VZCZCXYZ5514
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDK #0262/01 0641431
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (CCY AD67D6A2 MSI5972-695)
R 041431Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0135
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 000262 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, INL, AF/W, AF/RSA, INR/AA 
ACCRA FOR USAID/WA 
PARIS FOR POL D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG SG
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: ANNUAL TIP REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 2731 
 
¶1. (SBU) As was the case in previous years Senegal continues to 
devote, time, resources and attention to combat trafficking in 
persons. 
¶2. (U) responses are keyed to questions in reftel 
Begin TIP report 
PARA 27: OVERVIEWS OF A COUNTRY'S ACTIVITIES TO ELIMINATE 
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
¶A. Senegal is a source, transit, and destination country for 
children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor, 
begging, and commercial sexual exploitation.  While there are no 
reliable statistics for the total extent of human trafficking in 
Senegal, a joint November 2007 report by UNICEF, the ILO and the 
World Bank said that there were 7,600 street children begging in 
Dakar alone and that 90 percent of them were talibs. The report 
also said that 95 percent of these children were from either from 
out of Dakar or from outside the country.  Trafficking within the 
country is more prevalent than trans-border trafficking. Boys who 
are students (talibe) at some Koranic schools are trafficked within 
the country for forced begging by their religious teachers 
(marabouts.  Women and girls are trafficked for domestic servitude. 
Girls, and possibly adult women, are also trafficked internally for 
sexual exploitation. Trans-nationally, boys are trafficked to 
Senegal from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea for forced 
begging by unscrupulous religious teachers.  Senegalese women and 
girls are trafficked to neighboring countries, the Middle East, and 
Europe for domestic servitude and possibly for sexual exploitation. 
Reports over the last year of large numbers of Senegalese and 
neighboring country nationals being transported from Senegal to 
Spain appear to be cases of smuggling and illegal migration rather 
than trafficking. 
 
Senegal's trafficking problems are both internal and transnational 
and no one group or gender is targeted. 
 
Young Senegalese boys continued to be 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. 
 
Young girls are trafficked from poor villages in the regions of 
Diourbel, Fatick, Kaolack, Louga, Kolda, Saint Louis (Fouta), Thies 
and Ziguinchor to urban centers to work as underage maids.  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 FY05 TIP grantee, treats prostitutes for STIs 
through a mobile clinic program.  According to ENDA Sante's staff, 
they continued to 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, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and 
Nigeria.  Last year's TIP Report discussed the organized nature of 
foreign prostitutes' entry into Senegal, as residents from other 
African countries can enter Senegal without a visa. Last year, AWA 
assisted 619 sex workers in Dakar and 116 in the regions. 
 
¶B.  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 a 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 (marabouts) against their students.  Koranic teachers 
who abuse their students have been prosecuted under TIP laws and 
sent to prison. 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. Therefore, parents 
are as responsible as teachers in the trafficking of persons. 
 
Marabouts frequently return to their home villages and receive 
children from parents hoping to provide them a Koranic education. 
This kind of education is more valued than a secular education by 
the Senegalese, especially in the formative years of between 4-7 
years. Generally, parents are not offered money to turn young boys 
 
over to Koranic teachers, and young boys are never sold. 
 
Girls sent away to work as maids 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 to buy food and clothes.  In most cases money is sent back 
when the trafficker returns.  These relationships and a family's 
expectation of income make it very difficult for young girls, who 
are sometimes sexually abused, to leave their jobs. 
 
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 victims with promises of money and work.  NGO 
ENDA ECOPOLE has created a center where young domestic girls can get 
vocational training after work, in tie dye and sewing, as well as a 
basic education. These activities also prevent girls from wandering 
the streets at night and being targeted as potential victims for 
trafficking. 
 
Weak civil administration, porous borders 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 think that 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 of them tend to remain in Senegal. 
 
¶C. 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 continues to expand 
its operations.  The Ministry of Women, Family, Social Development 
and Women's Entrepreneurship runs a program for daaras, in which 
they provide teaching aids, submit language components, train 
Koranic teachers, offer school supplies and run awareness campaigns. 
 In addition, the Direction for Child Protection organized a series 
of training seminars for journalists and security forces based in 
the regions of Kolda, Tambacounda, Ziguinchor, Matam, Saint Louis 
and Kaolack.  These training sessions were conducted by social and 
labor workers, gendarmes, policemen, magistrates, and civil society. 
 This office is also working with Ministry of Justice and the French 
Embassy to implement an action plan on child trafficking. 
 
