VZCZCXRO2276
RR RUEHGI
DE RUEHNJ #0088/01 0301048
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301048Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4867
INFO RUEHGI/AMEMBASSY BANGUI 1296
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0388
RUEHYD/AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE 1456
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0671
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1624
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2078

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NDJAMENA 000088 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ASEC ELAB PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG KCRM KFRD KWMN CD
SUBJECT: Chad: 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report Part 1 
 
REF: A) 06 State 202745, B) Ndjamena 0002 
 
¶1.  Summary: The Government of Chad cooperates with United Nations 
(UN) agencies, local communities and church-based and other 
domestic and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) 
in combating trafficking, primarily in the area of prevention. Due 
to intense rebel activity throughout 2006, heavy government 
spending on the military reduced the already limited resources and 
political will directed towards anti-trafficking and other social 
programs. Trafficking in Chad is primarily the internal trafficking 
of children as domestic workers, cattle herders and beggars. Chad 
does not have a significant number of trafficking victims entering, 
transiting or departing the country.  There are no reports of 
adults being trafficked for labor or sexual exploitation. The 
Chadian Council of Ministers and Presidency have yet to approve a 
draft decree amending the penal code to include specific sanctions 
for child labor abuses.  Chad signed the Multilateral Accord on 
Regional Cooperation (MARC) to Combat Trafficking in July 2006, 
but has yet to sign the UN Convention on Transnational Organized 
Crime, which includes more comprehensive anti-trafficking 
commitments. As a signatory of MARC, Chad is required to prepare a 
study on the trafficking situation in Chad, establish a national 
MARC follow-up committee, adopt a national anti-trafficking plan 
and pursue ratification of the UN Convention on Transnational 
Organized Crime.  End summary. 
 
¶2. Embassy's trafficking in persons points-of-contact are P/E 
officer Rebecca Daley and Political Assistant Joel Mbaibarem. 
Ms. Daley and Mr. Mbaibarem can be reached at (235) 51-70-09 or 
via e-mail at daleyrh@state.gov and mbaibaremjx@state.gov.  Two 
post officers spent 120 hours preparing this report. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
OVERVIEW OF CHAD'S ANTI-TRAFFICKING PERFORMANCE 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  Chad is a minor source, destination, and transit country for 
trafficking in children.  Chad's trafficking problem is primarily 
the internal trafficking of children as herders, domestic servants, 
beggars, and prostitutes. Reports in 2005 from the Governor of 
Doba Department and the NGO, Action for Development Cooperation 
(ACODE), of Cameroonian and Central African Republic minors 
trafficked to Chad's oil producing region for prostitution remain 
uncorroborated.  Child herders follow traditional routes for the 
grazing of cattle and often cross international borders into 
Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Nigeria.  Children are 
generally put into trafficking situations by their own families, 
who knowingly or unknowingly "lease" or give their children's 
services to relatives or intermediaries to work as domestics or 
herders and marabouts for Islamic education.  Most children are 
trafficked within Chad Surveys of Chadian child herders in 1999 and 
2001 conducted by UNICEF stated that it was not possible to 
quantify their number. 
 
¶4.  There have been no changes in the direction of trafficking and 
there are few reports of adults being trafficked for labor or 
sexual exploitation.  In 2006, between 40 and 50 Bangladeshis found 
themselves victimized by an employment scam that left them stranded 
in Chad without jobs.  A Chadian agent operating in Dacca charged 
the would-be workers approximately $1,000 per individual to locate 
a jobs for them in Chad and for processing related visas and work 
permits. Upon arrival in Chad, the Bangladeshis discovered that the 
jobs for which they had been recruited, did not exist.  By the end 
of the year, only two of the forty Bangladeshis had been 
repatriated, while those remaining were unemployed and in the care 
of local Islamic charities. 
 
¶5.  The Government acknowledges that trafficking of children is a 
problem and has designated points-of-contact at the directorate 
level in the Ministries of Justice, Public Security, Social Action 
and Family, Labor, and Education with whom representatives of the 
United Nations agencies and other organizations work.  The Chadian 
governments attention to combating rebel groups in the East was 
its highest priority in 2006.  While government ministries 
concerned with trafficking continued to cooperate with UN, NGOs and 
local communities, it has yet to move from a supportive to a 
leadership role in the fight against trafficking and other social 
problems. 
 
¶6.  Chadian rebels, backed by the Government of Sudan, staged 
attacks throughout 2006 including an assault repelled from the 
outskirts of the capital in April 2006.  Much of the Government's 
available resources were redirected to combating the rebels. This 
has reduced the very limited existing capacity and political will 
of the government to address social problems. However, the 
 
NDJAMENA 00000088  002 OF 004 
 
 
government has offered to make some in-kind contributions such as 
land, buildings for rehabilitation shelters and social services. 
The Government has difficulty paying civil servant salaries 
regularly. 
 
