Cablegate: West African Trafficking in Persons Strategy

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 ABUJA 001809

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DEPT FOR G/TIP, AF, INL, DRL, AND PRM

DOL FOR ILAB

E.O. 12598: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KWMN NI TO GH BF IV XX GN
SUBJECT: WEST AFRICAN TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS STRATEGY

1. This final draft regional strategy to address
Trafficking in Persons in West Africa is presented to
Department's African Affairs Bureau for endorsement.
This strategy was reflects a consensus among nine
embassies and several Washington agencies and bureaus
(DRL, G/TIP, USAID/WID) represented at a December 2001
conference on TIP held in Lagos. This draft was
cleared with Embassies Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Bamako,
Conakry, Cotonou, Libreville, Lome, and Ouagadougou.

--------------------------------------------- ---------
-
The AF Bureau's West Africa Regional Strategy to
Combat Trafficking in Persons
--------------------------------------------- ---------

2. Summary: The serious human rights crime of
Trafficking in Persons appears on the rise in West and
Central Africa and confronting this problem is a USG
priority. Through this strategy, U.S. Missions in the
region will employ limited USG resources to engage
host governments, NGOs and regional organizations to
implement effective actions aimed at prosecuting
traffickers and their accomplices, protecting rescued
and repatriated trafficking victims and preventing the
occurrence of new trafficking incidents. The African
Affairs Bureau and Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons will guide Missions in the
region and coordinate the allocation of resources.
End Summary

A. Strategic Goal
-----------------

3. "U.S. Missions in West and Central Africa will help
host governments, regional organizations, and NGOs to
develop and strengthen the mechanisms necessary to
reduce the incidence of trafficking in persons in the
region."

4. This goal should be incorporated into Mission
Performance Plans of Missions throughout the region as
a sub-goal/objective under MPP Goals "DE - Democracy"
and "IC - International Crime."

B. Introduction
---------------

5. According to UNICEF, hundreds of thousands of
persons, especially women and children from West and
Central Africa, have become victims of trafficking for
forced labor exploitation every year. Described by
Secretary Powell as, "one of the most egregious human

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rights violations," trafficking is one of the fastest
growing and most profitable criminal enterprises
throughout the world. During his address at the
recently released Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report,
Secretary Powell stated that there are at least

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700,000 new victims of trafficking worldwide each
year. Considered a serious human and worker rights
problem in West and Central Africa, trafficking
appears to be on the rise and is fueled by on-going
adverse social and economic conditions in the region.
Ending this transnational human rights crime is a
priority for the Bush Administration.

6. As women and children are the primary targets of
trafficking, the AF Bureau will work with our West
African posts to raise host country and international
awareness of the vulnerability of these female and
child populations. The Governments of Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Gabon, Mali,
Nigeria and Togo have shown signs of greater
awareness, and to varying degrees, are actively
engaged in combating the problem. Forms of child
trafficking include the traditional practice of child
placement for work in the informal commercial sector,
agricultural work, domestic servitude, and begging.
The trafficking of women tends to be primarily for
sexual exploitation and is often conducted by
traditional criminal elements. Though the forms and
destinations of trafficking vary widely, trafficking
victims often work in very difficult and hazardous
conditions and in some instances are essentially
slaves, held against their will and receiving little
or no wages. Many women and girls who are victims of
trafficking find themselves working in the commercial
sex industry in Africa and Europe. Criminal elements
frequently use deception and false advertising to
recruit these female victims of trafficking.

7. The US must work cooperatively with host country
governments in devising clear short- and long-term
strategies to legislate against, enforce and prosecute
the traffickers who engage in the buying and selling
of persons. Mechanisms must be put in place to
educate the population concerning the methods
recruiters use. We must also work to rescue those
victims of trafficking who are able to escape and who
need protection, education or training in order to be
reintegrated into society and lead normal, productive
lives. Prevention efforts aimed at addressing some of
the root causes of trafficking, such as lack of
adequate economic opportunities, will also be
emphasized.

8. In order to effectively combat trafficking in West
Africa (and by extension to Africa as a whole) there
is a clear need for a coordinated and integrated
regional approach. The AF Bureau, in partnership with
G/TIP, INL, DRL, PRM, and IO, is launching a
comprehensive regional strategy to combat trafficking
of persons in West Africa. This strategy will be
coordinated through the regional trafficking
coordinator in Lagos, posts in countries most affected
by TIP, USG agencies and international donor efforts.
Given the limited available resources and many
competing demands, it is important to pursue an
approach that seeks to identify those areas that will
ensure the maximum effect, to complement existing
efforts, and to find out from West African governments
what they think would help.