The relatively new Criminal Analysis Unit continues to add 
trafficking-related offenses into its electronic database. However 
personnel need more training to use the material more efficiently. 
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.  Although 
specialized police squads have been posted in border regions, 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. Two 
trucks full of children were stopped at the border between Senegal 
and Guinea Bissau by Senegalese Police and Customs, while a third 
truck was never found. 
 
The Interior Ministry Special Commissariat to help fight sex tourism 
has set up an office ("Brigade de Mineurs" - Under Age squads) in 
Dakar and Mbour, two of Senegal's principal tourist destinations. 
In the reported cases of pedophilia in Mbour the offending foreign 
tourists were judged, sentenced to jail, and repatriated to serve 
their prison sentences, along with an order banning them from Saly. 
However, the police and gendarmerie say they need more cooperation 
from local citizens who are the only ones that can identify the 
houses where these pedophilic tourists live.  They recommend more 
awareness campaigns to inform populations about the dangers of 
pedophilia and its consequences on children. 
 
The Ministry of special tourism police unit (Direction of Regulation 
and Control) has one office that is now operational in Dakar, but 
the one in Mbour is still not active. 
 
As part of a Time-Bound program with the ILO, Senegal works toward 
the eradication of child begging, underage domestic work, and 
underage prostitution as three of Senegal's worst forms of child 
labor. 
 
¶D.  Senegal is one of the poorest countries in the 
world, ranking 156th on the UN's Human Development 
Index, and has limited ability to effectively prosecute, prevent 
trafficking or protect trafficking victims.  Police are underpaid 
and lack adequate equipment and resources to effectively do their 
jobs, while gendarmes guarding the borders are few and far between. 
For example, during a 2007 trip to the border town of Kidira near 
Mali, the brigade chief told Poloff that he had 8 men and 2 vehicles 
to guard hundreds of miles of border.  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 legitimate, socially 
prevalent desire for a religious education provides "cover" within 
local communities, and decreases the possibility of government 
intervention. 
 
¶E.  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. 
As a result, the Human Rights Commissioner is the focal point and 
the coordination agency for all ministries involved in working 
against trafficking in persons, and the Ministry of Family is the 
executive and operational body to execute activities on trafficking. 
 All these ministries (Human Rights Commissary, Ministry of Family, 
Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Tourism, the 
Army, and Ministry of Education) meet on a monthly basis to discuss 
on-going cases and discuss anti-trafficking strategies. 
 
PARA 28.  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.  The anti-TIP law 
has been also used to convict Koranic teachers who have abused 
talibs. 
 
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. 
Association AWA assisted a total of 735 sex workers last year. 
 
A few Koranic teachers who physically abuse their students are 
arrested and prosecuted each year.  In year 2007, one marabout in 
Diourbel (center) was arrested after beating a talibs to death.  He 
was prosecuted and sentenced to jail for four years and fined of 
50,000 CFAF (USD 111).  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 stipulates 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.  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 in Senegal during the reporting period.  An IPEC 
research study noted that 6,000 children were in the labor force 
last year, and ILO was able to withdraw 3,000 children and send them 
to schools or vocational training centers.  IPEC has also conducted 
training for magistrates and police on identification of the problem 
and appropriate steps to take should it arise.  IPEC and the 
National Statistics Agency are currently conducting a study of the 
extent of the problem in Senegal.  As of early June 2007, ILO 
reported that 8,000 children in Dakar, and 5,000 from the interior 
and neighboring countries were working in Senegal. 
 
¶D.  The GOS prosecuted individuals responsible for rape, pedophilia, 
prostitution and abuse of talibs children.  In Malika (a suburb of 
Dakar), a man accused of rape was released because there was no 
proof to hold him, although the young girl he raped is now four 
months pregnant.  Penalties for rape vary between 5 to 10 years 
imprisonment and a fine of USD 400 (200,000 CFAF) and 6,000 SUD 
(3,000,000 CFAF).  Penalties for violence against children can vary 
form 5 to 10 years imprisonment and a fine between USD 11,000 
(2,000,000 CFAF) to USD 44,000 (20,000,000 CFAF).  Jail sentences 
range between 10 to 30 years in cases of torture.  People who 
organizing child begging risk 5 years of prison and a fine between 
USD 1,000 (500,000 CFAF) to USD 4,000 (2,000,000 CFAF).  The 
Population and Reproductive healthcare Institute of the University 
of Dakar reported that among abused children, sixty five percent 
have been raped.  The same study discovered that violence against 
children occur in different locations: forty five percent of child 
sexual abuse occurs inside the family compound; seventeen percent in 
the streets; ten percent at school; and six percent in the daara. 
As said earlier, parents are more often than not complicit in 
trafficking. In a recent case a group of fifteen girls were about to 
be trafficked by Mauritanian traffickers from their remote village 
in the Kaolack region.  However, when confronted their parents 
confirmed that they were sending them to work in order to bring 
money back for the family. There are no further details on the 
case. 
 
