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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0576 1622346
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112316Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BANJUL IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060576 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMI GA
SUBJECT: THE GAMBIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
          DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of The Gambia of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's 
imminent release.  The text of the TIP Report country 
narrative is provided, both for use in informing the 
Government of The Gambia and in any local media release by 
Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. 
Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post 
may provide the host government with the text of the TIP 
Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday 
June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local 
time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, 
however, that any public release of the Report's information 
should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am 
EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of Togo of the 
June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points 
in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of 
the country narrative provided in para 8.  For countries 
where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it 
is particularly important to advise governments prior to the 
Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of The Gambia,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------- 
The Gambia (TIER 2) 
-------------------- 
The Gambia is a source, transit, and destination country for 
children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced 
labor and commercial sexual exploitation.  Within The Gambia, 
women and girls and, to a lesser extent, boys are trafficked 
for commercial sexual exploitation, in particular to meet the 
demand for European child sex tourists, as well as for 
domestic servitude.  Anti-trafficking activists report that 
in the last few years commercial sexual exploitation of 
children has moved from large hotels to small guest houses 
and private homes as a result of large hotels, enforcement 
of a voluntary code of conduct against child sex tourism. 
Boys are trafficked within the country for forced begging by 
religious teachers and for street vending.  Transnationally, 
women, girls, and boys from neighboring countries are 
trafficked to The Gambia for the same purposes listed above. 
Primary source countries for this trafficking are Senegal, 
Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, 
Guinea and Benin.  The trafficking of boys between The Gambia 
and Senegal by religious teachers for forced begging is 
particularly prevalent.  Gambian women and girls are 
trafficked to Senegal for domestic servitude, and possibly 
for commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
The Government of The Gambia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite 
limited resources.  The government,s law enforcement efforts 
to address trafficking increased with the prosecution of two 
trafficking offenders and the conviction of one of them.  The 
government also made slightly increased victim protection 
efforts by providing limited services to children trafficked 
for forced begging.  The government did not show progress, 
however, in identifying and assisting trafficking victims 
among women and girls in prostitution. 
 
Recommendations for The Gambia:  Increase efforts to 
investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict 
and punish trafficking offenders; develop formal procedures 
for identifying trafficking victims among women and girls in 
prostitution; incorporate trafficking training into the 
standard police curriculum; educate all government officials 
on the distinction between smuggling and trafficking; 
identify an increased number of trafficking victims and 
provide them with care; and end the practice of placing child 
sex trafficking victims in prisons. 
 
Prosecution 
------------ 
The Government of The Gambia demonstrated some increased 
efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement actions 
during the last year.    The Gambia prohibits all forms of 
trafficking through its October 2007 Trafficking in Persons 
Act, which prescribes a penalty of 15 years to life 
imprisonment for all forms of trafficking.  This penalty is 
sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those of other 
grave crimes, such as rape.  The Gambia,s 2005 Children,s 
Act also prohibits all forms of child trafficking, 
prescribing a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.  The 
government reported that it investigated four trafficking 
cases and prosecuted two trafficking offenders.  One of these 
defendants, a Senegalese national, was sentenced to two 
years, imprisonment with hard labor for trafficking Gambian 
children to Senegal.    In November 2008, police arrested a 
Gambian national for trafficking a child for the purpose of 
commercial sexual exploitation by a New Zealand national in 
Banjul.  The Gambian was prosecuted under a procurement 
statute and subsequently acquitted.  During the year, 
authorities demonstrated a weak understanding of trafficking 
by conflating it with smuggling.  The Secretary of State for 
Justice gave a one-time lecture to prosecutors and a 
prosecutor traveled with UNICEF at UNICEF,s expense to 
border posts to distribute the law.  Four individuals were 
prosecuted under the anti-trafficking law for actions that 
appear to be smuggling rather than trafficking.  The 
government did not institute systematic trafficking training 
for law enforcement officials, though they did take part in 
donor-funded trafficking trainings.  Officials monitored The 
Gambia,s borders to ensure that children crossing them are 
traveling with a parent or a legal guardian, but reports 
suggested that traffickers, use of false travel documents 
hindered these efforts. 
Protection 
----------- 
The Gambian government demonstrated minimal victim protection 
efforts during the last year.  The police referred four 
victims to the Department of Social Welfare, which reunited 
three of them with their parents.  The fourth victim was a 
Nigerian girl placed temporarily in the home of a Gambian 
female police officer after being trafficked to The Gambia 
for forced labor; she ran away.  In a joint project with 
UNICEF and an international NGO, the government operated a 
drop-in center for destitute children, the majority of whom 
were boys forced to beg by religious instructors and street 
children vulnerable to being trafficked.  The center provided 
non-formal education, medical and hygiene services, and 
counseling.  The government provided salaries for two social 
workers at the center and some additional funding.  The 
government-operated and funded its own 24-hour shelter for 
destitute children, some of whom may be trafficking victims. 
No specialized facilities existed for trafficking victims, 
however, and the majority of children referred did not appear 
to be trafficking victims.  The Gambia has not yet developed 
a system for collecting victim care data. 
 
