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Viewing cable 09BRAZZAVILLE52, CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE - 2009 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BRAZZAVILLE52 2009-02-17 06:56 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Brazzaville
P R 170656Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1281
INFO AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
UNCLAS BRAZZAVILLE 000052 
 
 
DEPT FOR GTIP 
DEPT FOR G-ACBLANK 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM CF
SUBJECT: CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE - 2009 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 132759 
 
1. Responses are according to questions 23-27 of reftel. 
 
2. Current situation: The information for this report was 
provided to Post by officials of UNICEF, the Ministry of Justice 
(MOJ) and the Ministry of Health (MOH)who work with trafficking 
concerns.  The Republic of Congo (ROC) is a destination country 
for children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and, to 
a minor extent, commercial sexual exploitation.  In 2007-8, 
community leaders and police in Pointe Noire identified 29 
children as victims of trafficking, the majority from Togo, 
Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mali, 
Guinea, Cameroon and Senegal are also source countries. However, 
the MOJ estimates that there are presently approximately 1,800 
victims of trafficking throughout the ROC. There are no official 
records or reports to substantiate this estimate. Repatriation 
of victims has not occurred due to a lack of process and 
funding. Children trafficked from Benin and Togo are located in 
Pointe Noire, the commercial port center and are forced into the 
fishing industry, many eventually moving toward forced labor in 
the market places.  MOH officials believe that Beninois who live 
in Pointe Noire travel to Benin and recruit the children by 
promising parents that their children will have a better 
education and future in the Congo. The arrival of trafficked 
children is still not documented.  Girls are trafficked from 
rural areas to Pointe Noire and Brazzaville for forced street 
vending and domestic servitude. Children trafficked from the DRC 
are located primarily in Brazzaville and are trafficked for 
forced commercial activities and, to a lesser extent, sexual 
exploitation. The GROC is not able to provide numbers or facts 
with regard to sexual exploitation as no records have been 
developed or maintained.  There have been no changes since the 
last TIP report. 
 
3. Who are the Traffickers: Pointe Noire is home to a large 
number of Beninois who have a successful fishing industry.  A 
large number of children are thought to be trafficked from Benin 
to support the fishing industry. The majority of trafficked 
children end up in commercial activities, forced market labor, 
selling charcoal and vegetables. There is no specific 
information available about sexual exploitation.  Young girls, 
aged 12, arrive from the DRC and are in `maisons caches' - 
hidden houses - in Brazzaville, but soon end up in the markets 
selling fruits and vegetables. There are no organized groups 
that traffic in children. Because of a lack of social services, 
the MOH reported that it is extremely difficult to distinguish 
Congolese street children from the children who have been 
trafficked. 
 
4. Setting the Scene:  ROC is still considered a post-conflict 
country.  The GROC has not developed databases or recordkeeping 
processes in most segments of its administration. There are no 
government archives, statistics, or reports on this issue. The 
government is very limited in its ability to deal with problems 
of this nature due to, among other things, lack of program 
funding, non-existent data gathering capability, lack of 
effective border control, and overall corruption within various 
bureaucratic institutions. Local non-government organizations 
are limited in their ability to identify the nature and extent 
of the problem. 
 
5. In spite of these limitations, the GROC has acknowledged that 
a trafficking problem does exist and has spent the past three 
years working with staff of the local UNICEF to develop a 
National Plan of Action that has been implemented and a Child 
Protection Code that addresses trafficking  that is still 
waiting to be passed by Parliament. The Minister of Health, 
Director General of the Ministry of Health, and MOH officials 
have taken the lead in anti-trafficking efforts. Until the law 
is finalized, there is no funding to support anti-trafficking 
activities. UNICEF provides funding from its country allocation 
for trafficking awareness programs and training, and while the 
GROC is supposed to match one-third of UNICEF's expenditures, 
the match has never been received. The GROC provides its match 
in terms of rooms and seminar set-up and training. 
 
6. Involvement of government agencies:  A working group 
consisting of two non-governmental organizations, ALTO and 
L'Espace pour Les Enfants, UNICEF, members of the Consulates of 
Benin, Togo and the DRC, police and law enforcement 
representatives, and community leaders that include Muslim and 
Christian groups, have developed a working group of 
communication. The MOH established this working group in order 
to present a `train the trainer' workshop to 34 key individuals. 
 
