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RUEHBS/MEMBASSY BRUSSELS 0312
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 029
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0054
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HS WASHDC
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHCDEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WAHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 13 ABIDJAN 000227 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSIIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, F/RSA; DEPT FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: 2007 TIP REPORT 
 
REF: SECSTAE 202745 
 
¶1. (SBU) Since a September 2002 coup atempt that evolved 
into a civil war, Cote d'Ivoir has been partitioned in two 
with the governmentmaintaining control of the south and the 
rebel Nw Forces controlling the north.  Tensions between he 
two sides have lessened through internationalmediation 
efforts starting in 2003 but the peace rocess remains 
stalled and elections were postponed in October 2006.  The 
economy has stagnated as a result of the crisis and 
government revenues have declined, creating severe budgetary 
pressures.  The government of Cote d'Ivoire has necessarily 
focused on ending the conflict, reunifying the country, 
disarming and demobilizing former combatants, and organizing 
elections.  Despite these challenges, the government has 
demonstrated political will and dedicated some limited 
resources to combating TIP.  In addition, available 
information indicates that the overall magnitude of 
international trafficking to Cote d'Ivoire has decreased 
since civil war broke out in 2002, because of the 
partition of the country, tighter security at borders, and 
decreased economic opportunities. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Overview of Cote d'Ivoire's activities to eliminate 
trafficking in persons (Para 27, Reftel): 
 
¶A.  Cote d'Ivoire is primarily a country of destination for 
international trafficking of women and children.  Cote 
d'Ivoire is also a transit country and a country of origin to 
countries in Europe.  Boys are trafficked from Ghana, Mali 
and Burkina Faso to work in the agricultural sector, 
particularly, cocoa, coffee, pineapple and rubber 
plantations; from Guinea to work in the mining sector; from 
Togo to work in construction; and from Benin to work in 
carpentry.  Girls are trafficked from Ghana, Togo and Benin 
to work as domestic servants and street vendors and from 
several countries including Nigeria primarily and China, 
Ukraine and the Phillipines to work as waitresses and 
prostitutes in street-side restaurants. 
 
Domestic trafficking for labor on plantations, low wage 
service labor and sexual exploitation is more prevalent than 
international trafficking and it occurs in both the New 
Forces (NF)-controlled zone as well as the government zone. 
Girls are more at risk of being trafficked domestically than 
boys because of their lower school enrollment and increasing 
poverty due to the civil conflict that divides the country. 
Girls are trafficked from the northern FN-held territories to 
Abidjan and other cities in the south to work as domestic 
servants and waitresses and are frequently pushed into 
prostitution by their employers.  Women and girls are more at 
risk of being trafficked than boys. 
 
Sources of available information on TIP include local and 
international NGOs, the police and defense forces, the 
Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Family and Social 
Services, and other embassies.  We have no reports of men 
being trafficked in or to Cote d'Ivoire.  Internally, victims 
are more likely to come from the north, and to a lesser 
extent, from the west, than from southern or eastern Cote 
d'Ivoire. 
 
There are no reliable estimates as to the extent or magnitude 
of the trafficking problem in Cote d'Ivoire, but several new 
studies to determine the scope of the problem were carried 
out in 2006.  The GTZ/LTTE (German Technical Cooperation 
Office for the Fight against Trafficking and the Worst Forms 
of Child labor) and a local NGO, Cote d'Ivoire Prosperity, 
which rehabilitates young prostitutes, carried out a study on 
entitled "Child Prostitution and the Trafficking Networks in 
the Districts of Yopougon and Adjame in 2006."  The study, 
published in February 2007, revealed that 85% of the girls 
were minors and that more Ivorian girls have been trafficked 
into prostitution now than foreign girls, a likely 
consequence of the ongoing civil conflict in Cote d'Ivoire 
(53% of the girls in the study were Ivorian, 33% Nigerian and 
the rest other nationalities).  The study also revealed that 
48% of the girls lived with their pimps, 17% with their 
parents and 23% with friends. Twenty-nine percent had never 
attended school, 38% had attended primary school and 28% had 
attended secondary school.  The study also assessed the 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  002 OF 013 
 
 
living conditions of the girls.  Sixty-nine percent worked 
every day of the week and had more than 10 clients a day and 
their pimps kept most of the money they earned.  The girls in 
the study also lived in environments plagued by alcohol, drug 
abuse and rape and under constant threat of physical violence 
and police roundups. 
 
ILO funded and carried out through their Office of Statistics 
and the National Institute of Statistics a national study of 
child trafficking patterns.  The study, which was completed 
in May 2006, has not been published yet. 
 
In 2006 there was marked improvement in the law enforcement 
authorities' attention to trafficking; as a result, routine 
government reporting of child trafficking has increased.  In 
June 2006 Interpol and GTZ conducted a training workshop on 
trafficking in Abengourou for thirty police officers from ten 
key agricultural regions in Cote d'Ivoire (Abengourou, 
Daoukro, Sinfra, Soubre, San Pedro, Aboisso, Oume, Agboville, 
Adzope and Agnibilekrou).  The National Committee for the 
Fight Against Trafficking and Child Exploitation (NCFTCE), a 
joint Ministerial committee that is chaired by the Ministry 
of Family and Social Affairs, recruited staff including a 
lawyer and a social worker to build a database for a project 
(funded by the US Department of Labor and the International 
Labor Organization (ILO)) on child trafficking and 
exploitation through village level child protection 
committees.  In December 2006 and January 2007 the National 
Committee set up 13 committees in villages in Daloa, Bediala, 
Issia, Bouafle and Asuefry.  Thirty additional committees are 
being set up in other regions.  These committees will be 
charged with doing a census of the school enrollment and 
employment status of all children at risk of being trafficked 
and informing the NCFTCE through sub-regional child 
protection committees.  The sub-committees are also 
responsible for reporting cases of children being trafficked 
from the village.  The NCFTCE will use the information 
collected from the village and sub-regional committees to 
track domestic child trafficking trends. 
 
