VZCZCXRO5278
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0501/01 0641213
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051213Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7726
INFO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEAHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0143
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 DAKAR 000501 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, AF/RSA, AF/W, INL, DRL, PRM, AND G/IWI 
AID/W FOR AFR/WA AND DCHA 
BAMAKO FOR TIP OFFICER 
BANJUL FOR TIP OFFICER 
CONAKRY FOR TIP OFFICER 
MADRID FOR TIP OFFICER 
PRAIA FOR TIP OFFICER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KWMN ELAB SMIG ASEC PREF SG
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: 06 STATE 202745 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: After being upgraded last year from Tier 
2 Watch List to Tier 2 status, Senegal has continued 
to devote significant time and attention to the issue 
of trafficking in persons.  Following passage of its 
first trafficking-in-persons (TIP) law in April 2005, 
police now maintain a computerized database meant to 
record trafficking-related crime statistics.  At least 
four traffickers were arrested; at least three 
trafficking crimes have been investigated; at least 
two traffickers were prosecuted and sentenced to two 
years in prison; and the GOS also prosecuted 
individuals responsible for rape, pedophilia, 
prostitution and abuse of ?talibe? children. 
Cooperation with Spanish government intelligence 
sources led to Senegalese authorities breaking up two 
trafficking rings.  In October, President Wade co- 
hosted a Presidential Council on Street Children and 
declared a policy of ?One family, one child,? urging 
families to ?adopt? street children.  The Ministry of 
Family has since received grants from Italy, the World 
Bank and UNICEF to follow through with initiatives to 
get children off the streets.  The Government has 
continued to provide assistance to victims and to 
repatriate children found to have been trafficked from 
surrounding countries.  75 were repatriated to Mali, 
92 to Guinea-Bissau, 1 to Burkina Faso, and 29 to 
Guinea in 2006.  IOM is working to repatriate four 
children to Guinea-Bissau.  In December 2006, G/TIP 
Ambassador Miller and members of his staff held a DVC 
conference, along with the Senegalese TIP grantee (the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights and Peace 
Promotion), key GOS ministries, international 
organizations and NGOs to discuss the trafficking in 
persons law.  The conference revealed that Senegal has 
made some progress and improvement, such as 
implementation of an inter-ministerial cooperative 
located at the High Commission?s office, and 
collection of data regarding trafficking of street 
children and ?talibes? through the database set by the 
Ministry of Family, using the partnership of 
Connexions Sans Frontieres.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Responses are keyed to questions in Reftel A. 
 
Begin TIP report: 
 
PARA 27.  Overview of a country's activities to 
eliminate trafficking in persons 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶A.  Senegal is a country of origin, transit and 
destination for human trafficking of women and 
children.  There are no reliable statistics on the 
extent of human trafficking in Senegal.  While some 
NGOs and international organizations, such as UNICEF, 
have estimates on the number of child beggars or at- 
risk children, there has never been a quantitative 
study on trafficking victims in Senegal.  Anecdotal 
evidence suggests young boys constitute the highest 
risk group for trafficking. 
 
Senegal?s trafficking problems are both internal and 
transnational. 
 
Young Senegalese boys are trafficked from rural 
villages to urban centers for exploitive begging at 
some Koranic schools (?daaras?).  Young boys are 
trafficked to Senegal from The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, 
Mali and Guinea for the same purpose.  Although there 
were reports in the past of Senegalese children being 
trafficked to other West African countries, Cote 
d?Ivoire for example, for labor purposes, there were 
no such reports in 2006. 
 
Young girls are trafficked from villages in the 
Diourbel, Fatick, Kaolack, Louga, Saint Louis (Fouta), 
Thies and Ziguinchor regions to urban centers for work 
as underage domestics.  NGOs report Malian girls are 
 
DAKAR 00000501  002 OF 010 
 
 
trafficked to Senegal to help blind -- and people 
posing as blind -- beggars.  Young girls from both 
urban and rural areas are involved in illegal 
prostitution, which NGOs claim always involves an 
adult pimp who facilitates their commercial sex 
transactions or houses them. 
 