Although the government established a toll-free victim 
hotline in 2005, it no longer functions.  Although the 2007 
Trafficking in Persons Act encourages victims to assist in 
investigations and prosecutions by offering them temporary 
visas pending criminal or civil actions, this provision has 
not yet been applied.  During the year, authorities 
encouraged three trafficking victims to assist in the 
investigation and prosecution of their traffickers.  The 
government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal 
of foreign victims to countries where they might face 
hardship or retribution.  While labor trafficking victims 
were not inappropriately incarcerated or fined for unlawful 
acts as a direct result of being trafficked, authorities 
detained children found in prostitution in the juvenile wing 
of the Jeshwang prison  pending investigation of their cases. 
 The government did not follow procedures to identify 
trafficking victims among women arrested for prostitution. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
 
The Government of The Gambia demonstrated moderate efforts to 
prevent trafficking through awareness-raising during the 
reporting period.  In June 2008, the government hosted an 
ECOWAS workshop on trafficking in which members of the 
National TIP Taskforce participated; the government 
contributed $4,000 towards the funding of the seminar.  In 
December 2008, The Gambia,s anti-trafficking task force 
finalized the national action plan to combat trafficking. 
The government has taken steps to reduce the demand for 
commercial sex acts by raiding brothels and prosecuting a 
foreign sex tourist. In the aforementioned case, the New 
Zealand national arrested in connection with the sex 
trafficking of a Gambian child was convicted and sentenced to 
one year of imprisonment under the Tourism Offenses Act. 
Gambian troops deployed abroad as part of peacekeeping 
missions received some human trafficking awareness training 
prior to their deployment. 
 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1:  Why is Gambia on Tier 2? 
 
A: The Government of The Gambia does not fully comply with 
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite 
limited resources.  The government,s law enforcement efforts 
to address trafficking increased with the prosecution of two 
trafficking offenders and the conviction of one of them.  The 
government also made slightly increased victim protection 
efforts by providing limited services to children trafficked 
for forced begging.  The government did not show progress, 
however, in identifying and assisting trafficking victims 
among women and girls in prostitution. 
 
¶Q. What progress has Gambia made in the last year? 
 
A:  The Government of The Gambia demonstrated some increased 
efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement actions 
during the last year.  The government reported that it 
investigated four trafficking cases and prosecuted two 
trafficking offenders.  One of these defendants, a Senegalese 
national, was convicted to two years, imprisonment with hard 
labor for trafficking Gambian children to Senegal.  In a 
joint project with UNICEF and an international NGO, the 
government operated a drop-in center for destitute children, 
the majority of whom were boys forced to beg by religious 
instructors and street children vulnerable to being 
trafficked.  The center provided non-formal education, 
medical and hygiene services, and counseling.  The government 
provided salaries for two social workers at the center and 
some additional funding.     In June 2008, the government 
hosted and and contributed $4000 to an ECOWAS workshop on 
trafficking.  The government has taken steps to reduce the 
demand for commercial sex acts by raiding brothels and 
prosecuting a foreign sex tourist under its Tourism Offences 
Act. 
 
Q3:  What can Gambia do to further the fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A: Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking 
offenses, and convict and punish trafficking offenders; 
develop formal procedures for identifying trafficking victims 
among women and girls in prostitution; incorporate 
trafficking training into the standard police curriculum; 
educate all government officials on the distinction between 
smuggling and trafficking;  identify an increased number of 
trafficking victims and provide them with care; and end the 
practice of placing child sex trafficking victims in prisons. 
 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON