THE GAMBIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS STATE 060576 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMI GA SUBJECT: THE GAMBIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND DEMARCHE REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 ¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. ¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a press conference in the Department's press briefing room. This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic and foreign news outlets. Until the time of the Secretary's June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or country narratives contained therein is prohibited. ¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter. Also provided is demarche language to be used in informing the Government of The Gambia of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent release. The text of the TIP Report country narrative is provided, both for use in informing the Government of The Gambia and in any local media release by Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide the host government with the text of the TIP Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts. Please note, however, that any public release of the Report's information should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. ¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 release. Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts in all countries appearing on the Report. The Secretary's statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website shortly after the June 16 event. Ambassador de Baca will also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. ¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform the appropriate official in the Government of Togo of the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of the country narrative provided in para 8. For countries where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16. ¶6. Action Request continued: Please note that, for those countries which will not receive an "action plan" with specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw host governments' attention to the areas for improvement identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the "Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the narrative text. This engagement is important to establishing the framework in which the government's performance will be judged for the 2010 Report. If posts have questions about which governments will receive an action plan, or how they may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. ¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the press guidance provided in para 11. If Post wishes, a local press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP Report's country narrative provided in para 8. ¶8. Begin Final Text of The Gambia,s country narrative in the 2009 TIP Report: -------------- The Gambia (TIER 2) -------------- The Gambia is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Within The Gambia, women and girls and, to a lesser extent, boys are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation, in particular to meet the demand for European child sex tourists, as well as for domestic servitude. Anti-trafficking activists report that in the last few years commercial sexual exploitation of children has moved from large hotels to small guest houses and private homes as a result of large hotels, enforcement of a voluntary code of conduct against child sex tourism. Boys are trafficked within the country for forced begging by religious teachers and for street vending. Transnationally, women, girls, and boys from neighboring countries are trafficked to The Gambia for the same purposes listed above. Primary source countries for this trafficking are Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Benin. The trafficking of boys between The Gambia and Senegal by religious teachers for forced begging is particularly prevalent. Gambian women and girls are trafficked to Senegal for domestic servitude, and possibly for commercial sexual exploitation. The Government of The Gambia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite limited resources. The government,s law enforcement efforts to address trafficking increased with the prosecution of two trafficking offenders and the conviction of one of them. The government also made slightly increased victim protection efforts by providing limited services to children trafficked for forced begging. The government did not show progress, however, in identifying and assisting trafficking victims among women and girls in prostitution. Recommendations for The Gambia: Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and punish trafficking offenders; develop formal procedures for identifying trafficking victims among women and girls in prostitution; incorporate trafficking training into the standard police curriculum; educate all government officials on the distinction between smuggling and trafficking; identify an increased number of trafficking victims and provide them with care; and end the practice of placing child sex trafficking victims in prisons. Prosecution -------------- The Government of The Gambia demonstrated some increased efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement actions during the last year. The Gambia prohibits all forms of trafficking through its October 2007 Trafficking in Persons Act, which prescribes a penalty of 15 years to life imprisonment for all forms of trafficking. This penalty is sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those of other grave crimes, such as rape. The Gambia,s 2005 Children,s Act also prohibits all forms of child trafficking, prescribing a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The government reported that it investigated four trafficking cases and prosecuted two trafficking offenders. One of these defendants, a Senegalese national, was sentenced to two years, imprisonment with hard labor for trafficking Gambian children to Senegal. In November 2008, police arrested a Gambian national for trafficking a child for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation by a New Zealand national in Banjul. The Gambian was prosecuted under a procurement statute and subsequently acquitted. During the year, authorities demonstrated a weak understanding of trafficking by conflating it with smuggling. The Secretary of State for Justice gave a one-time lecture to prosecutors and a prosecutor traveled with UNICEF at UNICEF,s expense to border posts to distribute the law. Four individuals were prosecuted under the anti-trafficking law for actions that appear to be smuggling rather than trafficking. The government did not institute systematic trafficking training for law enforcement officials, though they did take part in donor-funded trafficking trainings. Officials monitored The Gambia,s borders to ensure that children crossing them are traveling with a parent or a legal guardian, but reports suggested that traffickers, use of false travel documents hindered these efforts. Protection -------------- The Gambian government demonstrated minimal victim protection efforts during the last year. The police referred four victims to the Department of Social Welfare, which reunited three of them with their parents. The fourth victim was a Nigerian girl placed temporarily in the home of a Gambian female police officer after being trafficked to The Gambia for forced labor; she ran away. In a joint project with UNICEF and an international NGO, the government operated a drop-in center for destitute children, the majority of whom were boys forced to beg by religious instructors and street children vulnerable to being trafficked. The center provided non-formal education, medical and hygiene services, and counseling. The government provided salaries for two social workers at the center and some additional funding. The government-operated and funded its own 24-hour shelter for destitute children, some of whom may be trafficking victims. No specialized facilities existed for trafficking victims, however, and the majority of children referred did not appear to be trafficking victims. The Gambia has