The issue of trafficking of adult women remains a hazy 
one.  Police officials, international organizations 
and NGOs have indicated that trafficking of women for 
use in prostitution occurs in Senegal, but there is 
little concrete data to support this.  NGOs working 
with illegal prostitutes have provided anecdotal 
evidence.  ENDA Sante, a Senegalese NGO and FY06 TIP 
grantee, treats illegal prostitutes for STIs through a 
mobile clinic program.  According to ENDA Sante?s 
staff, they see many women from nearby African 
countries -- Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, 
Guinea-Bissau and Guinea -- practicing illegal 
prostitution in Senegal. 
 
Association AWA, an NGO providing health care and 
vocational training to women in prostitution, reported 
that physically abused women occasionally come in to 
be treated.  They are sometimes accompanied by another 
person to get tested for HIV/AIDS.  AWA believes some 
of these women may be trafficking victims, and the 
persons accompanying them may be traffickers.  AWA 
also said they see many female prostitutes from 
Liberia and Nigeria.  Last year?s TIP Report discussed 
the organized nature of foreign prostitutes? entry 
into Senegal. 
 
¶B.  The lack of reliable trafficking data impedes 
clear understanding of trafficking trends.  Young boys 
continue to be trafficked from neighboring countries 
and Senegalese villages, and young girls continue to 
be trafficked internally.  Foreign and Senegalese 
women continue to work in the sex industry.  NGOs 
working with children and prostitutes, and a GOS 
health professional working at a government-funded 
health clinic that offers health checks for 
prostitutes complying with Senegal?s legal 
prostitution regime, claim they see more and 
increasingly younger underage prostitutes on Senegal?s 
streets. 
 
Children trafficked to Senegal are forced into 
exploitive begging.  Separated from their families and 
support systems, children must choose between staying 
with their trafficker or life on the street as 
runaways.  Many children are too young to remember 
with any detail the village from which they came and, 
sadly, forget their families.  Newspapers have 
reported on cases of physical abuse committed by 
Koranic teachers (?marabouts?) against their students 
(?talibes?).  Koranic teachers who abuse their 
students have been prosecuted under non-TIP laws and 
sent to prison. 
 
There is not enough evidence on underage or adult 
prostitution to know how traffickers ensure 
compliance.  There are no reports children are 
trafficked from other countries to Senegal for sexual 
purposes, or to become underage domestics. 
 
For child victims, parents who entrust young boys into 
the care of a Koranic teacher, or send a female child 
to work as a domestic, oftentimes know the trafficker. 
 
Koranic teachers frequently return to their original 
villages and receive children from parents hoping to 
provide a Koranic education, which many Senegalese 
value more highly than a secular education. 
Generally, parents are not offered money to turn young 
boys over to Koranic teachers, and young boys are 
never sold.  An NGO working in the northern Senegalese 
town of St. Louis explained young boys are sometimes 
passed from one Koranic teacher to another, but never 
 
DAKAR 00000501  003 OF 010 
 
 
for recompense. 
 
Girls sent away to work as domestics often work in 
family members? or family friends? homes.  In such 
cases, poor rural families expect money will be sent 
back to the home to help provide badly needed income. 
These relationships and families? expectations of 
income make leaving exploitive labor conditions, which 
sometimes include sexual abuse, difficult for young 
girls. 
 
Young prostitutes are either sent by rural parents to 
urban areas to find work, or leave urban homes to work 
on the streets.  While parents do not send their 
daughters to become prostitutes, with rare exceptions, 
NGOs working with underage prostitutes claim parents 
are aware of the fact their daughters prostitute 
themselves because they leave the house at night, and 
they have an otherwise unexplainable source of income. 
Almost all underage prostitutes have Senegalese pimps 
who entice their desperate victims with promises of 
money and work.  NGO ENDA ECOPOLE has created a center 
where young domestic girls can have vocational 
training after work, in tie dye and sewing, as well as 
get educational learning skills and human rights 
highlights. 
 