¶7.  To date, the government has yet to engage in the formal 
collection of trafficking information or the compilation of related 
data.  According to the government, lack of paved roads, 
electricity, computers, and telephone coverage in most parts of the 
country make it difficult for the Government to coordinate 
anti-trafficking efforts and collect information.  Case 
documentation is kept in paper files and the ability to replicate 
and distribute it is constrained by the unreliable availability of 
electricity and lack of repair capacity. The capital, N'Djamena, 
often lacks electricity.  Only the privileged have generators. Most 
information is collected through face-to-face meetings between 
officials during long, difficult road trips to the interior.  It 
can take 3-5 days to drive to major towns in northern Chad. During 
the rainy season, the roads are often impassable and eastern Chad 
is intermittently inaccessible by road from the capital. 
 
¶8.  Corruption at the highest levels of government remains a 
significant problem.  There is no evidence, however, suggesting 
widespread trafficking-related corruption. The Ministry for 
Moralization (i.e. Anti-Corruption) is responsible for 
investigating government corruption and for promoting 
anti-corruption as an important national value. 
 
 
¶9.  The Chadian Government denies recruitment of under-age soldiers 
into the Chadian Army, but acknowledges that some under-age 
volunteers may have provided false documentation to gain entry into 
the army.  To address the broader issue of child soldiers in both 
rebel and Chadian army ranks, the government has endorsed 
preparation of a comprehensive survey of child soldiers to be 
conducted in 2007 in cooperation with UNICEF. 
 
¶10. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) 
reported that some children were among those recruited by Sudanese 
rebels from its refugee camps in Chad in early 2006.  UNHCR 
estimates that over 2,000 males from the camps joined Sudanese 
rebel groups, and among them was a small number of children as 
young as thirteen years of age.  UNHCR launched a media campaign 
stressing that UNHCR camps be respected as centers of refuge for 
non-combatants.  Occasional reports were also received from press 
and other sources claiming to have observed under-age males in the 
Chadian army.  While press reports indicated that the child soldier 
phenomenon was not common and did not accuse the army of recruiting 
child soldiers, photographs were published of what appeared to be 
under-age Chadian army soldiers. 
 
¶11. According to the editor of the Notre Temps weekly newspaper, a 
poor 2006-growing season in parts of southern Chad increased 
pressure on families and villages to lease children to cattlemen as 
child herders.  The editor alleged that a combination of economic 
pressures, social acceptance of the practice in many areas of the 
country, and the complicity of many local and central government 
authorities has frustrated efforts to reduce this form of 
trafficking.  He added, however, that the public awareness raising 
efforts of the ministries (education and social action), the 
Catholic Church and NGOs has put a spotlight on the issue and, in 
particular, reduced the involvement of local government officials. 
 
---------- 
Prevention 
---------- 
 
¶12. The following paragraphs are keyed to questions raised in 
paragraph 28 A through G of ref A. 
 
¶13. The Government acknowledges that trafficking of children is a 
problem and is taking steps to raise public awareness in 
cooperation with UN and other organizations through programs 
administered at the directorate level in the Ministries of 
Educatin, Justice, Labor, Public Security, and Social Action and 
Family.  The Ministry of Social Action and Family, which includes 
a Special Protection Unit, coordinates various governmental 
anti-trafficking activities.  The Director for Children's Issues at 
the Ministry of Social Action is responsible for overall monitoring 
of the issues. 
 
¶14. The Government lacks capacity and resources and therefore 
depends to a significant degree on UNICEF, religious institutions, 
and non-governmental organizations to raise public awareness and 
assist victims. To date, the crux of the Governments approach has 
 
NDJAMENA 00000088  003 OF 004 
 
 
been prevention. 
 
¶15. While the government continued to cooperate with UN, community 
and non-governmental organizations in 2006 to counter trafficking 
through awareness raising and education, UNICEF reported that these 
activities had their greatest success at the local levels through 
community-based organizations.  In the absence of strong 
enforcement mechanisms, at this stage, raising the awareness of the 
public and changing public attitudes is at the forefront of efforts 
to reduce trafficking activities in Chad.  For example, one 
approach taken to reduce the practice of parents leasing their 
children to cattlemen to serve as herders is to convince families 
and village elders that children who remain in the village and are 
educated will ultimately contribute more to the community than the 
one cow every six months typically paid for the services of a child 
herder. 
 
