2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

G U I N E A - B I S S A U
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servitude and sexual exploitation and boys are trafficked
for forced labor as street vendors, shoe shiners,
beggars, and for forced mine and agricultural labor.
Guinean women and girls are trafficked abroad
to Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Nigeria, South
Africa, Spain, and Greece for domestic servitude and
sexual exploitation. Girls are trafficked to Guinea
from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia,
Senegal and Guinea-Bissau for sexual exploitation
and domestic servitude. Guinean men are occasionally
trafficked within Guinea for agricultural labor.
Some from the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.)
women and girls are trafficked to Guinea for sexual
exploitation. Organized trafficking networks from
Nigeria, China, India, and Greece use Guinea as a
point of transit, moving female victims through the
Maghreb countries to Europe, notably Italy, Ukraine,
Switzerland, and France.
The Government of Guinea 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. To strengthen its
response to trafficking, Guinea should pass legislation
prohibiting all forms of trafficking, increase
efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers and
rescue victims, with a focus on children subjected to
sexual exploitation.
Prosecution
The Government of Guinea made minimal efforts
to combat trafficking through law enforcement in
the last year. Guinea prohibits all forms of trafficking
in persons through separate statutes. Labor
trafficking is criminalized through Article 337 of its
1998 Penal Code, which prescribes penalties of six
months’ to 10 years’ imprisonment — penalties that
are sufficiently stringent. Forced prostitution and
child prostitution are criminalized by Article 329
of its Penal Code, which prescribes penalties of six
months’ to two years’ imprisonment if the trafficked
victim is an adult, and two to five years’ imprisonment
if the victim is a child. These penalties for sex
trafficking of adults are not sufficiently stringent
and not commensurate with penalties prescribed
for other grave crimes, such as rape. The government
arrested and jailed a suspected trafficker for
attempting to sell his daughter. The police arrested
two individuals for trafficking a minor to Liberia
for domestic servitude, but the case could not be
pursued because the victim denied the charges and
asked that the suspects be released. The police are
currently investigating two transnational trafficking
cases. During the last year, the government continued
drafting a law prohibiting all forms of trafficking
and a separate law against child trafficking
as part of a new child legal code. The government
failed to investigate reports that higher level government
officials might be protecting some traffickers.
Guinea also failed to respond to a report of child
commercial sexual exploitation.
Protection
The Government of Guinea continued to make progress
in providing care to trafficking victims during
the reporting period. Although the government does
not operate or fund victim shelters, it liaised with
NGOs to place 22 child trafficking victims in foster
homes. A government case manager monitored
each child’s care to ensure that medical and legal
services were provided. The government continued
to provide free phone service for an NGOoperated
24-hour victim hotline. The government
requires that victims participate in trafficking
prosecutions before a case may go to trial. Guinea
does not provide legal alternatives to the removal of
foreign victims to countries where they would face
hardship or retribution. Due to lack of crime data, it
is unclear whether Guinea inappropriately incarcerates,
fines, or penalizes victims for unlawful acts
committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
Prevention
The Government of Guinea continued solid efforts
to raise awareness about trafficking during the
reporting period. The government contributed
funding for some costs associated with an ILO
study on the number of children in domestic labor,
mining, and street vending, or who are associated
with drug or arms sales. The National Committee to
Combat Trafficking hosted a workshop in July 2006
to evaluate whether Guinea’s national action plan
is in compliance with ECOWAS’ trafficking guidelines,
concluding that it does comply. The government
has integrated trafficking-relatede issues into
the primary school curriculum. The Ministry of
Defense, through its own child protection office,
has developed a 2007 plan to combat child trafficking.
The government continued to contribute
personnel, vehicles and other travel resources to an
intensive national media campaign against trafficking
that it launched jointly with UNICEF in 2005.
GUINEA-BISSAU (Tier 2)
Guinea-Bissau is a source country for children
trafficked for the purposes of forced begging and
agricultural labor. Most victims are boys (talibe) trafficked
to West African countries, primarily Senegal,
by Koranic school instructors (marabouts) or their