Weak civil administration and the ease of obtaining 
fake identity documents, the abundance of foreign 
tourists and potential visa sponsors, freedom of 
movement between Economic Community of West African 
States (ECOWAS) member states without the need to 
present a passport, direct flights from Senegal to 
Europe and national stability entice adult women from 
other African countries to come to Senegal for sexual 
purposes.  If these women are trafficked, it is 
unclear who their traffickers are, or what methods 
they use to approach victims.  NGOs explain while some 
Senegalese women could be trafficked to North Africa, 
Europe and the Middle East for sexual purposes, as has 
been reported in the past, most Senegalese prostitutes 
tend to remain in Senegal. 
 
The GOS has continued to show significant political 
will to combat human trafficking. 
 
The GOS-established Ginddi Center has maintained its 
intake of at-risk children and had expanded its 
operations, using TIP money in year 2006.  Minister of 
Women, Family, Social Development and Women?s 
Entrepreneurship Aida Mbodj, one of the 2005 TIP 
Heroes, whose Ministry directs the Ginddi Center, 
continued her efforts to bring public awareness to 
this problem and to work closely with international 
organizations and her counterparts in other African 
countries.  In July 2006, 24 western and central 
African countries met in Abuja, Nigeria to sign a 
multilateral cooperation agreement to combat TIP, and 
adopted a regional action plan to implement the 
accord.  Her Ministry runs a program for daaras, in 
which they provide teaching aids, submit language 
components, train Koranic teachers, offer school 
supplies and run awareness campaigns.  She has 
publicly called for an end to begging and has 
mobilized her Ministry to educate the public about the 
importance of birth registration; this program is 
ongoing. 
 
Human Rights Commissioner Mame Bassine Niang helped 
push through the new anti-TIP law.  She was also 
tasked with the maintenance of an inter-ministerial 
task force that has already started work for a 
ministerial jointed approach to TIP.  The Family 
Minister, the Human Rights Commissioner and the Chief 
Prosecutor all agree there is a trafficking problem 
that must be addressed. 
 
The relatively new Criminal Analysis Unit continues to 
add trafficking-related offenses into its electronic 
 
DAKAR 00000501  004 OF 010 
 
 
database.  Unfortunately, though human trafficking is 
now an offense under domestic law, few, if any, such 
cases have been included in the database.  The unit is 
associated with INTERPOL but lacks financial and human 
resources to fully devote to trafficking issues.  The 
Commissioner of Police noted that police lack the 
financial incentive and time to actively pursue 
trafficking cases and input data into the database. 
Nonetheless, with assistance from Spain, the GOS broke 
up at least two trafficking rings in the last year. 
 
The Interior Ministry established a new Special 
Commissariat to help fight sex tourism in Dakar and 
Mbour, two of Senegal?s principal tourist destinations 
and target areas for underage and illegal 
prostitution.  However, the Commissariat has taken no 
definitive actions. 
 
The Ministry of Tourism created a special tourism 
police unit and appointed someone to head it.  It is 
charged with fighting sexual tourism in the popular 
tourist destinations of Dakar, Saint-Louis, Mbour, 
Fatick and Ziguinchor.  It is not yet operational. 
 
As part of a Time-Bound program with the ILO, Senegal 
works toward the eradication child begging, underage 
domestic work, and underage prostitution as three of 
Senegal?s worst forms of child labor. 
 
¶C.  Senegal is one of the poorest countries in the 
world, ranking 157th on the UN?s Human Development 
Index and limiting its ability to effectively 
prosecute traffickers, prevent trafficking or protect 
trafficking victims.  Police are underpaid and lack 
adequate equipment and resources to effectively do 
their jobs.  In addition to its public revenue 
problems, the government?s bureaucratic structure and 
reliance on highly centralized decision-making stand 
in the way of reform.  Corruption exists throughout 
government, including law enforcement.  Trafficking 
represents only one of many vexing social and economic 
problems with which the Government must contend.  The 
fact that recruiters of young boys exploit parents? 
legitimate, socially prevalent desire for a religious 
education provides ?cover? within local communities, 
and decreases the possibility of government 
intervention. 
 
