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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Gabon. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to verify their
authenticity or to validate their content.
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FEATURED ARTICLE ***
Written statement from Anti-Slavery International for
agenda item 13 of the provisional agenda
UN Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human
Rights, 56th Session, Geneva,
20 March- 28 April 2000
At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011]
Traffickers promise good money and
training in order to persuade the parents to send their children abroad.
However, after the children arrive in Gabon neither the child nor their
parents are paid for the work they do. The children interviewed in Gabon often told harrowing stories of their
journey from Bénin to Gabon and many complained of bad
working conditions and being deprived of food once they arrived. Over half of
the children interviewed said that they had been beaten by their
employers. Even where children are
rescued from these conditions, they are likely to encounter feelings of
alienation from their own family and culture and must undergo a long and
difficult task of reintegration.
***
ARCHIVES ***
The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor
U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International
Labor Affairs, 2005
www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/gabon.htm
[accessed 6 February 2011]
INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are also reported to be trafficked into Gabon from Equatorial Guinea. Children who are purchased in Benin, Togo
and Mali for as little as
USD 14 may be sold to commercial farms in Gabon
and Côte d’Ivoire
for up to USD 340. A social practice
known as “placement” is also reported to be a problem. According to
tradition, poor families send their children to more affluent homes where the
children receive an education in exchange for performing various services for
their host families. However, the practice has degenerated, and placed
children are allegedly trafficked or subjected to commercial sexual
exploitation
Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61570.htm
[accessed 6 February 2011]
TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Children
(especially girls), primarily from Benin
and Togo,
worked as domestic servants or in the informal commercial sector. Nigerian
children, also victims of trafficking, worked in the informal commercial
sector as mechanics. Trafficked children generally worked long hours, were
subjected to physical abuse, received inadequate food, and received no wages or
schooling. No statistics were available on the number of trafficking victims
in the country, but estimates ranged from 3 thousand to 25 thousand.
SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
An unknown number of children‑‑primarily foreign‑‑worked
in marketplaces or performed domestic duties; many of these children were
reportedly the victims of child trafficking. Such children generally did not
attend school, received only limited medical attention, and often were
exploited by employers or foster families.
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC)
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1 February 2002
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/gabon2002.html
[accessed 6 February 2011]
[59] While noting the
criminalization of trafficking of children in a recent Act of 2001 and the
establishment of a national inter-ministerial committee to fight against
trafficking in children, and the serious commitment of the State party with
regard to this issue, the Committee is deeply concerned at the large number
of trafficked children, particularly children coming from abroad, who are
still exploited, mostly in the informal labour market, or enslaved.
War is Boring: U.S. Navy Renders Aid to Gabonese
Trafficking Victims
David Axe, World Politics Review, Libreville
Gabon,
22 Apr 2009
www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/3638/war-is-boring-u-s-navy-renders-aid-to-gabonese-trafficking-victims
[partially accessed 6 February 2011 - access restricted]
It's a crisis that intersects with
another. Across Africa, but especially in
the central part of the continent, boys are sold, coerced or kidnapped into
military service in both government and rebel armies. Many of these child
soldiers also flee their captors, especially during combat, and end up
homeless on the streets of major cities, where aid groups struggle to find
and care for them. Children represent
a major commodity in a dark economy of violence and exploitation that is
perhaps most prominent in West and Central Africa. Escudero
described Gabon
as an importer of child slaves, "either for cheap manual labor or to
work in people's homes or factories. Often these kids win up on streets, if
they've been abused at home or mistreated where they're working."
Gabon cracks down on child trafficking
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa, 01/04/2005
At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011]
Child trafficking to Gabon
gained momentum in the 1970s, when the country's oil wealth made it a magnet
for the nationals of poorer neighbouring states.
According to the ministry of social and family affairs, there are currently
about 25 000 exploited children in Gabon
-- about half of whom come from Togo,
Nigeria and Benin.
Rights-Gabon: Hopefully, the Beginning of the End for
Child Traffickers
Antoine Lawson, Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Libreville, 24 February
2005
www.childtrafficking.org/cgi-bin/ct/main.sql?file=view_news.sql&TITLE=-1&AUTHOR=-1&THESAURO=-1&ORGANIZATION=-1&TYPE_DOC=-1&TOPIC=-1&GEOG=-1&YEAR=-1&LISTA=No&COUNTRY=-1&ID=1446&FULL_DETAIL=Yes
[accessed 6 February 2011]
For the first time in its history,
the country is to try persons accused of these crimes. Eight nationals from Benin and Togo who have been indicted for
trafficking and exploitation face imprisonment of up to five years if
convicted - and fines of between 200 and 2,000 dollars. These penalties are
stipulated in a law aimed at protecting children against exploitation that
was adopted in 2002, but which has yet to be enforced.
The Protection Project - Gabon [DOC]
The Paul H. Nitze
School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins
University
www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gabon.doc
[Last accessed 2009]
FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Children are trafficked
primarily for domestic labor, as well as for work as street and
market vendors. The majority of
children trafficked from Togo
and Benin are girls, and most of the children coming from Nigeria
are boys. Traffickers taking children
into Gabon
commonly pose as their parents or caretakers.
Children are often taken to Gabon under the guise of going to
school there. However, after arriving in Gabon, the children are denied
any education and are forced to work for their “host” families. Then, when
the anticipated date of graduation from the promised school approaches, the
families accuse the children of stealing money and kick them out into the street.
In addition, children from Nigeria may be trafficked to Gabon for prostitution and menial labor. Some of the Togolese girls initially
trafficked to Gabon
as housemaids are driven into prostitution there if they manage to escape
from domestic servitude.
Child labor is extremely
widespread. An estimated 53,000 of the 132,000 children living in Gabon are
forced to work. According to another
report, an estimated 5,000 are foreign children working in Gabon.
GABON: Laws fail to curb child
trafficking racket
Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, Libreville, 4 February
2005
www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=52911
[accessed 5 September 2011]
Gabon passed a law against trafficking
and child exploitation in 2002, but the first police roundup of child
traffickers and their victims only took place on the 24 January - nearly
three years later. The authorities
arrested 60 young people from Benin,
Togo, Nigeria, Ghana
and Niger, along with 20
of their suspected adult employers, who were all immigrants from West Africa themselves.
The youths, ranging in age from eight to 26, were taken into care
prior to being reunited with their families.
But to the disappointment of childrens'
rights activists, the "uncles" and "guardians" to whom
they were forced to surrender their earnings, were
released from custody three days later.
Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 4 Status:
Partly Free
2009 Edition
www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7610
[accessed 6 February 2011]
UNICEF: War fuels Africa
human trafficking
Jonathan Fowler, Associated Press, Geneva, April 23, 2004
www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-93762330.html
[partially accessed 6 February 2011 - access restricted]
"Every country represents a
different problem," Rossi told reporters at a meeting of African Union
ministers in Benin.
"But at the national level in Africa
there is a lack of capacity to collect data."
Nigeria and Gabon are the
major destinations for individuals trafficked from neighboring countries in
West Africa, including strife-hit Ivory Coast,
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
WEST AFRICA: Traffickers hold thousands of
children, women in bondage
Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, Lagos, 12 November 2003
www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=47211
[accessed 6 February 2011]
Most children and women rights
activists say much will not be achieved towards eradicating human trafficking
without first dealing effectively with widespread poverty in West Africa because poverty is the single major cause
of the trade. Sharp losses in revenue
by cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire,
Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon
and Gabon have actually become an
incentive for farmers to take in cheap, child labourers
to cut costs, the activists say. Among
the poorer countries in the region, relatively affluent countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and oil-rich Nigeria and Gabon
remain attractive destinations for parents to send their children to work in
the care of intermediaries.
West Africa: Stop Trafficking in Child Labor
Human Rights Watch, New
York, April 1, 2003
www.hrw.org/en/news/2003/04/01/west-africa-stop-trafficking-child-labor
[accessed 6 February 2011]
Girls interviewed by Human Rights
Watch were told to board ships for Gabon, where they worked as
housemaids or in markets. In a September, 2001 case documented in the report,
a boat ferrying hundreds of trafficked girls sank off the coast of Cameroon,
killing nine. Other cases document girls being treated as virtual slaves,
forced to work day and night peddling goods in the market, fetching water,
and caring for young children. Most endured beatings and psychological abuse,
including death threats and warnings they would never see their parents
again.
Children’s testimony from Borderline Slavery: Child
Trafficking in Togo
Human Rights Watch Testimonies, April 2003
At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011]
ON THEIR RECRUITMENT BY CHILD
TRAFFICKERS - My
friend had an aunt in Gabon,
and she came and saw the conditions we were living in. She said she had a
good job in Gabon,
so I should accompany her there and work with her. My mother was very
seriously ill, and my friend’s aunt said that when we got to Gabon, she
would find me a job as a trader so that I could send money to my mother for
medicine…I was willing to go because of how she spoke about it. She never
said how much money I would be making. - Dado K., age twenty-nine, trafficked to Gabon when
she was sixteen
Modern-Day Slavery? - The scope of trafficking in persons
in Africa
Kathleen Fitzgibbon, African Security Review, Vol 12 No 1, 2003
www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/12No1/EFitz.html
[accessed 6 February 2011]
INTRODUCTION - Chikezie
is a 13-year-old from Nigeria
who was in fourth grade when a man from his area promised his family to
educate him. Upon arrival in Libreville,
Gabon, he was
forced to hawk water and nylon bags for his ‘master’, who beat him when he
did not earn as much as expected. His ‘master’ also burned him with a hot
iron. Chikezie escaped to the Nigerian embassy in Gabon, which
assisted his repatriation. He is now at home studying to be a chemist.
TYPES AND EXTENT OF TRAFFICKING IN
AFRICA - TRAFFICKING FOR FORCED LABOUR - The ILO also estimates 200,000 to 300,000 children are
trafficked each year for forced labour and sexual exploitation in West and Central Africa. ….. UNICEF estimates 25,000 foreign
children are working in markets and farms in Gabon; 7,000 of them are likely
trafficking victims.
Rogue Voyage of a 21st Century African Slave Ship
Austin Baynow, Strategy Page,
April 19, 2001
www.strategypage.com/on_point/20010419.aspx
[accessed 6 February 2011]
The West African child slave
traffic works like this: Smugglers coax families in flat-broke countries like
Benin and Togo
into "giving up" their kids. They promise education and a better
life. The going price for a child: $15. The smugglers sell the boys to
plantations in wealthier places like the Ivory
Coast and Gabon.
If they're lucky, the girls end up as household workers. Many girls end up in
brothels.
African "slave ship" highlights spread of child
slavery
Trevor Johnson, World Socialist Web Site, 19 April 2001
www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/slav-a19.shtml
[accessed 6 February 2011]
On March 30, the MV Etireno set sail from Benin
for Gabon.
The manifest of the Nigerian-registered ship said it was carrying 139
passengers. It had room for 200. The ship was turned away from Libreville, Gabon, after the Transport Ministry
issued a press statement claiming there were 250 Nigerian children aboard,
destined to be used as slave labour.
Written statement from Anti-Slavery International for
agenda item 13 of the provisional agenda
UN Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human
Rights, 56th Session, Geneva,
20 March- 28 April 2000
At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011]
Traffickers promise good money and
training in order to persuade the parents to send their children abroad.
However, after the children arrive in Gabon neither the child nor their
parents are paid for the work they do. The children interviewed in Gabon often told harrowing stories of their
journey from Bénin to Gabon and many complained of bad
working conditions and being deprived of food once they arrived. Over half of
the children interviewed said that they had been beaten by their
employers. Even where children are
rescued from these conditions, they are likely to encounter feelings of
alienation from their own family and culture and must undergo a long and
difficult task of reintegration.
New Global Treaty to Combat "Sex Slavery"
United Nations Department of Public Information, DPI/2098,
February 2000 -- Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and
the Treatment of Offenders
www.un.org/events/10thcongress/2098.htm
[accessed 6 February 2011]
CHILDREN SOLD OR KIDNAPPED - According to Anti-Slavery
International, children aged 8 to 15 years are "recruited" or
kidnapped from backward villages of the poorest countries in Africa, such as Benin or Togo,
and sold as slaves to households, plantations or brothels in neighbouring countries, including Nigeria and Gabon.
All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery - Gabon",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Gabon.htm, [accessed <date>]
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