The NCFTCE plans to gather information for their database on 
child trafficking from the Ministry of Security (the border 
police, criminal police and the newly created Division in 
charge of the Child Trafficking and Juvenile Delinquency); 
the Ministry of Interior (mayors and prefects and 
sub-prefects who represent the government bureaucracy in the 
FN-held territories); and the Ministry of Family and Social 
Affairs (social workers and specially trained educators). 
 
¶B.  Women and children were trafficked from Nigeria and Ghana 
mainly for sexual exploitation in Abidjan and larger towns. 
A smaller number of women and children are trafficked from 
North Africa, the Ukraine, China, and the Philippines to 
become prostitutes.  Sometimes, the women are promised jobs 
in restaurants or hair salons but are then forced into 
prostitution.  Frequently, these girls and women come to 
Abidjan and its surroundings and work for a few days or 
months in order to generate enough money to pay for tickets, 
identity papers, and reimburse traffickers.  If they earn 
enough money and if the trafficker allows it, the women go on 
to other destinations, usually European countries such as 
Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy.  The victims often live in 
hotels or brothels and can only go out in public under the 
surveillance of their procurer (pimp).  Traffickers often 
threaten the victims and use physical violence. 
 
While international traffickers can be loosely organized, 
domestic traffickers are often related to the victim by blood 
or ethnic ties.  The trafficker might be a distant relative 
capitalizing on the system throughout West Africa known in 
Cote d'Ivoire as "confiage" that encourages communal raising 
of children.  The traffickers deceive parents with promises 
of schooling, money, or an apprenticeship for the child. 
Parents are often proud to say their child is in Abidjan 
working or are too overwhelmed by the number of children they 
have to feed to worry about parting with one.  If their child 
returns with money, they frequently overlook the emotional 
and physical damage. 
 
In 2006 more child victims of trafficking were discovered by 
authorities than in previous years, to which NGOs and 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  003 OF 013 
 
 
government authorities attribute the training seminars in 
2006 for law enforcement authorities that have sensitized 
police and border officials to identifying and reporting 
child trafficking.  As a result of increased law enforcement 
awareness, traffickers have also altered their methods of 
bringing children into the country in the south, preferring 
to bring children in small groups or individually on foot at 
night rather than in large groups by bus or train.  Some 
traffickers make children de-board buses and cross the border 
on foot in order to avoid detection by security and defense 
forces.  Once they have crossed the borders they re-board 
their buses.  In June 2006 police arrested a Togolese child 
labor trafficker in Abengourou who had made thirteen children 
aged 10-17 walk from Togo to Cote d'Ivoire (over 200 km) for 
two weeks, beating them if they complained of fatigue.  The 
trafficker fed the children bread and canned sardines and 
made them sleep in the bush.  The judge who heard the case 
was so appalled by the trafficker's cruelty that he sentenced 
him to a year of imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 FCFA 
(about 4000 USD), which is considered a heavy punishment. 
The children were repatriated with the help of GTZ. 
 
In other new trends observed in 2006, young Ghanaian and 
Togolese boys were trafficked into Cote d'Ivoire by boat to 
work for fishermen along the Ivorian and Ghanaian coasts and 
children were trafficked in humanitarian convoys traveling 
between Cote d'Ivoire and either Burkina Faso or Mali through 
Ghana.  These convoys, meant to maintain trade links between 
government-controlled south Cote d'Ivoire and countries 
bordering it to the north have carried trafficked children. 
Traffickers pay the drivers 150,000 FCFA (300 USD) and bribe 
the members of the Ivorian military escorting the convoys. 
In 2006, eighty children who had traveled on humanitarian 
convoys from Burkina Faso were caught in Soubre. 
 
The most vulnerable group for internal trafficking are 
children from the poorest parts of the country who do not 
have birth certificates, making it easier for traffickers to 
conceal their identity.  Without a government presence in the 
north, children cannot receive official certificates. 
Moreover, in small villages in both the rebel and government 
zones, poorer uneducated parents often do not even request 
birth certificates for their children.  Children who have 
never gone to school, or have dropped out of school are also 
at risk.  The government refused to administer school exams 
in the NF zone for three years, resulting in a higher 
incidence of children not going to school or dropping out. 
All of these factors make the children of the north 
especially vulnerable to trafficking. 
 
In 2006 NGOs noted that Cote d'Ivoire became a country of 
origin for regional child trafficking because of the civil 
conflict in the north and increasing poverty.  There were 
reports of young Ivorian girls being sent to Gabon to work as 
domestic servants and at least one girl was found and 
repatriated in 2006. 
 
While in recent years, international pressure and press 
coverage has drawn attention to child labor and trafficking 
in the cocoa sector, it appears that the most common victims 
of trafficking are young girls brought to Abidjan to perform 
domestic labor.  In the cocoa sector, smaller Ivorian farmers 
generally use their own children as farm hands while larger 
areas owned by Ivorians (either individuals or held 
communally) rent land to men from the north, Burkina Faso and 
other neighboring countries.  Children trafficked to perform 
labor in the cocoa sector are most commonly found on larger 
farms cultivated by people from neighboring countries or 
distant regions of Cote d'Ivoire who exploit the system of 
confiage to bring children in from their own countries to 
work the farms.  There were reports of children who, once 
interviewed apart from the farmers, revealed that, indeed, 
the farmers were not their real parents, though frequently 
they had familial or kinship bonds.  These complex 
relationship patterns make it difficult to estimate the 
overall magnitude of trafficked children in the cocoa sector. 
 
