VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNK #0090/01 0411351
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (CCY AD208A28 MSI7321-695)
P 101351Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9091
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NOUAKCHOTT 000090 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
G/TIP FOR G-LAURA PENA, INL, DRL, PRM, AF/RSA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB MCA PHUM KCRM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC
PREF, MR 
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA: TENTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
REF: A. 10STATE 2094 
     ¶B. 09NOUAKCHOTT718 
     ¶C. 09NOUAKCHOTT711 
     ¶D. 09NOUAKCHOTT255 
     ¶E. 09NOUAKCHOTT486 
     ¶F. 09NOUAKCHOTT512 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  In response to Ref A, please find post's TIP 
report submission: 
 
------------- 
TIP SITUATION 
------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Sources of Available Information:  Available 
information on human trafficking is limited and unreliable. 
Although evidence points to the existence of many forms of 
human trafficking, such as prostitution networks, trafficking 
in illegal migrants, and the trafficking of girls and women 
to Saudi Arabia; little is known about how these networks 
operate or the number of victims.  There is no official or 
centralized data on trafficking and the information 
available, gathered by NGOs, is insufficient.  In 2009, the 
Ministry of Social Affairs, Childhood, and Women in 
collaboration with UNICEF worked on a study on "Child 
Trafficking and the Worst Forms of Labor in Mauritania," 
which was released to the public in January 2010.  The UNICEF 
study on the Situation of Women and Children in Mauritania 
(MICS), published in 2007, has some information about 
child-labor and forced labor.  Special Rapporteur on Modern 
Forms of Slavery Gulnara Shahinian visited Mauritania in 
November 2009 and will release her report to the UN Assembly 
in 2010. Post has slated funds to finance in 2010 the first 
baseline study on slavery among women and children, which 
will be conducted by UNICEF. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Country Situation:  In Mauritania, women, men and 
children from traditional slave castes may be subject to 
slavery-related practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave 
relationships, which continue to exist in both rural and 
urban settings (Ref B and C).  These individuals, associated 
for generations to slave-holding families, work as house help 
and cattle herders without pay.  Mauritanian and West African 
boys (referred to as "talibe") are trafficked within and into 
the country often in order to beg for religious teachers. 
Girls have been trafficked internally and from neighboring 
West African countries such as Mali, Senegal and The Gambia 
for domestic servitude.  Mauritanian girls have been married 
off to wealthy Saudi men and trafficked to Saudi Arabia for 
sexual servitude and prostitution (Ref D).  Women and girls 
are trafficked within and into the country as prostitutes. 
Illegal migrants from West African countries are often 
trafficked into Mauritania by networks profiting from their 
passage to Europe. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Vulnerability to TIP:  Talibe boys employed in 
forced begging live in harsh conditions and do not attend 
school.  They have to bring the proceeds of their begging to 
their imam and are not provided any food, having to beg for 
food scraps.  They often sleep in the streets at night and 
may be victims of physical and sexual abuse.  Women and girls 
in domestic servitude live in modern slavery conditions -- 
they may be exploited, sexually abused and have their meager 
salaries withheld or paid to a third party such as their 
families or an intermediary.  Slaves may work long hours 
without pay and cattle herders live in particularly harsh 
conditions and are prone to physical abuse.  Slave families 
are often separated to be distributed among different 
households pertaining to the same slave-owning family.  Slave 
children often do not attend school and little girls may work 
long hours as domestic servants and nannies.  Many slaves do 
not have birth certificates or national identity papers. 
Girls trafficked to Saudi Arabia through arranged marriages 
are sometimes used as sex slaves or prostitutes. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Conditions:  Men, women and children from 
traditional slave castes both in the Black Moor (Haratine) 
and Afro-Mauritanian communities are subject to slavery-like 
practices.  They have been associated to their master's 
family for generations and are considered "part of the 
family."  Many of them, including children, are exploited and 