¶D.  The GOS does not have a systematic means in place 
to monitor its anti-trafficking efforts and does not 
submit reports.  However, the Ministry of Family and 
the Human Rights Commissioner in an unprecedented move 
led a sustained and well-organized effort to fight 
trafficking and child begging throughout 2006 and 
early 2007. 
 
PARA 28.  PREVENTION 
-------------------- 
¶A.  President Wade has spoken publicly against human 
trafficking.  As the leading minister on children?s 
issues, Family Minister Mbodj condemned child 
trafficking during her public statements numerous 
times during this TIP reporting cycle.  In October, 
President Wade hosted a Presidential Council on Street 
Children and declared a policy of ?One family, one 
child,? urging families to ?adopt? street children. 
The Ministry of Family has since received grants from 
Italy, the World Bank and UNICEF to follow through 
with initiatives to get children off the streets. 
 
Privately, most GOS officials admit child trafficking 
exists and the Government is now acting.  Fewer 
Senegalese see adult prostitutes as trafficking 
victims. 
 
Some GOS officials continue to see trafficking as a 
foreign problem and Senegal victimized as a transit 
country rather than a destination or source country. 
When confronted with the realities of today?s 
 
DAKAR 00000501  005 OF 010 
 
 
exploitive begging relationships, for example, many 
remain unconvinced Senegal?s cultural and religious 
practices constitute human trafficking when Senegalese 
children are involved.  People are more apt to 
criticize these practices, however, when foreign 
children are involved. 
 
¶B.  The Family Ministry is the ministry most actively 
involved in prevention and protection efforts.  As 
part of its anti-child labor program with UNICEF, the 
GOS created observatories in Mbour and St. Louis to 
fight prostitution and pedophilia, and in Fatick to 
keep girls from leaving school to become underage 
domestics. 
 
The High Commission for Human Rights, due to its lack 
of a budget, is unable to undertake anti-trafficking 
programs absent external assistance.  However, the 
High Commissioner played a critical role in getting 
the anti-TIP law passed and has received G/TIP funding 
that help her to staff and operate her office. 
 
Various courts under the Justice Ministry collect 
statistics on arrests and imprisonment for all 
criminal offenses, including arrests of pimps and 
Koranic teachers who abuse their students.  However, 
there is a centralized system in place for collecting 
data, Connexions Sans Frontieres, in partnership with 
the Ministry of Family. 
 
In charge of law enforcement, the Interior Ministry 
created a Criminal Analysis Unit, sent students to 
ICITAP anti-trafficking training and created a new 
Special Commissariat to crack down on sex tourism and 
illegal prostitution.  The Judicial Police, falling 
under the authority of the Interior Ministry, assigned 
four police officers to the anti-trafficking police 
unit upon the signature of the anti-trafficking law. 
The four officers, while assigned to the anti- 
trafficking unit, actually spend the majority of their 
time on other routine cases.  Senior Judicial Police 
officials have openly expressed that there is no 
financial motivation for police officers to pursue 
trafficking cases. 
 
The Minor?s Brigade monitors legal protection for 
minors and assists legal proceedings against 
perpetrators. 
 
¶C.  As part of its program against the worst forms of 
child labor, the Family Ministry, along with its 
department of youth protection, has held workshops and 
roundtables in Mbour, Dakar and other areas to fight 
child begging, underage domestic work and underage 
prostitution. 
 
¶D.  The GOS has a comprehensive poverty reduction 
program (DSRP) to help improve national economic 
conditions and ameliorate social problems like 
trafficking that poverty exacerbates.  Economic growth 
at the local level could help reduce pressure on 
parents to send their children away, keep children in 
schools and create job alternatives to prostitution, 
such as the center created by ENDA Ecopole. 
 