¶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 
and HIV/AIDS.  Searching for clients and pimping are illegal. 
 
¶F.  Two truck drivers from Guinea Bissau, six traffickers and a 
Senegalese man were arrested in early December 2007 at the southern 
border for attempting to traffic 34 boys. They are in jail awaiting 
trial. 
 
¶G.  GOS representatives attend NGO events on trafficking-related and 
child protection themes, which helps generate greater turnout and 
public awareness of Senegal's trafficking problems.  The Ministry of 
family, under the Department of Child Protection, had conducted many 
training seminars funded by Save the Children-Senegal and hosted by 
the Center for Judicial Training to educate policemen, gendarmes, 
social and hospital workers, judges and lawyers, and civil society 
organizations about the dangers of child trafficking and the actions 
that need to be taken to stop it.  The Ginndi center staff also 
received training on the dissemination of the anti-TIP law, and has 
created a watch and alert committee that continues to implement 
citizen education programs. Meanwhile a database system called 
Connexions Sans Frontiers which is supported by the Ministry of 
Family includes a training module for the ten associations that are 
utilizing this computerized system to keep track of trafficked 
children. 
 
¶H.  Senegalese and Malian authorities continued cooperation to 
repatriate Malian children.  The GOS works regularly with foreign 
security services on clandestine immigration and human smuggling 
cases.  Last year, the Ginndi center, in conjunction with IOM 
(International Organization for Migrations), repatriated 85 children 
to Mali, 58 to Guinea Bissau, 19 to the Gambia, and 2 girls to 
Guinea Conakry. 
 
¶I.  The GOS can extradite individuals but has not done 
so for trafficking purposes. 
 
¶J.  There is some evidence of government tolerance of trafficking 
for forced begging on a local or institutional level. 
 
¶K.  No GOS officials are known to have been involved in 
trafficking. 
 
¶L. No Senegalese have been implicated or involved in investigations 
of trafficking by peacekeepers. 
 
¶M. The Ministry of Tourism has created a police unit to fight 
 
against sexual tourism in the principal tourist destinations of 
Dakar, Mbour, Ziguinchor, Fatick, and Saint Louis. 
 
PARA 29.  PROTECTION AN ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶A.  The Ginddi Center provides various services 
to assist trafficking victims regardless of their country of origin. 
 These services include medical treatment, family mediation and 
reconciliation, education, shelter and meals, and repatriation of 
children to their mother lands.  Last year, the center's child 
protection hotline received 1,920 calls from Koranic teachers alone 
and a total of 66,823 calls.  The center assisted 917 children of 
which 329 received medical care. All 917 children were reunited with 
their families in Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and the Gambia; 77 
children were trained in vocational centers. A total of 409 street 
interventions were conducted to convince children to join the 
center. 
 
¶B.  The Ginddi Center is used for trafficked and at-risk children. 
While the Government funds most operations, international partners 
provide some assistance.  The U.S. renovated the dormitories and 
built a wall around the center and provided medical equipment to the 
health unit. 
 
¶C. NGOS are not funded by the government.  They receive funds from 
international organizations and other donors such as embassies and 
foundations. 
 
¶D.  The Ministry of Family, under the association "Connexions Sans 
Frontieres" is using a computerized database to track trafficked 
children.  GOS also works with IOM to help the return of children to 
their countries of origin. 
 
¶E.  The international association "Enda Sant" provides health check 
up and care to prostitutes. 
 
¶F.  According to the anti-TIP law, victims' rights are guaranteed 
under Articles 12 and 17.  Under the 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. 
 
¶G. Victims' assistance in investigations are done behind close 
doors.  The rights of trafficked victims are generally respected. 
 
¶H.  The Government has provided basic shelter and 
medical assistance to victims, usually in coordination with NGOs and 
international organizations. 
 
¶I.  The government has not yet provided any specialized training to 
government officials in identifying trafficking victims and to 
assist trafficked children.  The Ministry of Interior has applied 
for and technically received approval from Department for ICITAP 
funds that have yet to arrive to support such a program. 
 