work without pay.  Among this group, women and girls are 
particularly at risk.  Those working as herders are most 
vulnerable to ill treatment and harsh conditions.  Puular 
boys from poor families are most vulnerable to forced 
begging.  Girls from poor families are at risk of being 
married off to wealthy Saudi men and trafficked to Saudi 
Arabia as sex slaves.  Girls and women from West African 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
countries and from the southern regions of Mauritania are 
vulnerable to domestic servitude, exploitation and 
prostitution. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Traffickers and Their Methods: Talibe boys are 
often trafficked by unscrupulous imams.  Poor families place 
their boys with these imams, who are supposed to provide them 
an education.  Nevertheless, the families cannot afford to 
pay for the boys' upkeep and the boys are forced to beg -- 
both to eat and to give the proceeds to their imam.  There 
are reports of imams trafficking boys from Guinea, Mali and 
Senegal into Mauritania.  Girls and women are trafficked to 
Saudi Arabia by networks of marriage brokers and travel 
agencies.  Marriage brokers often persuade poor families to 
accept an arranged marriage with a Saudi man in exchange for 
hefty bride price.  Then, travel agencies make arrangements 
for the girls' travel to Saudi Arabia, including passport and 
visas.  Once in Saudi Arabia, the girls may be used as sex 
slaves or prostitutes.  Individuals issued from slave castes 
and associated to their master's families for generations 
often work without remuneration in conditions of 
exploitation.  Girls and women in domestic servitude may be 
"placed" in a household by their families.  In the case of 
West African girls and women, it is often a national of their 
country living in Mauritania who serves as intermediary 
between families in need of house help and families seeking 
to "place" their daughters.  The families or the 
intermediaries often receive the girls' salaries. 
Prostitution networks are managed by foreign women who lure 
young women into the prostitution business and arrange 
encounters with clients.  West Africans living in Mauritania 
arrange for illegal migrants from their countries to reach 
Mauritania with the purpose of crossing over to Europe. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
SETTING THE SCENE FOR THE GOVERNMENT'S ANTI-TIP 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  The government acknowledges trafficking is a 
problem.  The Ministry of Social Affairs, Childhood and 
Family drafted in collaboration with UNICEF a National 
Strategy for the Protection of Children in Mauritania, which 
comprises an action plan for 2009-2010 that addresses the 
problem of children victims of trafficking.  The government 
is currently working in association with the International 
Organization for the Right to Development (IDDLO) to draft a 
National Action Plan to Fight Trafficking in Persons to be 
released in 2010.  However, despite its acknowledgment of 
trafficking as a problem, the government is still reluctant 
to acknowledge slavery currently exists in Mauritania and 
prefers to talk about "the consequences of slavery." 
Arrests, and prosecutions are inexistent and there seems to 
be a lack of political will to apply the law. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Government agencies involved in efforts to combat 
sex and labor trafficking include the following:  the 
Ministry of Social Affairs, Family and Childhood's Childhood 
Department; the Ministry of Justice through the Direction of 
the Judiciary Protection of Children; the Ministry of the 
Interior through the Special Brigade for Minors; and the 
Labor Department. There is currently no dedicated agency 
focusing on trafficking and it is rare that investigators, 
inspectors, judges, social workers, etc. specialize in 
trafficking.  In November 2009, the government created a Road 
Security Agency in charge of combating all forms of 
trafficking, illegal immigration, and terrorist activities in 
Mauritanian roads.  Nevertheless, the agency is not yet 
operational and it is still unclear what its practical role 
will be or how it plans to coordinate its work with police 
and gendarmerie. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The government has stated it is willing to take 
action but does not have the necessary resources to fund 
training for police, gendarmerie, and social workers, or 
provide help to victims (Ref E).  The government is also 
unable to fight trafficking more effectively because laws are 
frequently not enforced.  Investigations are rare and 
prosecutions virtually nonexistent.  As for the slavery 
question, the government minimizes the problem of "slavery," 
preferring to talk about the "consequences of slavery."  As a 
 