The Wade government champions education as a top 
priority.  Since 2000, when Wade became President, the 
GOS has constructed numerous new school facilities, 
including the approximately 150 newly created centers 
specifically designed for young children (?les cases 
des tous petits?) and school attendance for girls, 
historically disadvantaged in terms of access to 
education, continues to rise.  The GOS implemented a 
UN-approved plan for assuring universal education by 
2015, and committed 40 percent of the national 
operating budget to education, the highest percentage 
in Africa.  Gross enrollment is 82.5 percent. 
Enrollment of girls has reached 80.6 percent, compared 
to boys enrollment of 84.4 percent, a big improvement 
 
DAKAR 00000501  006 OF 010 
 
 
over previous years.  The Government has also taken 
initiatives to combat child begging by creating 
Franco-Arab schools.  These offer religious education, 
as well as scholastic learning.  In addition, the GOS 
and its Ministry of Education formalized the ?daaras? 
as private schools. 
 
¶E.  The Family Ministry works closely with UNICEF and 
Senegalese NGOs to implement its program against the 
worst forms of child labor.  In Mbour, for example, 
the GOS holds workshops and seminars with UNICEF and 
NGO assistance to prevent young girls from turning to 
prostitution.  In a separate program, the Family 
Ministry collaborates with local religious leaders to 
improve conditions in Koranic schools.  The GOS 
cooperates with international organizations at Ginddi 
Center, and with the IOM to help repatriate trafficked 
children from neighboring countries. 
 
The Interior and Justice Ministries have a program 
with IOM to monitor migration flows across Senegal?s 
borders.  Justice Ministry officials worked with IOM 
staff in the past to organize and analyze criminal 
statistics. 
 
A number of NGOs, such as ENDA Ecopole, which works 
primarily with women and children, and Avenir de 
l?Enfant report cooperative relations with some 
Senegalese officials, such as the Minister of Family, 
and the police, who often refer individual cases to 
such NGOs. 
 
¶F.  Due to the Casamance conflict in southern Senegal, 
remote borders with Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea, a 
largely uncontrollable riverine border with 
Mauritania, a large seaport in Dakar and heavy 
international flight traffic, the GOS is unable to 
effectively monitor all frontiers.  The Government has 
made progress, though, improving security at Dakar?s 
port and international airport.  The Government 
recently detained a vessel suspected of trafficking in 
persons, worked with the Governments of Spain and Cape 
Verde to end the activities of traffickers bringing 
children and adults from Cape Verde through Senegal to 
The Gambia and ultimately to Spain, and stopped an 
orphanage from advertising children to pedophiles via 
the Internet. 
 
¶G.  As part of the Labor Ministry?s Time Bound Program 
against the worst forms of child labor, an inter- 
ministerial committee was formed between 14 government 
ministries and several other non-ministerial entities. 
This mechanism for coordinating and communicating on 
children?s issues is the first of its kind.  The GOS 
does have a TIP task force managed by the High 
Commissioner for Human Rights, along with the National 
Committee against Human Trafficking that includes 
various ministries and NGOs.  The Commissioner has 
activated this Committee.  The Government has 
established and staffed an office to fight public 
corruption, but little has been done thus far. 
 
The GOS participated in multinational working groups 
leading up an accord with Mali against child 
trafficking.  Senegal has signed a TIP cooperation 
agreement with nine ECOWAS countries. 
 
The High Commissioner for Human Rights is Senegal?s 
focal point on trafficking and is responsible for 
coordinating anti-TIP policy.  Family Minister Mbodj 
actively fights human trafficking through her 
ministry?s programs and her efforts to lobby other 
government ministries to reform. 
 
¶H.  The GOS drafted a national action plan against 
trafficking in 2002-03 that included input from the 
Family, Justice and Interior Ministries as well as 
from several NGOs, international organizations and the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights.  The GOS adopted 
 
DAKAR 00000501  007 OF 010 
 
 
the plan in 2004. 
 
PARA 29.  INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶A.  On April 29, 2005, the National Assembly 
unanimously adopted a comprehensive anti-TIP law. 
Under the law, those who recruit, transport, transfer 
or harbor persons, whether by means of violence, 
fraud, abuse of authority or otherwise for the 
purposes of sexual exploitation, labor, forced 
servitude or slavery are subject to punishment of 5 to 
10 years' imprisonment and a fine of between USD 
10,000 and 40,000 (5 to 20 million CFA francs (CFAF)). 
When the violation involves torture, barbarism, the 
removal of human organs or exposing the victim to a 
risk of death or injury, jail time can range from 10 
to 30 years imprisonment. 
 