A study conducted by the ILO and the UNHCR in 2004 revealed 
that in western Cote d'Ivoire within the Refugee Welcome Zone 
(ZAR), refugee and displaced children are increasingly 
becoming victims of trafficking and other forms of 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  004 OF 013 
 
 
exploitation.  Many children, in order to provide for 
themselves or their families, do not attend schools and are 
exposed to an increasing range of situations where they are 
easily exploited.  The traffickers in the ZAR often recruit 
young girls of their own ethnic group to become domestic 
servants.  Children are also recruited to work in mines or 
palm oil plantations.  The trafficker usually receives at 
least 10% of the child's wages. 
 
Ivorians are still grappling with the problem of child 
trafficking and slave labor but there is political will to 
combat trafficking in persons, though the highest levels of 
the Ivorian government are currently preoccupied primarily 
with the political crisis.  The international press first 
drew the attention of Ivorians to the phenomenon of 
trafficking in Cote d'Ivoire with reports of Malian boys 
working as slaves in cocoa farms.  Ivorians are becoming less 
defensive about negative international reports about 
trafficking and officials are acknowledging the problem 
rather than dismissing reports as a way to "discredit" Cote 
d'Ivoire. 
 
The roots of the ongoing political problem play a role in 
this question: "allogenes" (foreigners and outsiders from the 
north) form communities in the southern cocoa belt on land 
rented from southerners.  Allogene communities often do not 
have schools or clinics and their children often do not go to 
school and remain unregistered and in general fall outside 
the orbit of regular government services.  Planters in 
allogene communities are known to bring relatives, often 
minors, from their home regions to work.  Given these 
factors, it is difficult to classify these, both those 
brought in from other countries as well as the children of 
the allogene cocoa farmers, in standard trafficking terms. 
 
While the political leadership is hampered by the ongoing 
political conflict, the government bureaucracy is trying to 
address the problem with the meager resources at its 
disposal.  In 2006 there was greater government engagement in 
the fight against trafficking.  The Ministry of Family and 
Social Affairs through the NCFTCE recruited more staff.  In 
February 2007, the NCFTCE and the Ministry of Family and 
Social Affairs conducted a workshop aimed at adopting 
standard operating procedures for all actors - NGOs, law 
enforcement officials, etc. - that work in trafficking.  In 
October 2006, the Ministry of Security created a department 
for child trafficking and juvenile delinquency within the 
criminal police division to centralize information received 
from and activities carried out by the police in all 
government-controlled areas.  Local government officials as 
well as judges, social workers and law enforcement officials 
have willingly participated in the training workshops offered 
by Interpol and GTZ.  Finally, although the political crisis 
has severely crippled the government's law-making ability, in 
February 2007 the ministries of Family and Social Services 
and Labor, Civil Service and Administrative Reform along with 
their NGO partners have proposed a new anti-trafficking and 
child labor bill which now awaits Cabinet approval.  Once the 
Cabinet approves, the President can sign it into law by 
Presidential decree.  If he chooses to wait, it would need to 
be adopted by the National Assembly, whose mandate expired in 
December 2005, and elections for which have now been twice 
postponed. 
 
¶C.  Lack of training in anti-trafficking of law enforcement 
officials and judges, lack of financial resources, corruption 
and the absence of an anti-trafficking law limit the 
government's ability to address the problem of trafficking. 
Because of the ongoing crisis, the government of Cote 
d'Ivoire faces an extreme budget shortfall and lacks the 
resources to adequately support anti-trafficking programs. 
Most of the programs carried out by the government in 2006 
were funded by international organizations such as the ILO, 
UNICEF, GTZ and ICI (International Cocoa Initiative). 
Despite official figures showing modest economic growth in 
2004, 2005 and 2006, Cote d'Ivoire may have experienced zero 
or negative net growth over this period.  Moreover, even if 
positive, recent economic growth has depended on rising oil 
and gas revenue, which has a limited effect in stimulating 
employment and broader development.  The country remains 
partitioned in two and the government struggles to provide 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  005 OF 013 
 
 
social services even in the areas it does control. 
 
Despite these severe budgetary problems, the government does 
hope to allocate additional resources to anti-trafficking 
efforts.  In late 2006, the ministries of Family and Social 
Affairs and Labor, Civil Service and Social Reform drafted 
and adopted a national action plan to fight child trafficking 
and child labor.  The plan will cost three billion FCFA to 
implement (six million USD).  The Minister of Economy and 
Finance has promised to grant one billion FCFA (two million 
USD) to begin implementing this plan but has not, as yet, 
allocated the funding. 
 
The government has managed to devote some human resources to 
various anti-trafficking programs and hopes to strengthen the 
capacity of law enforcement officials and judges in 
anti-trafficking efforts.  The government continues to send 
police officers, gendarmes, and other officials to attend 
seminars hosted by NGOs to learn how to identify traffickers 
and treat the victims.  Local officials have participated in 
the implementation of programs and have also devoted social 
workers from their offices to neighborhood watch groups and 
local NGOs engaged in the fight against trafficking in 
persons.  The government has also provided office space to 
NGOs working on anti-trafficking and child labor issues. 
Nonetheless, the government still does not have shelters for 
trafficked children or funding for their care and 
repatriation. 
 