7. Assistance: The GROC has not allocated any funding for the 
specific purposes of identifying victims of trafficking, housing 
the victims, or returning them to their home countries. 
 
8. Monitoring:  The GROC has not established databases, 
recordkeeping, procedures or policies for victims of 
trafficking. 
 
9. Existing laws:  There have not been any laws passed regarding 
trafficking since the last TIP. The MOJ confirmed that there 
were no investigations, arrests, prosecutions, extraditions, 
convictions or sentences imposed in 2008 for alleged 
trafficking. As there are no laws specifically prohibiting 
trafficking, there are no prescribed or imposed penalties for 
trafficking people for sexual or labor exploitation. The law 
prescribes five to 10 years in prison for persons convicted of 
rape.  There is no national database that records how many 
arrests were made for rape. As there is no law against 
trafficking, there are no prescribed penalties for crimes of 
trafficking persons for sexual exploitation to compare to the 
penalties against rape. Prostitution and pimping are both 
illegal under ROC law, but the crimes are rarely prosecuted or 
the laws enforced.  While prostitution is common, the extent of 
pimping is neither well-known nor monitored. There were reports 
of isolated cases of child prostitution among the large numbers 
of street children in the main cities of Brazzaville and Pointe 
Noire, but this has not been linked to victims of trafficking. 
This appears to be more economically motivated as street 
children attempt to find means to buy food and other necessary 
items. 
 
10. Protection: There is no specialized care, medical services 
or government funded facilities for any victims of trafficking. 
The government does not offer financial assistance to victims. 
There is no referral process in place. There are no records of 
detention or jailing of a victim of trafficking. Victims may 
file a civil suit but none has ever been filed. Training 
workshops funded by UNICEF and carried out by the MOH address 
providing assistance through local NGOs, such as ALTO and 
L'Espace pour Les Enfants.  Local NGOs report cooperative 
efforts by the GROC but do not receive financial assistance from 
the GROC. The GROC does not provide assistance to foreign 
trafficking victims. 
 
11. The GROC has established a solid working relationship with 
the Consulates of Benin and Togo in Pointe Noire. A member of 
the MoH observed the Nigeria-Benin Joint Agreement to Stop 
Trafficking between those two countries. A Memorandum of 
Understanding has been signed between the RoC and Benin to 
develop cooperative efforts to assist trafficking victims. 
 
12. There is no evidence of tolerance or involvement in 
trafficking by government officials. 
 
13. Prevention: The Government of the Republic of the Congo 
(GROC) conducted several anti-trafficking awareness campaigns in 
the commercial port city of Pointe Noire during 2008. The 
Ministry of Health (MOH) held training workshops that were 
funded by UNICEF that included members of the Departments of 
Justice, Social Affairs, Security and diplomatic staff of the 
consulates of Benin, Togo and Democratic Republic of the Congo 
(DRC) and local Muslim and Christian community leaders. Banners, 
the main method of advertising, were prominently displayed 
throughout Pointe Noire and Brazzaville during most of 2008. The 
banners stressed the point that trafficking is illegal and will 
not be tolerated. 
 
14. The GROC does not monitor immigration or emigration 
patterns.  Databases are being created, and the National Action 
Plan, which has been implemented and will be funded with the 
passage of the Child Protection Code/Law by parliament, will 
create databases specific to trafficking victims and patterns. 
 
15. A National Plan of Action has been implemented by the GROC, 
MOH and UNICEF leaders. This plan called for training seminars. 
UNICEF trained the trainers, members of the MOH, who then 
provided workshops to members of the various agencies mentioned 
in paragraph 5. The National Plan of Action will create 
databases to track and record victims of trafficking, provide 
funding for a department within the MOH to address trafficking, 
provide training to all law enforcement, and develop a return 
and reinsertion program for trafficked children.  As of January, 
2009, a Children's Protection Law, which has been submitted to 
Parliament twice and twice rejected for minor amendments, has 
not been passed. 
 
16. Congo-Brazzaville is not a destination for child sex tourism. 
 
 
EASTHAM