Though Senegal now has an effective legal tool for 
fighting human trafficking, the new law has been used 
primarily to combat those who smuggle illegal 
immigrants from Senegal to Spain.  At least two such 
smugglers have been sentenced to two years in prison. 
A number of other smugglers have also been arrested. 
Another three were detained for five months before 
being released in January.  An Ivoirian named Gomez 
suspected of trafficking two girls to Spain was 
arrested, and his case reportedly remains pending. 
 
Other statutes have been used to prosecute and convict 
traffickers.  For instance, Senegal?s constitution 
forbids slavery, the labor code prohibits forced 
labor, and begging is illegal under the penal code. 
Senegalese have not historically viewed exploitive 
begging as slavery or forced labor, and the anti- 
begging law is not enforced against any beggars, 
trafficking victims or otherwise. 
 
A legal regime regulates prostitution.  Pimping and 
soliciting customers are illegal.  Current laws 
regulating prostitution yield arrests, including 
arrests of foreign illegal prostitutes, underage 
prostitutes and pimps.  NGOs working with prostitutes, 
however, claim the problem is bigger than official 
statistics suggest. 
 
A few Koranic teachers who physically abuse their 
students are arrested and prosecuted each year, 
including three arrests in 2006.  In most cases, 
students were beaten for failing to meet their daily 
begging requirements.  NGOs assisting Koranic school 
students explain that Koranic teachers who violently 
enforce daily begging requirements are usually the 
most exploitive, and most likely to be traffickers 
rather than bona fide Koranic teachers.  At the Ginddi 
Center, the Family Ministry received students who had 
been beaten by their Koranic teachers.  No cases have 
been reported this year. 
 
¶B.  The law provides for 5 to 10 years imprisonment 
for rape.  Rapes resulting in death qualify for life 
imprisonment.  If a rape victim is a minor, the 
penalty is 10 years imprisonment.  The law punishes 
sexual abuse of children (pedophilia) with 5 to 10 
years imprisonment.  If the offender is a family 
member, the punishment is 10 years.  Any offense 
against the decency of a child is punishable by 
imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and in some aggravated 
cases up to 10 years imprisonment.  Procuring a minor 
for prostitution is punishable by imprisonment for 2 
to 5 years and a fine between USD 575 and 7,600 
(300,000 and 4,000,000 CFAF).  The penalties for sex 
trafficking (whether for a minor or an adult) are more 
severe. 
 
¶C.  ILO?s International Program on the Elimination of 
Child Labor (IPEC) says there has not been a reported 
case of child labor reported in Senegal during the 
reporting period.  However, IPEC has conducted 
 
DAKAR 00000501  008 OF 010 
 
 
training for magistrates and police on identification 
of the problem and appropriate steps to take should it 
arise.  IPEC is currently conducting a study of the 
extent of the problem in Senegal. 
 
¶D.  The GOS prosecuted individuals responsible for 
rape, pedophilia, prostitution and abuse of ?talibe? 
children.  In the last year, at least two Koranic 
teachers were convicted and sentenced (though not 
under the new TIP law) for such abuse.  One case 
involved the June 29, 2006 arrest of Abdourahmane 
Sall, who was charged with committing pedophilia on 
one of his 15-year-old talibes.  A judge placed Sall's 
other talibes in a reeducation center. 
 
¶E.  Prostitution is legal in Senegal.  To legally 
practice prostitution, a woman must be at least 21 
years old, register with the police, carry a valid 
sanitary card and test negative for STIs.  Searching 
for clients and pimping are illegal. 
 
¶F.  TIP Prosecutions:  One Nigerian was arrested in 
late December 2006 at Dakar?s Leopold Sedar Senghor 
International Airport for attempting to traffic three 
children to Europe.  One Ivoirian was arrested in 
January for attempting to traffic two girls to Europe. 
The Nigerian and the Ivoirian are currently in jail 
awaiting trial.  Police apprehended the Nigerian based 
on an outstanding arrest warrant.  As noted above, 
several smugglers have been arrested and prosecuted 
for facilitating and/or engaging in illegal migration 
to Spain.  Post will send statistics on additional TIP 
prosecutions Septel. 
 