result, it focuses preferentially on development programs 
(such as the Program for the Eradication of the Consequences 
of Slavery) to improve the conditions of communities of 
former slaves rather than on programs to prosecute 
slave-masters, investigate allegations of slavery, provide 
assistance to runaway slaves and raise awareness among the 
population about the anti-slavery law -- both among slaves 
and masters. 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  No systematic monitoring of anti-trafficking 
efforts or assessments are performed. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  In 1996, the government passed laws 96-019 and 
96-020 creating a civil registry system and stating that it 
is mandatory to declare all births.  According to the MICS 
report published in May 2008, only 56 percent of births of 
children under 5 years old are registered.  The Southern 
regions of Hodh Echarghi and Hodh El Garbi had the lowest 
registration rates; mostly due to lack of understanding on 
the part of the population about the importance of 
registering children.  Post has first-hand knowledge of cases 
in which slavery victims do not have birth certificates or 
identity papers. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  The government's capacity to gather the data 
required for an in-depth assessment of law enforcement 
efforts is limited. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Existing Laws against TIP: In addition to already 
existing laws, the government adopted on January 22, 2009, a 
new law relating to the Illicit Traffic of Migrants.  This 
law calls for 5-10 years imprisonment and a 5-10 million UM 
($18,500 to $37,000) fine for those involved in trafficking 
of migrants.  It also establishes a 2-4 year imprisonment and 
a 500,000 to 1 million UM ($1,851 to $3,700) fine to anyone 
giving anyone else instructions to engage in the trafficking 
of migrants.  This law states that victims of trafficking 
cannot be prosecuted for trafficking, illegal residence or 
entry, or possession of illegal travel documents.  It also 
provides for the extradition of traffickers and for judiciary 
cooperation among other countries. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  Punishment of Sex Trafficking Offenses: Law 
025/2003 on Trafficking in Persons states that anyone 
"exploiting prostitutes or engaging in other forms of sexual 
exploitation can be sentenced to 5-10 years of forced labor 
and a 500,000 - 1 million UM fine."  The penal code has also 
dispositions against prostitution and pandering. 
¶15.  (SBU)  Punishment of Labor Trafficking Offenses:  The 
punishment for those engaging in labor trafficking offenses 
according to law 025/2003 on Trafficking in Persons is 5-10 
years of forced labor and a 500,000 - 1 million UM ($1,851 to 
$3,700) fine.  The labor code has other dispositions against 
labor offenses. 
 
¶16.  (SBU)  Prescribed penalties for rape:  The penal code 
states that rapists who are single men face forced labor and 
flagellation.  Married rapists could be subject to the death 
penalty.  Nevertheless, please note that these penalties are 
rarely applied (the death penalty has not been applied for 
any crime in several decades). 
 
¶17.  (SBU)  Law Enforcement Statistics: According to the 
Ministry of Justice, there were no investigations, 
prosecutions, convictions or sentences imposed in 2009. 
According to SOS Esclaves, judges refused to investigate, 
neither on slavery nor on child abuse grounds, two child 
slavery cases brought to them in 2009 (Ref F).  An informal 
agreement was reached outside the court and the children 
remained with their slave-masters. 
 
¶18.  (SBU)  Law Enforcement Training: The government does not 
provide any specialized training for law enforcement and 
immigration officials on identifying and treating victims of 
trafficking.  The Government has sought assistance in 
establishing specialized units for this purpose. 
 
¶19.  (SBU)  Cooperation with other governments:  post is not 
aware of any instances of cooperation with other governments 
to investigate or prosecute trafficking cases. 
 
¶20.  (SBU)  Post has no knowledge of extraditions of 
traffickers. 
 
¶21.  (SBU)  There is no evidence of government involvement in 
trafficking.  Nevertheless, anti-slavery activists accuse 
judges and local authorities such as governors and county 
administrators of tacit complicity. The 2007 slavery law has 
yielded no prosecutions and most slavery cases brought to 
judges are settled outside courts and promptly filed away. 
They argue the authorities, who are White Moors for the most 
part, are part of the establishment and are reluctant to go 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
against their own class as slavery is intimately linked to 
White Moor "privilege." 
 