C. Bureau Strategy
------------------

9. Definition and Scope: This strategy will use the
definition of trafficking in persons incorporated in
the UN Transnational Crime Convention's Protocol on
Trafficking in Persons:

"The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring
or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use
of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include,
at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labor or services, slavery or practices similar to
slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

10. Trafficking in the West and Central African sub-
region is a term broadly interpreted that can include
prostitution and the traditional "home-work" or
placement of children in the informal domestic labor
sector. Regarding the sex trade, for the purposes of
this strategy we will focus on the trafficking of
girls and women for the sex trade where clear force,
coercion or deception is involved - avoiding voluntary
prostitution, which is prevalent throughout the sub-
region. We will also focus on transnational child
trafficking for labor exploitation, such as work on
cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire, and for domestic
servitude and work in the informal commercial sector
in Gabon, Benin and eastern Nigeria. While the
placement of children (l'enfant placement) as domestic
servants is a form of child labor and fits the UN
definition of trafficking, it is a complex issue
tangled in culturally-accepted traditions not lending
itself to easy and clear-cut definition or simple
policy formulation. Indeed, many NGOs and government
agencies do not accept that the traditional placement
of children with relatives or friends in their own
countries in order to provide a child with necessary
protection and vocational skills is a form of
trafficking. Terres des Hommes, an International NGO
that has worked on child labor and trafficking issues
for several years throughout West Africa, does not as
a matter of policy consider "Vidomegon" ("child in
trust") in Benin, "Trokosi" in Ghana, and similar
child placement practices elsewhere in the region as
trafficking.

11. In light of this lack of consensus on whether
intra-national child placement constitutes trafficking
and the limits on USG resources, this strategy will
concentrate on the following two forms of trafficking:

-- Transnational Child Trafficking for Labor; and

--Child and Women Trafficking for forced commercial
sexual exploitation (largely Nigeria)

D. Background
-------------

12. The Intelligence Community is currently working on
determining the precise number of persons trafficked
for labor exploitation from and within Africa. UNICEF
estimates that approximately 200,000 children are
trafficked annually within West and Central Africa.
According to Nigerian and Italian government
estimates, 7-10,000 Nigerian women and girls are
trafficked to Italy each year, mostly through
neighboring West African countries. An unknown but
significant number of Nigerian women are trafficked
for sexual exploitation to other European countries,
including the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the UK.
These disparate figures reflect the dearth of
information on the scope and complexity of Africa's
unique trafficking problems.

13. NGOs and international organizations such as the
ILO and UNICEF report that thousands of children and
women are trafficked each year within Africa to work
in domestic services, on agricultural plantations, and
in the informal sector. Women and young girls from
West Africa are trafficked to Europe to work in the
commercial sex industry and as domestic servants.

14. Through traditional practices many children are
encouraged by their parents to leave home in search of
work, or they are lured away from their homes by
recruiters with promises of well-paying jobs and a
brighter future for the children. The recent
discovery of a boat destined for Gabon carrying 131
West African children (mostly Togolese) is an example
of how traditional "placement" of children has been
exploited to subject children, some as young as six
years old, to travel unaccompanied to jobs in
neighboring countries. Such job offers are
misrepresentations of the type of work they will
perform. To add to the complexity of the trafficking
dynamic is the fact that porous borders make it
difficult to distinguish between illegal and
legitimate family cross-border migration.

15. Trafficking is a complex reality often with
informal, secretive networks. West and Central
African countries can be divided into three major
categories in the trafficking circuit: "source" or
"sending" countries, "transit," and "destination"
countries. Within the sub-region, Benin, Burkina
Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria fall into all three
categories.

16. Poverty is a common denominator within the West
and Central African countries that have significant
trafficking problems. For families living below the
poverty line, the motive for sending a child to live
with friends or relatives to work or to learn trades
is often economic. Other factors that contribute to
the increased incidence of trafficking are the adult
unemployment rate, insufficient public investment in
essential economic and social services (especially
education) and a paucity of vocational and economic
opportunities for youth in rural areas. Many families
are unaware of the risks involved in trafficking,
including the possibilities of serious maltreatment,
sexual exploitation, rape, psychological and/or
physical abuse or the sale of a child by the person
originally entrusted with him/her.