Few trafficking cases are prosecuted and judges still have 
not been systematically trained and sensitized to the issue 
of trafficking and the laws at their disposal.  The lack of a 
trafficking law hampers the government's law enforcement 
capabilities because many law enforcement officials simply 
repatriate the children and do not press charges against the 
traffickers.  In May 2006, the Ministry of Civil Service, 
Labor and Administrative Reform and GTZ completed a legal 
manual on trafficking and the worst forms of child labor in 
Cote d'Ivoire to clearly show judges and prosecutors the laws 
that can be applied in trafficking cases.  In one case, a 
police officer who arrested a trafficker gave the judge a 
copy of the manual to help the judge to try the case and 
sentence the trafficker. 
 
Corruption is endemic at all levels of government in Cote 
d'Ivoire and is also an obstacle to the fight against 
trafficking.  A local NGO reported to the NCFTCE that 
Nigerian traffickers bribe defense and security forces in 
order to traffic Nigerian girls into the country for 
prostitution. 
 
¶D.  The government now follows and supports anti-trafficking 
efforts through the following organs:  1) the NCFTCE; 2) the 
aforementioned Ministry of Security's anti-trafficking 
department; 3) the follow-up committee set up to monitor the 
Malian-Cote d'Ivoire Anti-Trafficking Cooperation Agreement; 
4) the National Coordination for Child Protection (CNPE) 
created in October 2005 to serve as a think tank and an 
implementation body aimed at improving and reinforcing the 
protection of children against abuse, trafficking and 
economic and sexual exploitation; and 5) the National 
Follow-Up Commission set up in July 2006 to followup on the 
implementation of the July 2005 Multilateral Anti-Trafficking 
Cooperation Agreement between ten West African countries. 
The government shares information about its anti-trafficking 
efforts available through these five bodies and through 
regional and international organizations.  It also publicizes 
its efforts during events like the World Day against Child 
Labor on July 31st.  At the government's 2006 event, the 
Minister of Civil Service, Labor and Administrative Reform 
outlined all of the national-level activities carried out by 
the government and international and local NGOs to fight 
child trafficking and labor. 
 
¶3. (SBU) PREVENTION (Para 28, Reftel) 
 
¶A.  The government does fully acknowledge that trafficking is 
a problem and unlike in years past, the government has not 
been defensive about the issue of child labor and trafficking 
in the cocoa sector.  The government has also taken an active 
role in publicizing the issue at high levels. 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  006 OF 013 
 
 
 
¶B.  There are nine ministries involved in anti-trafficking 
efforts with the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs 
operating as the lead; in 2006, many of these ministries 
created specific anti-trafficking units.  The Ministry of 
Family and Social Affairs created in 2006 an anti-trafficking 
unit within the Department of Social Protection.  This unit 
coordinates the NCFTCE.  The Ministry of Civil Service, Labor 
and Administrative Reform created in 2006 an anti-trafficking 
unit within the Ministry of Labor.  The Ministry of Security 
created in 2006 a Department for the Fight against Child 
Trafficking and Juvenile Delinquency with the division of 
criminal police.  This department works closely with the 
police brigade that focuses on trafficking of women for 
sexual exploitation.  The Ministry of Agriculture in 2005 
created a unit in charge of coordinating the fight against 
trafficking, child labor and exploitation in the cocoa 
industry.  Within the Ministry of Education, the Autonomous 
Department for Literacy handles all the Ministry's 
trafficking and child labor prevention programs.  Within the 
Ministry of Interior, the prefects and the sub-prefects 
represent the government outside of the district of Abidjan. 
They take the lead in all regional and local government 
anti-trafficking initiatives.  In the Ministry of Justice, 
the Department for Child and Youth Affairs handles matters 
related to child trafficking. 
 
In 2006 there was better cooperation than in previous years 
between the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs, which 
focuses on child protection; the Ministry of Civil Service, 
Labor and Administrative Reform, which focuses on the 
elimination of child labor and the worst forms of child 
trafficking; and the Ministry of Security. 
 
¶C.  In June and July 2006, the Ministry of Family and Social 
Affairs and the NCFTCE held public awareness campaigns in 
Daloa, Bediala, Issia, Bouafle, Assuefry and Tanda targeting 
children at-risk of being trafficked and industries that 
employ child labor.  They also organized training sessions 
for six sub-prefects, four judges, 15 security and defense 
officers, 10 Muslim and Christian village chiefs and 10 
priests and imams, five primary school inspectors and 20 
primary school headmasters, nine heads of central government 
administrations, 100 community leaders, one chairman of a 
trade association, three agricultural cooperatives, two 
leaders of artisan associations and four transportion trade 
union leaders. 
 
¶D.  The Ministry of Labor, the ILO and USAID completed the 
"West African Project against Abusive Child Labor in 
Commercial Agriculture" (WACAP) in September 2006.  That 
program aimed to increase farmers' awareness, improve 
schooling for children, and provide better social services to 
families.  Nothing yet has replaced it, although cocoa 
industry groups are working with the Prime Minister's 
Coordination Committee against the Worst Forms of Child 
Agricultural Labor to institute a system to monitor and 
combat the worst forms of child labor.  This system would 
synergize with existing child labor sensitizing campaigns 
financed and managed by GTZ and a variety of international 
NGOs (STCP, Winrock, IFESH, among others). 
 
In December 2006 and January 2007, the Ministry of Family and 
Social Affairs and the NCFTCE set up 13 village level 
anti-trafficking and child protection committees.  They also 
gave school supplies to 280 at-risk children to allow them to 
attend primary school.  The ministry and the NCFTCE also set 
up five sub-regional committees.  Twenty-five additional 
village protection committees are being planned. 
 
