Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09STATE60576
2009-06-11 23:16:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Secretary of State
Cable title:  

THE GAMBIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

Tags:  KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMI GA 
pdf how-to read a cable
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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0576 1622346
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112316Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BANJUL IMMEDIATE 0000
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

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