E. Country Profiles
-------------------

17. The following are brief profiles of trafficking in
key countries of the region:

Benin
-----

18. Benin is a source, transit and destination country
for trafficked persons, primarily children.
Trafficking also occurs within Benin. Beninese
children are trafficked to Ghana, Nigeria, and Gabon
for indentured or domestic servitude, work in the
informal commercial sector, farm labor, and
prostitution. Children from Niger, Togo, and Burkina
Faso have been trafficked to Benin for indentured or
domestic servitude. Internal trafficking of children
in Benin takes place largely in connection with the
traditional practice called "vidomegon," whereby poor
families, often from rural areas, place a young child,
usually a daughter, in the home of a more wealthy
family to perform services for that family (often for
as long as ten years, or until the child reaches
adolescence). The birth family thus avoids the
economic burden the child otherwise represents, and
expects the child to make contacts and develop life
opportunities that would not have been available in
their home environment. This work arrangement is
different from other forms of child trafficking in
that videmegon is regarded as a private, voluntary
agreement directly between the two families.

Burkina Faso
------------

19. Burkina Faso is a source, transit and destination
country for internationally trafficked persons,
including children. Burkina Faso is an occasional
source country for women who travel to Europe to work
as domestics but, upon their arrival, are forced into
sexual exploitation. Burkina Faso is a transit
country for trafficked children, notably from Mali.
Children in transit from Mali are often destined for
Cote d'Ivoire. Trafficked Malian children are also
destined for Burkina Faso. Destinations for
trafficked Burkinabe children include Cote d'Ivoire,
Ghana and Nigeria. In 1999, there were reports of
trafficked Burkinabe children destined for Germany. A
significant number of children are trafficked within
Burkina Faso.

Cameroon
--------

20. Cameroon is a source, transit, and destination
country for internationally trafficked persons;
trafficking also occurs within Cameroon. Children are
trafficked from and through Cameroon to other West
African countries for indentured or domestic
servitude, farm labor, and sexual exploitation. Women
are principally trafficked from Cameroon to Europe for
sexual exploitation.

Cote d'Ivoire
-------------

21. Cote d'Ivoire is a source and destination for
internationally and domestically trafficked persons.
Trafficking also occurs within Cote d'Ivoire.
Ivoirian women and children are trafficked to more
distant African, European, and Middle Eastern
countries. Children are trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire
from Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ghana, Benin and Togo
for indentured or domestic servitude, farm labor, and
prostitution. Women are principally trafficked from
Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Asian countries to Cote
d'Ivoire.

Gabon
-----

22. Gabon is a destination country for trafficked
persons, primarily children from West and Central
Africa (specifically Benin, Togo and Nigeria) for
domestic servitude and work in the informal commercial
sector. Gabon has a significant immigrant population
(20% of total population), which serves to increase
the number of children brought/sent to Gabon.

Ghana
-----

23. Ghana is a source, transit and destination country
for trafficked persons, primarily children.
Trafficking of children for labor and sexual
exploitation in the informal sector -- as porters,
shop assistants, in mines and in fishing communities -
- occurs internally, and sexual and physical abuse of
these trafficked children occurs. Trokosi is a form
of religious servitude for a limited period of time,
involving work and training in traditional religious
practices at a fetish shrine in atonement for a crime
allegedly committed by a member of the girl's family.
Young women are trafficked to Europe and the Middle
East for sexual exploitation. Children between the
ages of 7 and 17 are trafficked to and from the
neighboring countries of Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and
Nigeria to work as farm workers, laborers or household
help. Children trafficked from Burkina Faso transit
Ghana on the way to Cote d'Ivoire.
Guinea
------

24. Guinea's role in the regional trafficking in
persons appears to be growing as a transit area for
Nigerian girls and women trafficked to Europe for the
sex trade. In July 2001, Guinean police intercepted
33 Nigerian girls and women in Conakry and arrested 15
Nigerian traffickers attempting to smuggle the 33
victims to Spain. (The girls and women were
repatriated to Nigeria in August and the traffickers
were extradited to stand trial in Nigeria.)

Mali
----

25. Mali is a source and destination country for
trafficked persons, primarily children. Children from
Mali are trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire to work on cotton
and cocoa plantations or for domestic servitude.
Women from Nigeria are trafficked to Mali for sexual
exploitation.