Using UNICEF and Save the Children funding, the Ministry of 
Family and Social Affairs continues to support community 
action centers for children (CACE) under eight who are not 
enrolled in school, in Abidjan and in several villages and 
town in the hinterland.  The purpose of these centers is to 
provide care for these children while their parents are 
working. 
 
The Ministry of Education continues to support the Community 
Education Centers (CEC) established in 2005.  The main 
missions of the CEC are: 1) to receive the children withdrawn 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  007 OF 013 
 
 
from the worst forms of child labor in commercial agriculture 
and in particular in the cocoa sector; and 2) to provide 
basic education for children.  The Ministry of Education 
continued in 2006 to carry out its mobile school program 
aimed at fighting against the worst forms of child labor as 
well as protecting the children working in the sub-regions of 
Abengourou, Soubre, Oume, Divo and San Pedro. 
 
At the end of 2006, a total of 6,931 children attending the 
special primary education programs created in the villages 
and labor settlements had been removed from the farms with 
3,046 of them succeeding in being integrated in the formal 
school system.  The others were able to learn a trade and 
benefit from a social and professional reintegration program. 
 In addition, the Ministry of Education drafted a 
sensitization textbook on child labor and child trafficking 
and built 6 new primary schools in the sub-regions where the 
project was located. 
 
With the financial assistance of the ILO, in March 2006 the 
Autonomous Literacy Department of the Ministry of National 
Education in the 10 districts of Abidjan as well as in Grand 
Bassam, Bonoua and Dabou initiated a program aimed at 
preventing, sensitizing, and providing with basic education 
and social and professional reinsertion training to 1,200 
child labor victims and children at risk of being trafficked. 
 Among the 1,200 participants, 237 were victims of 
trafficking and 394 were at high risk of being trafficked. 
 
The National School for Civil Servants, with the help of the 
ILO, continues to include a course on child labor as part of 
the curriculum for Workplace Inspectors. 
 
The government also continues to contribute money to the 
Institut de Formation et de l'Education Feminine (Institute 
for Female Training and Education) centers around the country 
where women can take literacy, cooking, and sewing courses 
and learn about hygiene and homemaking. 
 
¶E.  The government continues to have good relationships with 
international and local NGOs involved in anti-trafficking 
efforts.  The Ministry of Family and Social Services is 
forthcoming and well regarded in its anti-trafficking 
interactions with NGOs and other international organizations. 
 The international NGOs fund most of the activities carried 
out by government ministries and agencies, local NGOs and 
Interpol.  Most local NGOs and international organizations 
that are involved in the anti-trafficking fight (except for 
ILO) are members of the NCFTCE and cooperation is good. 
Since the government does not have shelters around the 
country, officials often ask local NGOs for assistance in 
offering shelter as well as medical and psychological 
assistance to recovered trafficking victims. 
 
¶F.  The government is unable to adequately patrol its long, 
porous border.  It does not maintain publicly available 
statistics on border crossings.  Additionally, it is 
difficult to know the extent of trafficking across the 
northern, ex-rebel-held borders due to the partition of the 
country.  In late February 2007 PolOff learned anecdotally on 
a trip to Odienne with a United Nations humanitarian 
delegation that the FN had caught in mid February and 
continue to detain a Malian trafficker with five children 
headed to plantations further south.  In the south, buses 
carrying children being trafficked from Ghana to Cote 
d'Ivoire are routinely turned away.  The border police prefer 
to deny entry into Cote d'Ivoire to children traveling with 
people who are not their parents, because they often have no 
place to put them.  To avoid being apprehended, traffickers 
sometimes enter Cote d'Ivoire along the coast by boat. 
 
However, the Ministry of Security has instructed police and 
gendarmes at various border points to arrest people trying to 
bring children into Cote d'Ivoire.  In June 2006 Interpol, in 
cooperation with GTZ, held a national training seminar on 
child trafficking in Abengourou for 30 defense and security 
forces officials (gendarmerie, police, customs and forestry) 
responsible for border security.  The seminar was followed by 
four workshops aimed at sharing the findings of the 
Abengourou seminar using officers trained at the Abengourou 
seminar with a broader group of more than 300 defense and 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  008 OF 013 
 
 
security force members operating in areas known as vulnerable 
to trafficking. 
 
¶G.  The NCFTCE coordinates the efforts of the various 
agencies.  The government does not have a public corruption 
task force but in December 2005, the Prime Minister created a 
sub-ministry in charge of good governance. 
 
¶H.  The government finalized its national action plan in May 
2006 and is waiting for inter-ministerial approval (Council 
of Ministers) and a budget.  Representatives from key 
ministries played an active role in developing the 
anti-trafficking action plan, as did several international 
and local NGOs. 
 
¶4. (SBU) INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS (Para 
29, Reftel) 
 
¶A.  Cote d'Ivoire does not have a specific law prohibiting or 
punishing trafficking in persons.  There is no specific law 
against slavery.  The government, however, has drafted and 
submitted legislation against trafficking in persons to the 
National Assembly.  Given the current political crisis, it is 
unclear when the National Assembly will be able to act on the 
proposed law. The government did not enact any new 
legislation during the year.  In January 2007 the NCFTCE 
drafted a new bill specifically prohibiting trafficking in 
persons and child labor.  The bill has yet to receive Cabinet 
approval. 
 