¶22.  (SBU)  No officials have been investigated or prosecuted 
for involvement in trafficking. No administrative sanctions 
have been applied to judges or officials who do not pay due 
attention to slavery cases. 
 
¶23.  (SBU)  Mauritania does not contribute troops to 
international peacekeeping operations. 
 
¶24.  (SBU)  No sex tourism problems have been identified. 
 
------------------------------------ 
PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶25.  (SBU)  The government has no programs providing 
protection to victims and witnesses beyond that stated on 
Para. 26. 
 
¶26.  (SBU)  The Childhood Department created in 2007 the 
National Center for the Protection of Children in Difficulty 
located in the El Mina and Dar Naim districts of Noaukchott. 
In 2009, the center provided shelter to 270 children, 60 of 
whom were talibe.  This center returns children to their 
families or to their imams asking for guarantees that the 
children will not be sent back to the streets to beg.  It 
also places children in surrogate families when necessary. 
The government did not provide information on resources it 
devotes to this center. 
 
¶27.  (SBU)  Government provided access to legal and medical 
services is extremely limited.  Most victim services are 
provided by NGOs. 
 
¶28.  (SBU)  Post has no knowledge of the government assisting 
foreign trafficking victims. 
 
¶29.  (SBU)  The government does not provide long term shelter 
or housing benefits to victims. 
 
¶30.  (SBU)  The government does not have a referral process 
to transfer victims detained, arrested or placed in 
protective custody by law enforcement authorities to 
institutions that provide short- or long-term care. 
 
¶31.  (SBU)  There are no official numbers of trafficking 
victims.  A 2006 study by the Association des Enfants et 
developpement en Mauritanie identified 300 talibe children in 
Nouakchott.  Association Femmes Chefs de Famille has assisted 
50 girls trafficked to Saudi Arabia.  NGOs interviewed for 
the 2010 study on Child trafficking and worst forms of labor 
had assisted 89 children victims of slavery.  There are no 
statistics concerning the number of victims of slavery or the 
number of women in domestic servitude.  Victims were mostly 
assisted by NGOs. 
 
¶32.  (SBU)  The government's law enforcement, immigration, 
and social services personnel do not have a formal system of 
proactively identifying victims of trafficking among 
high-risk persons with whom they come in contact. 
 
¶33.  (SBU)  Illegal migrants are detained and placed in the 
Nouadhibou Migrant Detention Center until their expulsion 
from Mauritania.  Women suspected of prostitution are often 
jailed. 
 
¶34.  (SBU)  The government does not encourage victims to 
assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking. 
There are no precedents of victims filing civil suits or 
seeking legal action against traffickers.  In slavery cases, 
civil society representatives claim that judges attempt to 
broker informal agreements between the masters and 
disgruntled slaves.  Cases are often dropped and 
investigations are rarely conducted. 
 
¶35.  (SBU)  No specialized training in identifying 
trafficking victims has been provided.  Nevertheless, in 
January 2009, the government provided training to judges in 
Nouadhibou about the consequences of Mauritania being a 
signatory of international human rights conventions, 
including trafficking. 
 
¶36.  (SBU)  The government collaborated with UNICEF and the 
government of the United Arab Emirates in the repatriation 
and compensation of 463 Mauritanian child jockeys trafficked 
to the UAE between 1992 and 2005.  This program ended in 2008 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
but it was followed by a 1 million USD program aimed at 
increasing capacity among the communities where the child 
jockeys hailed from. 
 
