VZCZCXRO6818
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #0748/01 1931527
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121527Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2649
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 3316
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0449
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 000748 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT. FOR: AF/W, BACHMAN; G/TIP FOR ZEITLIN; AF/RSA FOR 
HARPOLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREF ELAB KCRM KFRD SMIG NG
SUBJECT: TIP INTERDICTION HAS HAPPY ENDING BUT UNDERSCORES 
NEED FOR LEGISLATION 
 
REF: NIAMEY 034 
 
NIAMEY 00000748  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  A recent case of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in the 
northern Nigerien city of Agadez - for centuries a key 
caravan town and trade hub uniting sub-Saharan and North 
Africa - offers many lessons on the nature of the challenge 
posed by TIP in Niger. The liberation and reinsertion of 
eight child victims shows what local NGOs and the Government 
of Niger can achieve when they work together with support 
from an international partner. However, the release of their 
two traffickers underscores the need for a comprehensive 
anti-TIP law. The publicity engendered by the case may help 
to move the GON toward passage of a draft anti-TIP law during 
this fall's legislative session. END SUMMARY 
 
¶2.  From June 2 through 4, the Nigerien NGO AFETEN (Action en 
Faveur de l'Elimination du Travail des Enfants au Niger), 
UNICEF, and the Government of Niger's (GON) Ministry for the 
Promotion of Women and Protection of Children conducted an 
education session on Trafficking in Persons for members of 
the teamsters' union and their employers in the northern city 
of Agadez. The session was well targeted, as Agadez is a 
known transit point for TIP victims being moved toward North 
Africa, and trucking companies and their employees are well 
placed to either observe, facilitate, or blow the whistle on 
such practices. The session resulted in the creation of a 
"regional vigilance committee" for the fight against 
trafficking in children. On June 26, the committee scored a 
major success when it discovered eight children who were 
being trafficked to Libya via Algeria. As a consequence of 
the collaboration between the committee, AFETEN and local GON 
authorities, the children were rescued, their case 
investigated, and they were returned to their village where a 
public education session on TIP was organized for locals by 
AFETEN and UNICEF. 
 
---------------------- 
RESCUE AND REINSERTION 
---------------------- 
 
¶3.  AFETEN reported that members of the vigilance committee 
discovered eight children between 13 and 17 years of age 
traveling in the company of two adults on the evening of June 
¶26. The children, discovered in a 4 x 4 vehicle, were on 
their way to Libya via Jannet, Algeria. The committee 
informed the regional coordinator of AFETEN, who proceeded to 
the city's vehicular transit station with the local police, 
who identified the eight victims as children from a village 
in the southern region of Tahoua. The two traffickers and the 
children were brought before a local magistrate that same 
evening for an investigation, which determined that the case 
was indeed one of TIP. The adults taken in with the children 
reportedly intended to take them to Libya where they would 
perform domestic service. After spending the night at the 
police station, the children were formally transferred to 
AFETEN's welcome and transit center by the authorities. In 
the absence of a law specifically banning TIP, the two 
traffickers were released from jail on the afternoon of the 
27th. However, the money the children's parents had paid to 
them was seized by the police and given to AFETEN. 
 
¶4.  On June 29, AFETEN returned the children to their 
village, and used the opportunity afforded by their visit to 
conduct a public education session on TIP with the 
cooperation of the village chief. AFETEN also interviewed the 
children's families to discover the reasons behind their 
trafficking. Apparently, the local vogue for migration to 
Libya derived from the experiences of several local adults 
who had gone there and enjoyed some measure of success. The 
children wished to follow suit - hoping to make enough money 
to set themselves up as shepherds upon their return. The 
parents, illiterate and without much of an alternative vision 
for the children, consented and paid an unidentified party in 
Tahoua to move the children north. The two traffickers who 
actually accompanied the children were apparently in the 
employ of the person in Tahoua. 
 
---------------- 
A WORD ON AFETEN 
---------------- 
 
¶5.  AFETEN, founded in 2001, is a credible partner 
 
NIAMEY 00000748  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
organization that has worked with UNICEF in the past. It 
received the French Republic's Human Rights Prize in 2005, 
for its work to promote children's rights in Niger. AFETEN is 
currently partnered with UNICEF in an effort to provide TIP 
victim assistance in Agadez and in key areas along Niger's 
borders with Nigeria and Benin. Their efforts will be 
supported, this year, by $100,000 in FY '05 TIP ESF money, 
which will enable them to identify many additional TIP 
victims such as the children in the Agadez case, provide them 
with safe shelter, basic medical and psychological care, and 
offer them life-skills training that will help them to 
reintegrate into their villages. AFETEN and UNICEF will also 
help victims' communities with micro-credit loans for income 
generating activity. Post has requested an additional 
$115,000 for the second year of this project from this year's 
TIP ESF funds (reftel). 
 
--------------- 
LESSONS LEARNED 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  While the rescue and reinsertion of the children (which 
AFETEN will accompany with some form of material assistance 
for their families), the public education sessions on TIP, 
the cooperation afforded by GON police and judiciary, and the 
formation of the vigilance committee are all enormously 
positive developments in the fight against TIP in Niger, the 
release of the two traffickers points to a major gap 
remaining on the enforcement side. While traffickers can be, 
and occasionally are, prosecuted under statutes relating to 
sexual exploitation, kidnapping, and child labor, none of 
Niger's existing laws apparently fit the exact conditions of 
the Agadez case. However, the circumstances of that case - 
minors paying a third party to be transported as labor for 
another party - are perhaps most typical of Nigerien TIP 
cases. Legislation that punishes traffickers - even "small 
fry" in the employ of a larger trafficker - is essential if 
the fight against TIP in Niger is to be won. The GON's 
Ministry of Justice showed considerable initiative earlier 
this year when it sought and obtained technical assistance 
from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in drafting an anti-TIP 
law. The GON must show more by moving the law toward 
adoption, first by the Council of Ministers, and then by the 
National Assembly. Post has made that point in repeated 
working-level meetings with GON contacts, and we will make it 
again in our forthcoming anti-TIP action plan. 
ALLEN