Nigeria
-------

26. Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination
country for trafficked persons. The majority of
trafficking from Nigeria involves females destined for
Europe; Italian authorities estimate that 18,000
Nigerian prostitutes work in Italy, most of them the
victims of traffickers. Nigerians, primarily women
and children, are also trafficked to work on farms or
as domestic servants in other African countries,
including Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea,
and Benin. Other significant destination countries
for trafficked Nigerians include the Netherlands, the
Czech Republic, Spain, France and the Middle East.
Nigeria also serves as a transit hub for trafficking
in West Africa and to a lesser extent, a destination
point for young children from nearby West African
countries. There is also evidence of trafficking of
children and women within Nigeria.

Togo
----

27. Togo is a source and transit country for
trafficked persons, primarily children. Togolese are
trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Nigeria, the
Middle East (specifically Saudi Arabia and Kuwait),
and Europe (primarily France and Germany) for
indentured or domestic servitude, work in the informal
commercial sector, farm labor and sexual exploitation.
Children trafficked from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote
d'Ivoire and Nigeria transit Togo.

------------------------------------
The Four Pillars: Three P's and a D
------------------------------------

28. The Africa Bureau's strategy for addressing the
Trafficking in Persons problem in West and Central
Africa follows the USG's strategic framework laid out
in the President's Executive Memorandum of March 11,
1998. This international strategy to combat
Trafficking in Women and Children is commonly referred
to as the "Three Ps," focusing USG efforts on: A)
PROSECUTION of traffickers using the enforcement of
existing laws; B) PREVENTION of trafficking of would-
be victims in vulnerable source areas; and C)
PROTECTION of trafficking victims through rescue,
shelter and reintegration into society. A fourth
component of the Bureau strategy is a DIPLOMATIC
approach targeted to raise the profile of this issue
with high-level host government officials eliciting
their support and input in order to enhance but not
duplicate host governments' and others' initiatives.
This diplomatic effort will precede the start of
programs to promote Prevention, Prosecution and
Protection goals and then will be pursued concurrently
with these efforts. The second component of the
diplomatic approach would be programmatic and would
focus efforts to integrate anti-trafficking objectives
into existing educational, democracy and good
governance programs (particularly through USAID).

PROSECUTION
-----------

29. The Bureau's anti-trafficking strategy for West
Africa will encourage host governments to develop and
implement country specific and regional action plans
to combat trafficking, such as the National Action
Plan to Combat Trafficking that Mali and Cote d'Ivoire
have developed. In December 2001, the heads of state
of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) met in Dakar and formally adopted a
resolution and plan of action to combat Trafficking in
Persons. The resolution and plan of action, both of
which focus on developing uniform laws and enforcement
efforts, had been developed during a special ECOWAS
meeting on TIP in Accra October 23-24.

30. Host governments should be encouraged to structure
their laws to ensure the effective prosecution of
those involved in trafficking in persons, distinct
from any laws punishing those involved in voluntary
prostitution. Criminal charges and penalties for
trafficking in persons - a crime involving coercion,
force or deception - should be harsher than any crimes
and penalties associated with prostitution or unforced
child labor. Efforts will involve USG programs
designed to train and strengthen local law enforcement
and criminal justice systems officials to more
effectively apprehend and prosecute traffickers, to
detect victims, and to cooperate regionally in these
efforts. Porous borders between countries with
trafficking problems require training of law
enforcement and criminal justice official to identify
potential trafficking victims; e.g. large numbers of
unaccompanied children. Such training should also be
extended to members of ECOWAS along with efforts to
create an ECOWAS mechanism to unify regional
enforcement efforts against TIP. Posts and the Bureau
should urge ECOWAS to follow up on implementation of
the December 2001 Plan of Action Against Trafficking
in Persons adopted at the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit
in Dakar.

PREVENTION
----------

31. The vast majority of women and children trafficked
within and out of West and Central Africa come from
this same region. Therefore, prevention programs
designed to address at-risk source areas are key to
the success of this strategy. Prevention efforts,
conducted in concert with host governments, our Peace
Corps, international and local NGOs, and trade unions,
will focus on increasing public awareness through a
culturally appropriate public diplomacy campaign at
the grass-roots level regarding the dangers of
trafficking and providing information on the worst
forms of child labor. In order to curb the
trafficking of persons, we need to focus resources on
vulnerable or at-risk populations, especially young
women and children before they become trafficking
victims. Missions would be asked to work with host
governments, NGOs and parents, in determining the
target audience and how best to reach them.