The government can prosecute traffickers under the law 
prohibiting kidnapping of children (Penal Code, Article 371). 
 The government can also use the law prohibiting the removal 
(alienation) of a person's freedom (Article 376), receiving 
or leaving a person as a financial security (Article 377), or 
imposing labor or a service on a person (Article 378). 
Mistreatment, torture, and starvation of minors are also 
punishable (Article 362).  These laws are used in trafficking 
cases.  Despite this list of statutes and some arrests, the 
proposed anti-trafficking law is needed to adequately cover 
the full scope of the problem. 
 
In May 2006, in a study entitled "Legal Study of Trafficking 
and the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Cote d'Ivoire", the 
Ministry of Civil Service, Labor and Administrative Reform 
and GTZ asked a judge to compile all the laws that can be 
used to try traffickers and those who exploit children's 
labor.  The study highlighted the following laws: 
 
- All the forms of slavery or similar practices such as 
selling, trafficking children, practicing indentured 
servitude, bondage, forced labor or compulsory labor are 
punishable by the Ivorian Penal Code: Articles 376 to 378 on 
forced labor or pawning a child; 
 
- Forced recruitment or compulsory recruitment of children 
with a view to using them in armed conflicts is forbidden by 
the Military Code; 
 
- Using, recruiting or offering children for prostitution 
purposes, for pornographic films, pictures or spectacles is 
punished by the penal code, specifically articles 335 to 337 
on pimping and inciting minors to vice (sexual exploitation 
of children); 
 
- Physical violence against minors, depriving minors of food 
and care, attempt against children's freedom and life, 
kidnapping children are punished by the Penal code.  Articles 
362, 370 and 371 of the Penal Code and the law relating to 
kidnapping are most frequently used in trafficking cases; 
 
- Article 345 of the penal code punishes physical violence 
and injury; 
 
- Articles 354 to 360 of the penal code punish sexual 
violence. 
 
¶B.  There are currently no specific penalties for trafficking 
people for sexual exploitation. 
 
¶C.  There are currently no specific penalties for trafficking 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  009 OF 013 
 
 
people for labor exploitation although there are penalties 
for forced labor.  The government can prosecute traffickers 
under the law prohibiting kidnapping of children (Penal Code, 
Article 371) which states that anyone who, without fraud or 
violence, kidnaps or tries to kidnap a minor can be punished 
with one to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 
FCFA (100 USD) to 500,000 FCFA (1,000 USD). 
 
The government can also use the law prohibiting the removal 
(alienation) of a person's freedom (Article 376) which 
provides for imprisonment for five to 10 years and fines of 
500,000 FCFA (1,000 USD) to 5 million FCFA (10,000 USD) for 
anyone who enters into a contract in order to alienate, 
either for free, or for money, the freedom of a third person. 
 The defendant gets the maximum sentence when the person 
whose freedom has been alienated is less than 15 years old. 
 
The government can also use the law prohibiting leaving a 
person as a financial security (Article 377) which provides 
for six months to three years imprisonment and fines of 
30,000 FCFA (60 USD) to 300,000 FCFA (600 USD) for anyone who 
leaves or receives a person as a financial security, for 
whatever reason.  The prison sentence is five years when the 
person left as financial security is under 15. 
 
The government can also use the law prohibiting imposing 
labor or a service on a person (Article 378) which provides 
for imprisonment from one to five years and fines between 
360,000 FCFA (720 USD) and one million FCFA (2,000 USD) for 
anyone who forces a minor into a religious or traditional 
matrimonial union or imposes labor on someone which he did 
not willingly offer to do. 
 
The government can also use the law prohibiting mistreatment, 
torture, or starvation of minors (Article 362) which provides 
for imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of between 
10,000 FCFA (20 USD) and 100,000 FCFA (200 USD) against 
anyone who commits violence against a minor or a person who 
is unable to protect himself or herself because of his/her 
physical or mental state, or voluntarily deprives that person 
of food or care to such an extent as to endanger the person's 
health. 
 
¶D.  Rape is punishable by five to 20 years imprisonment 
(Penal Code Article 354).  The sentence becomes life 
imprisonment if the perpetrator has one or more accomplices 
or is the father, an older relative or a person who has 
responsibility for the victim's upbringing, or if the victim 
is under 15 years of age.  The penalty for statutory rape or 
attempted rape of either a girl or a boy under the age of 15 
is one to three years in prison and a fine of the equivalent 
of 150 USD to 1,500 USD (Penal Code Article 356). 
 
¶E.  There is no law against prostitution as long as it is 
between consenting adults and in private.  Soliciting a 
client is a crime, as is procuring (pimping), even if the 
prostitute is an adult.  Operating an establishment that is 
mainly for prostitution is a crime.  The police brigade 
charged with combating sexual exploitation uses Articles 334 
through 341 to arrest traffickers and pimps involved in the 
sexual exploitation of girls and minors (attempts against 
good public moral conduct). 
 
- Article 334 provides for one month to two years of 
imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 FCFA (60 USD) to 300,000 
FCFA (600 USD) to anyone who engages in commercial 
pornographic activities and the penalties are double if the 
offense is committed against a minor. 
 
- Article 335 makes pimping (whoever helps, assists and 
protects or knowingly protects somebody else who commits 
prostitution, even if the person is an adult) punishable by 
one to five years of imprisonment and a fine of one million 
FCFA (2,000 USD) to 10 million FCFA (20,000 USD). 
 
- Article 336 doubles these penalties if the crime is 
committed against a person who is under 21; if the crime is 
carried out with threats, constraint, blows, or abuse of 
authority; if the offense is committed with a firearm; or 
committed by the father, mother or any other person having 
authority over the person. 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  010 OF 013 
 
 
 
- Article 337 provides for punishment of two to five years of 
imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 FCFA (1,000 USD) to five 
million FCFA (10,000 USD) for anyone who violates good moral 
conduct by inciting, favoring or facilitating vice and 
corruption among under 18 years old people of either sex. 
 