¶J. The government uses its Ginndi center to provide assistance to 
trafficked victims: shelter, food, medical care, vocational training 
and education, while waiting to repatriate victims to their hone 
countries. 
 
¶K. 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); Avenir 
de l'Enfant (trafficked boys and underage prostitutes, shelter, 
nutrition, education and reconciliation); ATT (Koranic students, 
health and education); ENDA Sante (illegal prostitutes, health); 
ONDH (Children in prisons); Enda Ecoplole (Abused Domestic maids); 
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) and the American 
Embassy (FY2005 TIP funds).  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). 
 
PARA 30.  PREVENTION 
 
-------------------- 
¶A.  President Wade has spoken publicly against human trafficking. 
The Ministry of Family has received grants from Italy, France, 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. 
GOS officials recognize trafficking as a problem and Senegal as a 
transit, destination and source country.  When confronted with the 
realities of today's exploitive begging relationships, for example, 
many remain unconvinced Senegal's cultural and religious practices 
constitute human trafficking when Senegalese children are involved. 
 
 
¶B.  Anti-TIP campaigns: The Ministry of Family, through the 
Department of Child Protection, has conducted TIP awareness 
campaigns to educate journalists, gendarmes, policemen, judges, 
lawyers, social and hospital workers.  In addition, NGO Radhho 
(African Network for Human Rights) used FY2005 TIP funds to conduct 
public awareness campaigns at national and community levels.  Raddho 
has specifically developed anti-trafficking press kits, interactive 
radio programs, television documentaries, and dramatic sketches, 
including publicizing child protection hotlines. 
 
¶C.  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.  The Ministry of Family works 
closely with many Senegalese NGOs, such as RADDHO, Avenir de 
L'Enfant and La Lumiere.  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.  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 Ministry of Interior, through its Bureau for Investigations, 
works closely with Interpol to monitor immigration and emigration 
patterns for evidence of trafficking.  Organized clandestine 
migration by any means is punished for 5 to 10 years of imprisonment 
and a fine between USD 2,000 (1,000,000 CFAF)to USD 11,000 
(5,000,000 CFAF). 
 
¶E. International organizations include: the World Bank (street 
children), UNICEF (underage domestics, prostitutes and talibes, 
education and job alternatives), IOM (trafficked children, 
coordination for repatriation of foreign children), Save the 
Children (talibes, education), and ILO (underage domestics and 
prostitutes, Koranic students, education and job alternatives). 
 
¶F.  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 the ECOWAS plan 
on trafficking of persons in 2004.  The Director of Child Protection 
confirms that the Ministry of Family is working with the French 
Cooperation on a national action plan on trafficking.  A research 
study has already started. Agencies involved will meet in April 2008 
to review the findings, and an action plan is expected to be 
finalized in May. 
 
¶G.  The government has little or no means to reduce demand for 
commercial sex, as it has legalized it.  With 700 km of beach and 
more than 250 hotels, Senegal is a tourist country and this sector 
represents six percent of the national GDP.  Since colonial times, 
the government has a health clinic in Dakar which now serves as a 
center where sex workers can receive care for STDs and get tested 
for HIV/AIDS.  In addition, Association AWA is doing its best to 
assist prostitutes in counseling, care, and vocational training for 
alternative jobs. 
 
¶H. N/A 
 
¶I. No Senegalese peacekeeping forces were reported to have been 
involved in trafficking. 
 
 
¶31. HEROES: Embassy Dakar is pleased to nominate Maitre Ndiam GAYE 
who is a magistrate working at the High Commissary of Human Rights. 
His office is the GOS focal point on trafficking in persons and 
 
monitors all other ministries dealing with the issue of trafficking: 
Ministry of Family and Women, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of 
Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Tourism.  Each month, Me 
Gaye leads meetings to coordinate discussions and outlines the steps 
that need to be followed to better disseminate the anti-TIP law 
across the country and to urge GOS agencies to apply the law.  He 
works closely with national and international NGOs to find the best 
solutions to this defeat this modern day slavery.  Apart from his 
job of coordinating this office, Me Gaye goes beyond the scope of 
his assigned work to help and assist GOS agencies and other entities 
to conduct successful TIP workshops.  He is very well appreciated by 
audiences because of the pertinence of his speeches.  Last year, Me 
Gaye held a video conference with Ambassador Miller, in order to 
launch the Senegalese anti-TIP law. 
 
¶32. 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 
----------- 
¶3. (U) The Embassy'' 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.