32. Recognizing that a key cause of trafficking lies
in the lack of alternative economic opportunities, we
will work through existing DOL and USAID programs to
help foster workforce development. This strengthening
of labor opportunities can take a number of forms,
including micro-credit schemes, labor market
information systems, and skills training.

33. In the initial implementation stages of the
Bureau's prevention strategy, the Bureau envisages
that Public Diplomacy (PD), the Peace Corps, and the
International Labor Organization (ILO) will be
instrumental in getting the message out, increasing
awareness and sensitivity to the issue, and
identifying country-specific areas where USG
assistance would be most useful. NGOs and host
governments should be encouraged to network with each
other on best practices and coordinate anti-
trafficking efforts such as research to study the
magnitude and incidence of trafficking and trafficking
patterns. They should also be encouraged to
collaborate with government agencies and other NGOs
doing work in related areas such as micro-credit
assistance for women, literacy programs and
legislative reform.
34. USG programs could provide NGOs with technical
assistance on grant proposal drafting and on regional
research and information gathering. Regional
cooperation in combating trafficking in women and
children and providing assistance to victims can be
facilitated through developing a regional NGO network
through the Internet, meetings, and workshops. NGOs
and law enforcement authorities should be encouraged
to cooperate to prevent trafficking, to assist
victims, and to facilitate the apprehension of
traffickers. NGOs often have inside information and
experience that could facilitate the arrest of
traffickers by local police.

PROTECTION
----------

35. The third part of the Bureau's strategy for West
Africa includes working with host governments and NGOs
to establish domestic and international protection and
assistance. Initiatives such as rescue and
reintegration projects should be geared toward
providing trafficking victims with immediate, short-
term shelter and health care as well as assisting
governments and local NGOs to build the capacity for
longer-term shelter and education programs with an aim
of successfully reintegrating victims into society.
Working through the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), we hope to help build a regional
structure for the efficient repatriation of victims to
their country of origin from wherever they are
intercepted. This would require bilateral
repatriation agreements and the creation of a regional
communications network for immigration and police
authorities to coordinate the transfer of and care for
trafficking victims.

DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY
-------------------

36. USG anti-TIP policy, particularly our efforts to
implement the 2000 Protection of Trafficking Victims
Acts, needs to be conveyed to governments in the sub-
region in a clear and consistent fashion. The Regional
Affairs Office of the AF Bureau will work with posts
to develop regional and country-specific talking
points for use in conveying USG anti-TIP goals to host
governments and regional organizations (e.g. ECOWAS).
AF/RA will also ensure that the TIP issue is raised
during bilateral talks with AF governments and the
governments of relevant European destination
countries, as appropriate. Diplomatic efforts will be
made to encourage governments to ratify the
Transnational Organized Crime Convention (Palermo
Convention of December 2000) Protocol on Trafficking
in Persons. Working with posts and other bureaus,
AF/RA will monitor the effectiveness of anti-TIP law
enforcement efforts in various countries, maintaining
statistics on arrests and prosecutions of traffickers.

-----------------
Tactical Approach
-----------------

37. In order to best advance the above "Three Ps,"
this strategy will use the following means:

--Improved intra-USG donor coordination (led by G/TIP
and including USAID, DRL, INL, DOL) both at the
Washington and field levels;

--Greater Coordination with International Donors
(World Bank, the UK's Department for International
Development, the EU and Norway's NORAD);

--Engagement with/funding of regional organizations
(ECOWAS) and International Organizations (ILO-IPEC,
IOM, the UN Center for International Crime Programs--
UNCICP, UNICEF); balanced with

--Direct funding for host government and/or local NGOs
when feasible and deemed most effective.

Regional Trafficking Resource Database
--------------------------------------

38. In order to better understand and manage a
coordinated USG anti-trafficking strategy, it is
important to have a compendium of up-to-date and
comprehensive research materials, including data on
organizations that are addressing the trafficking
problem and identification of programs that have or
will be directed against TIP in the region. A
regional trafficking resource database, compiled by
AF/RA and accessible to U.S. Missions and NGOs in the
region, would include recent reports, surveys, project
documents, e-mail addresses of key organizations and
individuals and information on trafficking
disseminated by the Department's Public Diplomacy
offices. The information contained in the regional
trafficking database would be compiled by using
reputable government and non-government sources.

