in collaboration with local and international NGOs,
including CARE, WorldVision, Winrock International, and
UNICEF, and created the division within the MPFEF that
addresses trafficking. The National Plan also established a
National Committee (Comite de Suivi et de Coordination du
Plan d'Action) to coordinate activities with the responsible
ministries and NGOs. The Committee was intended to serve as
a coordinating body and source of information for the various
actors working trafficking issues. The MPFEF's
Anti-Trafficking Department was intended to take the lead on
assembling the Committee, which never became active. As
cited above, the National Steering Committee, created by
decree from the Ministry Labor, serves as the central active
and coordinating body on trafficking issues. The government
has made the National Plan available to government
organizations and NGOs involved in anti-trafficking
activities.

-- E. No activities have been conducted by the Malian
government in furtherance of reducing the demand for
commercial sex acts.

-- F. No activities have been conducted by the Malian
government in furtherance of reducing the participation in
international child sex tourism by Malian nationals.

-- G. As cited above, the Malian government currently has
100 members of the military deployed abroad as peacekeepers
and observers. The government has not adopted any specific
measures to ensure that those troops do not engage in order
facilitate severe forms of trafficking or exploit victims of
such trafficking. There have been no reported incidents of
those individuals involved in trafficking or exploitation of
victims of trafficking.


MILOVANOVIC