¶37.  (SBU)  Terre des Hommes will assist in the repatriation 
of children from West Africa victims of trafficking.  UNICEF 
conducts studies and ran the child jockey program.  Other 
local NGOs include Association Femmes Chefs de Famille, AMDH, 
SOS Esclaves, AMSME and ALCD 
 
---------- 
PREVENTION 
---------- 
 
¶38.  (SBU)  In 2009, the government conducted an awareness 
campaign in conjunction with civil society about the plight 
of domestic workers.  It also conducted an awareness campaign 
on the 2007 law against slavery as part of the PESE program 
in the Brakna, Gorgol and Assaba regions. 
 
¶39.  (SBU)  The government does not monitor immigration and 
emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking. 
 
¶40.  (SBU)  There is no mechanism for coordination and 
communication between various agencies, internal, 
international, and multilateral on trafficking-related 
matters, such as a multi-agency working group or a task 
force. 
 
¶41.  (SBU)  The government is currently working in 
association with the International Organization for the Right 
to Development (IDDLO) to draft a National Action Plan to 
Fight Trafficking in Persons to be released in 2010. 
 
¶42.  (SBU)  Prostitution is prohibited in Mauritania and is a 
taboo.  Other than arresting women suspected of being 
prostitutes, no other measures have been taken. 
 
¶43.  (SBU)  The government has taken no measures during the 
reporting period to reduce the participation in international 
child sex tourism by nationals of the country. 
 
¶44.  (SBU)  Mauritania currently has no military or police 
deployed in peacekeeping operations. 
 
------------ 
PARTNERSHIPS 
------------ 
 
¶45.  (SBU)  The government has worked in close collaboration 
with UNICEF in implementing programs such as the repatriation 
of child jockeys as well as conducting studies.  The UN 
Special Rapporteur visited Mauritania in November 2009 at the 
government's invitation.  The government is currently working 
with for the Right to Development (IDDLO) to draft an Action 
Plan.  In December 2009, the government responded favorably 
and rapidly to a request by Embassy Nouakchott to deny entry 
into Mauritanian territory to a Malian trafficker attempting 
to enter Mauritania with a group of talibe children. 
 
¶46.  (SBU) No international assistance is provided by the 
Mauritanian government to other countries. 
 
---------------------------- 
HEROES: AMINETOU MINT MOCTAR 
---------------------------- 
 
¶47.  (SBU)  Mrs. Aminetou Mint Moctar is a dynamic human 
rights activist well-known for her dedication and commitment 
to assisting girls and women victims of trafficking as well 
as raising awareness with the government and the public about 
the plight of women victims of trafficking.  In 2009, Mrs. 
Mint Moctar spearheaded highly visible public campaigns to 
denounce trafficking to Saudi Arabia of young Mauritanian 
girls as well as the exploitation of Mauritanian and West 
African women living in domestic servitude.  Her actions have 
brought the government to recognize these practices exist. 
She has consistently fought for these women -- whose voices 
are not heard in Mauritanian society -- to create a legal 
framework to protect victims and fight impunity.  Mrs. Mint 
Moctar has also been a vocal opponent of the traditional 
practice of early marriages, which increases girls' chances 
of being trafficked, or sexually exploited. Mrs. Mint Moctar 
heads the Association Femmes Chefs de Familles, which she 
founded in 1990 and provides assistance to victims of 
domestic violence, rape and/or slavery.  For her work with 
these sensitive and often taboo issues, Aminetou Mint Moctar 
has been accused of being a bad Muslim and a traitor to her 
(TIP) REPORT 
 
country.  She has also received innumerable threats.  In 
light of Mauritania's fall to Tier 3 in the Department of 
State's Annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2009, her 
work on trafficking - saving girls, spearheading conferences 
to spread the message about the mechanics of typical 
trafficking operation in Mauritania, inviting the media to 
cover these issues, has heightened awareness of the 
phenomenon on a national and international level. 
 
------------------- 
CONTACT INFORMATION 
------------------- 
 
¶48.  (SBU)  Any questions regarding this report should be 
addressed to Nitza Sola-Rotger, Political Officer, 
sola-rotgern@state.gov 
 
 
BOULWARE