not yet developed a system for collecting victim care data. Although the government established a toll-free victim hotline in 2005, it no longer functions. Although the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Act encourages victims to assist in investigations and prosecutions by offering them temporary visas pending criminal or civil actions, this provision has not yet been applied. During the year, authorities encouraged three trafficking victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. The government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they might face hardship or retribution. While labor trafficking victims were not inappropriately incarcerated or fined for unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked, authorities detained children found in prostitution in the juvenile wing of the Jeshwang prison pending investigation of their cases. The government did not follow procedures to identify trafficking victims among women arrested for prostitution. Prevention -------------- The Government of The Gambia demonstrated moderate efforts to prevent trafficking through awareness-raising during the reporting period. In June 2008, the government hosted an ECOWAS workshop on trafficking in which members of the National TIP Taskforce participated; the government contributed $4,000 towards the funding of the seminar. In December 2008, The Gambia,s anti-trafficking task force finalized the national action plan to combat trafficking. The government has taken steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by raiding brothels and prosecuting a foreign sex tourist. In the aforementioned case, the New Zealand national arrested in connection with the sex trafficking of a Gambian child was convicted and sentenced to one year of imprisonment under the Tourism Offenses Act. Gambian troops deployed abroad as part of peacekeeping missions received some human trafficking awareness training prior to their deployment. ¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report country narrative: (begin non-paper) -- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to Congress. The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and create partnerships around the world in the fight against modern-day slavery. The USG approach to combating human trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol"). The TVPA and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, or coercion, whether overt or through psychological manipulation. While much attention has focused on international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a showing that the victim was moved. -- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of three tiers. Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1. Countries assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, but making significant efforts to meet those minimum standards are classified as Tier 2. Countries assessed as neither complying with the minimum standards nor making significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. -- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a "Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of each year. Countries are included on the "Special Watch List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. -- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: (1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim population. As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 contains a provision requiring that a country that has been included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier ¶3. Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to Tier 3 in the 2011 Report). The new law allows for a waiver of this provision for up to two additional years upon a determination by the President that the country has developed and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards. -- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for participation by government officials or employees in educational and cultural exchange programs. In addition, the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to international financial institutions to oppose loans or other utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, trade-related or certain types of development assistance) with respect to countries on Tier 3. Countries classified as Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's release to show significant efforts against trafficking in persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier classification, would avoid such sanctions. Guidelines for such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared by Posts with host governments. -- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon: fraudulent recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor. As the May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion. The current global financial crisis threatens to increase the number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated "cost of coercion." -- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on website www.state.gov/g/tip. -- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State Department. We are providing you an advance copy of your country's narrative in that report. Please keep this information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June ¶16. The State Department will also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. (end non-paper) ¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as possible after the TIP Report is released. Funding for translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human Rights Report. Posts needing financial assistance for translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX office. ¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use with local media. Q1: Why is Gambia on Tier 2? A: The Government of The Gambia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite limited resources. The government,s law enforcement efforts to address trafficking increased with the prosecution of two trafficking offenders and the conviction of one of them. The government also made slightly increased victim protection efforts by providing limited services to children trafficked for forced begging. The government did not show progress, however, in identifying and assisting trafficking victims among women and girls in prostitution. ¶Q. What progress has Gambia made in the last year? A: The Government of The Gambia demonstrated some increased efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement actions during the last year. The government reported that it investigated four trafficking cases and prosecuted two trafficking offenders. One of these defendants, a Senegalese national, was convicted to two years, imprisonment with hard labor for trafficking Gambian children to Senegal. In a joint project with UNICEF and an international NGO, the government operated a drop-in center for destitute children, the majority of whom were boys forced to beg by religious instructors and street children vulnerable to being trafficked. The center provided non-formal education, medical and hygiene services, and counseling. The government provided salaries for two social workers at the center and some additional funding. In June 2008, the government hosted and and contributed $4000 to an ECOWAS workshop on trafficking. The government has taken steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by raiding brothels and prosecuting a foreign sex tourist under its Tourism Offences Act. Q3: What can Gambia do to further the fight against trafficking in persons? A: Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and punish trafficking offenders; develop formal procedures for identifying trafficking victims among women and girls in prostitution; incorporate trafficking training into the standard police curriculum; educate all government officials on the distinction between smuggling and trafficking; identify an increased number of trafficking victims and provide them with care; and end the practice of placing child sex trafficking victims in prisons. ¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the preceding action requests. CLINTON