39. The regional trafficking resource database would
also hold information on victim assistance needs,
government responses and programs ranging from law
enforcement and social protection to indirect programs
(largely run by USAID) that address the fundamental
causes of child trafficking and child labor (such as
lack of education and employment), as well as efforts
to eliminate the practice of trafficking. In
addition, governments and NGOs would benefit by
sharing information and best practices within the
region to enhance their approach to the problem and
facilitate regional efforts. Ideally, this resource
database would foster the creation of regional and
local networks - formal and informal - among NGOs and
donor governments in the region.

USG Resources
-------------

40. The AF Bureau will work with posts and other
Washington agencies (AID and DOL) to develop anti-
trafficking programs to be funded by ESF, INL and PRM
funds. ESF allocations for Africa, in particular,
will be reviewed systematically for the inclusion of
anti-TIP programs on a regional and country-specific
basis. Posts will coordinate more closely with other
donors (e.g. DFID, NORAD, and the World Bank) and
international implementing partners (e.g. UNICEF, ILO-
IPEC, IOM) to enhance shared funding of trafficking
programs in the region. Existing programs in the
region for primary education, micro-credit, gender
equality, sustainable agriculture, labor and economic
development will be reviewed and, where appropriate,
will adopt anti-trafficking in persons goals.

--------------------------------------------- --
Short-term Objectives (June 2002-December 2002)
--------------------------------------------- --

Diplomacy
---------

--Raise the trafficking issue with host governments
within the context of the broad range of bilateral
relations (just as we have done with HIV/AIDS) to
ensure that the host governments are aware, on-board
and committed.

--Strengthen the anti-trafficking focus of existing
educational programs like the Education Democracy and
Development Initiative (EDDI).

--Encourage host governments to ratify the UN 2000
Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in Persons and the
December 2001 ECOWAS Resolution and Plan of Action and
to develop and enact national legislation to prosecute
traffickers and criminalize both trafficking and
forced child labor.

Prevention
----------

--Conduct targeted awareness campaign in identified
source communities using posters, skits and other
communications techniques best suited to a largely
illiterate audience.
--Create a resource database of anti-trafficking
offices, organizations and reports, to be available
via Internet, for U.S. missions and local host country
counterparts.

--Encourage NGOs and U.S. agencies that provide
technical assistance in general to support efforts to
target TIP source communities, especially in the area
of secondary education.

Prosecution
-----------

--Encourage host governments to ratify the UN Protocol
and the ECOWAS resolution, and to draft and enact
national legislation criminalizing TIP.

--Provide technical assistance to boost investigative
and prosecutorial capacity of host government law
enforcement agencies fighting TIP.

Protection
----------

--Design and begin implementation of technical
assistance to host governments to create an effective
framework for receiving/protecting victims of
trafficking and reintegrating them into society.

--Begin providing seed money (non-recurring costs) for
the start-up of NGO shelters in source countries.

--------------------------------------------- --
Long-Term Objectives (January 2003 - June 2004)
--------------------------------------------- --

Prevention
----------

--Help promote an accountability system to monitor
various cash crops suspected of involving child labor,
complementing programs such as the Sustainable Tree-
Crop Program in Cote d'Ivoire.

--Assist host governments' implementation of
preexisting goals of universal, compulsory primary
education at little or no cost to students and their
families.

--Integrate anti-TIP objectives into existing USG
assistance programs for primary education, micro-
credit, gender equality, sustainable agriculture,
labor and economic development.

Prosecution
-----------

--Contingent on the enactment of TIP laws, encourage
the designation of dedicated and accountable anti-TIP
law enforcement entities that cooperate within the
region and work locally with community-based
watch/prevention groups.

--Encourage expanded prosecution of corrupt officials
involved in TIP.

--Encourage host governments' cooperation with US law
enforcement TIP investigations, such as U.S. Customs
Service investigations of forced child labor used in
the production of items destined to become U.S.
imports.

Protection
----------

--Facilitate reintegration of trafficking victims into
their home settings through specialized school
programs and vocational training.

--Strengthen or create a regional network among
government agencies in the region for repatriation of
trafficking victims, probably through IOM.

(end)

ANDREWS

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