¶G.  Child traffickers appear to be freelance 
operators.  GOS officials who say Senegal is a transit 
country for human trafficking of adult women believe 
European-based networks regulate these flows.  NGOs 
working with prostitutes claim networks, even if not 
highly organized or part of a larger criminal 
syndicate, exist in Senegal. 
 
¶H.  The GOS has actively investigated trafficking 
cases.  As noted above, a trafficking ring bringing 
Cape Verdeans through Senegal and The Gambia to Spain 
has been investigated and broken up; vessels suspected 
of trafficking has been detained; an orphanage 
advertising children to pedophiles over the Internet 
has been investigated; and marabouts have been 
arrested and prosecuted after investigation.  The 
police and gendarmes use electronic surveillance, 
undercover operations, and other techniques in their 
investigations. 
 
¶I.  Police have received training from ICITAP.  The 
head of the police anti-trafficking unit, located in 
the Judicial Police headquarters is a graduate of an 
ICITAP-sponsored TIP course. 
 
¶J.  Senegalese and Malian authorities continued 
cooperation to repatriate Malian children.  Two 
Senegalese marabouts were arrested in Guinea in 
February 2006 for trafficking in children.  The GOS is 
working with the Government of Guinea in the 
prosecution of these two individuals.  The GOS works 
regularly with foreign security services on 
clandestine immigration and human smuggling cases. 
 
¶K.  The GOS can extradite individuals but has not done 
so for trafficking purposes. 
 
¶L.  There is some evidence of government tolerance of 
trafficking for forced begging on a local or 
institutional level. 
 
¶M.  No GOS officials are known to have been involved 
in trafficking. 
 
¶N.  French newspaper articles and tour guides have 
 
DAKAR 00000501  009 OF 010 
 
 
described Senegal as a destination for sex tourism. 
Senegal?s Tourism Minister claims, however, Senegal is 
not and will not become a destination for sex tourism. 
Police have arrested foreign tourists for illegal sex 
acts.  On June 6, 2006, a French national was arrested 
after being caught in the act of committing pedophilia 
on a 14-year-old boy.  A French tourist was arrested 
for lewd acts on February 15, 2007, but his male 
partner who was believed to be under age escaped. 
 
¶O.  Senegal ratified ILO Convention 182 concerning the 
prohibition and immediate action for the elimination 
of the worst forms of child labor on June 1, 2000. 
 
-- Senegal ratified ILO Convention 29 and 105 on 
forced or compulsory labor on November 4, 1960 and 
July 28, 1961 respectively. 
 
-- The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child (CRC) on the sale of children, 
child prostitution and child pornography was igned on 
September 8, 2000, and ratified on Noveber 5, 2003. 
 
-- The Protocol to Prevent, Suppres and Punish 
Trafficking in Persons, especially omen and Children, 
supplementing the UN Conventio Against Transnational 
Organized Crime was ratifed on October 27, 2003. 
 
PARA 30.  PROTECTION AN ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶A.  The GOS? Ginddi Center rovides various services 
to assist trafficking vitims.  These services include 
medical treatment, family mediation and 
reconciliation, education, shelter and meals, and 
repatriation of children to their mother lands.  Last 
year, the Ginddi Center?s child protection hotline 
received 21,533 calls from parents, Koranic teachers 
and other concerned parties.  The Center assisted 373 
children to receive medical care and reunite with 
their families; 107 children were trained in 
vocational centers. 
 
¶B.  GOS representatives attend NGO events on 
trafficking-related and child protection themes, which 
helps generate greater turnout to these events and 
greater public awareness of Senegal?s trafficking 
problems.  The Ministry of Family works closely with 
many Senegalese NGOs, such as RADDHO, Avenir de 
l?Enfant and La Lumiere. 
 