- Article 338 provides for imprisonment for 15 days to three 
months and a fine of 50,000 FCFA (100 USD) to 500,000 FCFA 
(1,000 USD) to whoever, through gestures, words, written 
documents or any other means accosts or tries to accost 
people of either sex in order to incite them to vice. 
 
- Article 339 provides for two to five years of imprisonment 
and a fine of one million FCFA (2,000 USD) to 10 million FCFA 
(20,000 USD) to whoever, owns, runs and finances a building 
used mainly and partly for prostitution. 
 
- Article 340 provides for six months to two years of 
imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 FCFA (1,000 USD) to five 
million FCFA (10,000 USD) to whoever knowingly puts private 
property or a private place at the disposal of people 
committing prostitution. 
 
The laws on procuring are not well-enforced.  While police 
officers often receive reports of brothels operating with 
trafficked women and children, they say that they are 
constrained from following up on these reports by a lack of 
police cars.  Police also usually do not have any support to 
offer victims they rescue.  In January 2007 the Minister of 
Security publicly stated that there were too many prostitutes 
on the streets of Abidjan.  The police vice brigade charged 
with combating sexual exploitation and morality arrested 
dozens of prostitutes, but because prison guards were on 
strike, the police were forced to release them. 
 
NGOs have reported that the security forces often use their 
position to exploit prostitutes.  The local NGO, Movement of 
Nid, that operates in the district of Yopougon, an area 
frequented by prostitutes and their clients, reports that 
foreign prostitutes who do not have the proper identity paper 
are often forced to have sex with police to avoid going to 
jail.  The security forces are also frequently customers of 
the same brothels that they are charged with dismantling. 
 
¶F.  In 2006 several traffickers and pimps were arrested and 
jailed although information on their sentences was 
unavailable. 
 
For example, four buses carrying Burkinabe, Malian and 
Beninese children trafficked to work in farms in Soubre were 
stopped and about 61 children aged 9 to 17 were found. Two 
traffickers were arrested and jailed. 
 
In 2006, the Abidjan police vice brigade arrested and brought 
before the Public Prosecutor 13 men from Nigeria, Ghana and 
Burkina for pimping. 
 
One Nigerian trafficker was arrested and brought before the 
public prosecutor for using a room for prostitution purposes 
 
 
On April 4, 2006, the Abidjan police unit in charge of the 
fight against child trafficking and juvenile delinquency 
arrested and jailed two Nigerian traffickers.  The 
17-year-old victims who had been trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire 
for sexual exploitation were handed over to a Nigerian NGO, 
the Esan Family, for repatriation assistance. 
 
On August 28, 2006, the child trafficking police unit 
arrested two Nigerian traffickers who had brought in four 
Nigerian girls for prostitution. The girls were handed over 
to the Esan Family for assistance in repatriation back to 
Nigeria and the two traffickers were arrested and jailed. 
 
On January 16, 2007, the child trafficking police unit 
arrested two Nigerian traffickers, including one woman. 
 
¶G.  According to various sources, the people involved in the 
transnational trafficking trade are transporters and other 
traffickers from the countries of origin of the children. 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  011 OF 013 
 
 
There is no information on who may be orchestrating any 
larger network.  The people receiving the victims (especially 
children) are usually people from the same country as the 
people being trafficked.  The police anti-trafficking 
department and the police brigade for sexual exploitation are 
aware of the possible existence of Moroccan and Asian sex 
trafficking networks.  To date they have not fully 
investigated, citing the extremely closed nature of the Arab 
and Asian communities in Abidjan, which they say makes it 
very difficult to infiltrate these communities clandestinely. 
 
The people involved in internal domestic trafficking are 
almost all Ivorians, and are usually known to the children's 
parents.  The traffickers are not known to work in large 
groups or networks.  There are no reports that employment, 
travel and tourism agencies or marriage brokers are used to 
traffic individuals.  There are no reports indicating that 
profits from trafficking in persons are being channeled to 
other persons or entities. 
 
There is no evidence that government officials are directly 
implicated in trafficking in persons. 
 
¶H.  Very rarely does the government conduct in-depth 
investigations of cases of trafficking.  As mentioned 
elsewhere, the government's ability to devote resources to 
trafficking has diminished since the onset of the rebellion. 
Furthermore, police officers have very few resources 
available, usually not even a government vehicle, to conduct 
their official duties.  There is no information that the 
government used undercover electronic means to investigate 
trafficking (or any other crime) or have offered immunity 
from prosecution to potential witnesses.  There is no 
procedure, code, or law prohibiting police from engaging in 
covert operations. 
 
¶I.  Unlike in previous years, the government with the 
technical and/or financial assistance of Interpol, ILO, GTZ 
and Save the Children did provide specialized training for 
government officials in 2006. 
 
¶J.  The multilateral agreement mentioned in section 27A calls 
for cross-border cooperation in the investigation of child 
trafficking networks and the prosecution of traffickers.  At 
the time of this report, however, there had not been any 
instances of international cooperation on trafficking. 
 
¶K.  The government has not extradited suspected traffickers. 
To date, authorities arrest, try, and require traffickers to 
serve their sentence in Cote d'Ivoire before sending them out 
of the country.  The multilateral agreement referred to in 
section 22A calls for extradition to signatory countries. 
There is no law prohibiting Ivorians from being extradited. 
 