¶16. The focus of public awareness raising and other efforts to 
counter the exploitation of children as herders and domestic 
workers was concentrated in the South where, according to UNICEF, 
ninety percent of the children affected originate.  The Government, 
UNICEF and its partners staged two large public-awareness raising 
rallies during 2006 in the cantons of Metekaga and Nderguigui at 
which some 6,000 people were present.  In a concerted program, the 
Catholic Action Movement staged special masses, the film, For a 
Cow, was presented followed by discussion sessions with primary 
and secondary school students, 70 children received training in 
child rights and 60 local officials and chiefs of itinerant cattle 
communities and from local villages were instructed on the 
provisions of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the 
Child. 
 
¶17. The Government cooperated with UNICEF, Oxfam, the Catholic 
Relief Services, World Vision and the National Justice and Peace 
Commission on programs to celebrate the African Childs Day and the 
Week of the African Child. 
 
¶18. The NGO, National Justice and Peace Commission (CDPJ), held a 
conference in February 2006 on child domestics and herders at 
Koumra in the South.  The 98 participants who attended the 
conference included village chiefs, representatives of the Islamic 
and Christian (Catholic and Protestant) religious communities, 
s, 
parents, cattle herders and children who worked as herders and 
domestics.  The conference set as objectives the development of 
action plans to eradicate the exploitation of child herders and 
domestics, the preparation and dissemination of child rights 
information and an advocacy campaign to garner parliamentary 
support. 
 
¶19. In March 2006, a workshop to establish a system to rescue and 
reintegrate child herders back to their communities was held in 
the Moyen Chari-region town of Sarh.  Two programs to identify, 
rescue and reintegrate affected children have since been initiated 
in Moyen Chari and Mandoul through the establishment of community 
committees in 17 cantons.  These committees are charged with 
raising public awareness of parental responsibilities and child 
rights, identifying child victims, denouncing persons suspected 
of mistreating and/or sexually abusing children and, in the case of 
child herders, following up on their reintegration into their 
communities. 
 
¶20. A memorandum of cooperation was signed between UNICEF and the 
Association for Child Rescue and Rehabilitation (ACEE) providing 
for the identification, rescue and reintegration of child herders. 
According to UNICEF, the ACEE and other parties identified, 
rescued and returned to their communities 360 child herders in 
¶2006.  This figure compares with a total of 264 child herders 
reported as having been rescued and returned to their communities 
in 2004 and 2005 contained in the Governments 2006 report on 
implementation of the UN Child Rights Convention. 
 
¶21. Government-run television showed anti-trafficking 
documentaries. These included a series on anti-trafficking programs 
in Burkina Fasso and the Republic of Benin concerning the rights of 
children and the roles of border police, customs officials and the 
gendarmerie in identifying and rescuing child victims of 
trafficking.  Government-radio broadcast anti-trafficking spots 
focused on parents responsibilities to protect their children from 
m 
traffickers throughout the year and continued programming on child 
herders.  In response to negative reporting on abuses to children 
in koranic schools at the end of 2005, the High Islamic Commission 
sponsored radio broadcasts on the exploitation of children by 
marabouts (koranic teachers), specifically warning against their 
 
NDJAMENA 00000088  004 OF 004 
 
 
mistreatment and use as beggars. 
 
¶22. Government-owned daily newspaper reporting focused increasingly 
on the governments military and political responses to the 
rebellion and largely ceased to cover stories of child trafficking, 
forced begging and other exploitation of children in 2006. 
 
¶23. Independent radio stations and newspapers also publicized the 
issue of trafficking. During 2006, a private station ran twice 
weekly, 45-minute programs on human rights issues that included 
trafficking and the legal rights of victims in an interactive 
(call-in) format.  This provided the opportunity for listeners to 
pose questions and seek legal advice.  A prosecutor was the guest 
on one of the programs.  In several cases this led to the 
intervention of government authorities, including the recovery by 
the police of a 16-year-old who called in to report that she was 
being held (chained) against her will by a man. 
 
¶24. The Ministries of Social Affairs and Health work closely with 
UNICEF on nationwide programs promoting education for girls, birth 
registrations, and microfinance programs.  The Government is also 
following an IMF-backed poverty alleviation program. 
 
¶25. The Government and UNICEF have carried out several studies of 
child labor and child trafficking.  A survey of child domestic 
workers completed in June 2005 was the impetus for a multi-city 
public awareness campaign.  A workshop for various government 
ministries was also conducted on the implications of the study. 
The study provided the first systematic examination of child 
domestic workers between the ages of five and eighteen.  The study 
also explored the process through which children are placed in 
exploitative situations. 
WALL