¶C.  The GOS provides care services through its Ginddi 
Center.  While there is no formal referral process 
between the GOS and NGOs, close working relationships 
between local government officials and NGOs active in 
their districts allow for information exchange and 
intervention in particular cases. 
 
¶D.  The rights of young boys trafficked by religious 
teachers are generally respected, and they are usually 
provided with victim assistance. 
 
Underage and foreign prostitutes are considered 
criminals.  On average, 16 prostitutes are 
checked/questioned every day.  Of those 16, 
approximately three are found in violation of the law, 
arrested and prosecuted every day.  During the year, 
90 foreigners were arrested/prosecuted for 
prostitution -- 50 Nigerians and 40 Guineans. 
 
¶E.  Under the 2005 TIP law, trafficking victims cannot 
be prosecuted for acts taken as a result of their 
being trafficked.  The law also protects the identity 
of victims and permits ?closed door? testimony to 
encourage them to serve as witnesses.  They also are 
permitted to remain temporarily or permanently on 
national territory under the status of resident or 
refugee.  Victims have a right to an attorney.  If 
they cannot afford one, one will be provided to them. 
Young boys beaten by their Koranic teachers are 
 
DAKAR 00000501  010 OF 010 
 
 
encouraged to assist authorities to investigate and 
prosecute cases.  Similarly, illegal prostitutes are 
questioned about their pimps. 
 
¶F.  The GOS operates the Ginddi Center in Dakar for 
trafficked and at-risk children.  While the Government 
funds most operations, international partners provide 
some assistance.  The U.S. has renovated the 
dormitories and built the wall around the Ginddi 
center and also provided medical equipment to the 
health unit. 
 
¶G.  To our knowledge, other than training Ginddi 
Center personnel, the GOS provided no training in 
¶2006. 
 
¶H.  The Government has provided basic shelter and 
medical assistance to victims, usually in coordination 
with NGOs and international organizations. 
 
¶I.  The following is a non-exhaustive list of NGOs 
working with trafficking victims, their primary target 
group(s) and services: TOSTAN (Koranic students, 
health, education and nutrition); l?Avenir d?Enfant 
(trafficked boys and underage prostitutes, shelter, 
nutrition, education and reconciliation); ATT (Koranic 
students, health and education); ENDA Sante (illegal 
prostitutes, health); and AWA (prostitutes, job 
training and health).  RADDHO, which works with 
Koranic students, underage prostitutes, and domestics, 
has a program for the ?Socio-Professional Integration 
of Young Migrant Victims of Trafficking,? which is 
being funded by the Swiss Foundation for International 
Social Service (SSI).  Local authorities support NGO 
programs through their attendance at public events, 
collaboration on program strategies and activities and 
use of public spaces for activities. 
 
International organizations include: the World Bank 
(street children); UNICEF (underage domestics, 
underage prostitutes and Koranic students, education, 
and job alternatives); IOM (trafficked children, 
coordinates repatriation of Malian children); Save the 
Children Sweden (Koranic students, education); and ILO 
(underage domestics, underage prostitutes and Koranic 
students, education, and job alternatives). 
 
BEST PRACTICES 
-------------- 
¶6.  Mission highlighted NGO AWA?s work as a ?best 
practice? in last year?s reporting cable, but it was 
not included in the TIP Report.  AWA is a Senegalese 
NGO that works with former and current prostitutes to 
provide with medical care, vocational training and 
other services to encourage them to find an 
alternative profession.  AWA has launched a new 
project to train large numbers of women in cooking, 
sewing, tie-dye, and other skills to generate income. 
It will also combine advocacy and awareness programs 
to teach women about the dangers of prostitution.  We 
are recommending this project as a best practice, 
because it is unique in its attempt to not only pull 
large numbers of vulnerable and probably trafficked 
women out of the perilous field of prostitution but 
also provide them with another way to earn an income 
and contribute not only to their families but also to 
Senegalese society and economy. 
 
TIP OFFICER 
----------- 
¶7.  (U) The Embassy?s TIP officer is Osman Tat.  He 
can be reached by phone at 221-823-4296, ext. 2420, 
and by e-mail at TatON@state.gov. 
 
JACOBS