¶L.  There is no evidence that government officials were 
directly implicated in trafficking.  However, as many law 
enforcement and public officials are open to bribery and 
other corruption, some government officials may have been 
complicit in trafficking. 
 
¶M.  N/A 
 
¶N.  Cote d'Ivoire is not known to be a source or destination 
country for child sex tourism. 
 
¶O.  The government has ratified the following international 
agreements: 
 
- ILO Convention 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate 
action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor 
(July 2003). 
 
- ILO Convention 29 on forced or compulsory labor (November 
25, 1960). 
 
- ILO Convention 105 on forced or compulsory labor (May 5, 
1961). 
 
- The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of 
the Child (CRC) (1991).  The Council of Ministers signed the 
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  012 OF 013 
 
 
Prostitution, and Child Pornography at the end of 2004 and it 
must now go to parliament. 
 
- The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN 
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, has not 
been signed or ratified. 
 
¶5. (SBU) PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS (Para 30, 
Reftel) 
 
¶A.  The government, in general, does not have special centers 
for victims.  The government seeks the help of local NGOs 
that have centers and can provide shelter, medical and 
psychological assistance to the victims.  However, government 
practices have evolved in recent years.  Historically, police 
have sent rescued children to the police academy in Abidjan. 
More frequently, the police now call the Ministry of Family 
and Social Services or an NGO to take care of the child. 
With funds provided by the USDOL through ILO, the Ministry of 
Family and Social Affairs sent out a team to the countryside 
in February 2007 to assess government social centers in order 
to begin rehabilitating these centers for shelters in areas 
where anti-trafficking programs already exist.  The ICI has 
also promised funding for this effort. 
 
¶B.  The government does not provide funding to foreign or 
domestic NGOs for services to victims.  The government asks 
international NGOs to give money to local NGOs that have the 
capacity to provide services to the victims and encourages 
international NGOs to conduct anti-trafficking campaigns. 
The government has given both GTZ and BICE a building and 
free utilities to support their anti-trafficking activities. 
The government has also assigned two civil servant social 
workers to work with the social services NGO Abel Community 
in Grand Bassam.  In Bonoua, the mayor and deputy mayor have 
assigned their assistants to work with the watch groups and 
provided an office and a room to accommodate the child 
victims until they are picked up by Abel Community. 
 
¶C.  In February 2007, the government adopted formal 
procedures for identifying and caring for child victims of 
trafficking. 
 
¶D.  Trafficking victims are not usually held in detention 
centers or arrested, but some are prosecuted on a 
case-by-case basis for offenses such as illegal prostitution 
or documentary fraud.  On several occasions, trafficked 
children were kept in police custody in centers for young 
delinquents because the police officers did not know where 
else to keep them.  Victims who do not want to be repatriated 
are not deported and some NGOs provide them with vocational 
training. 
 
¶E.  The government does not encourage or discourage victims 
from assisting in the investigation and prosecution of 
trafficking.  Usually traffickers are caught "red-handed" 
("flagrant delit") so victims do not need to appear in court. 
 In less clear-cut cases, the absence of a law against 
trafficking complicates the legal procedure and limits the 
tools available to victims, prosecutors and law enforcement 
authorities for recourse. 
 
There is no program of witness protection or program of 
restitution.  Moreover, foreign victims who are material 
witnesses in court cases against former employers must leave 
the country if they cannot find other employment.  If the 
victim is an adult, the victim can file a complaint.  If the 
victim is a child, the police usually attempt to return the 
child to his/her family or to a community member. 
 
¶F.  No special protection is given beyond what is normally 
given to witnesses in other criminal cases.  The government 
does not run any shelters but it has placed a building at the 
disposal of BICE that they have converted into a shelter for 
children.  If shelter or other benefits are needed for 
victims, the government refers the case to an NGO.  NGOs 
provide food, psychological counseling, medical care and 
repatriation assistance.  If the government asks 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist with 
repatriation, usually IOM and UNICEF share the cost.  The 
 
ABIDJAN 00000227  013 OF 013 
 
 
consular officials of the victims' home countries are 
notified but most embassies provide little if any support for 
the repatriation of their nationals. 
 
¶G.  The government conducted training sessions for government 
and security officials during the year with the financial and 
technical support of international NGOs and Interpol.  The 
government does not provide training on protection to its 
embassies and consulates in foreign countries. 
 
¶H.  There was no formal government assistance for repatriated 
nationals who were victims of trafficking. 
 
¶I.  Several international organizations and NGOs work on 
trafficking issues in Cote d'Ivoire, including Save the 
Children UK and Sweden, UNICEF, GTZ, BICE, IOM and the ILO. 
Local NGOs include Afrique Secours Assistance (ASA), the Abel 
Community, the Movement of Nid, the Amigo Doume Foundation, 
and Cote d'Ivoire Prosperity.  As noted above, the government 
cooperates with NGOs but provides little material support to 
these NGOs due to a lack of funding. 
 
International NGOs provide the majority of funding to local 
NGOs to assist victims of trafficking.  Services include 
counseling, literacy courses, medical care, reuniting victims 
with their families in Cote d'Ivoire, and repatriating 
foreign victims. 
 
 
END TRAFFICKING RESPONSES. 
 
¶6. Mission point of contact is FS O4 PolOff Laura 
Taylor-Kale.  Direct line: (225)22-49-45-70, fax: 
(225)22-49-40-20 or email: Taylor-KaleLD@state.gov. 
 
Estimated number of hours spent by PolOff and PolFSN 
Specialist on the 2007 TIP Report is 120 hours. 
Hooks