2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

Prevention
The Cambodian government demonstrated modest
efforts to prevent trafficking. The Ministry of
Interior’s Anti-Trafficking Police Unit conducted
education campaigns targeting school children
about the risks of trafficking and their rights.
During 2006, the police campaign reached approximately
20,000 students in Siem Reap and 3,000
students in Phnom Penh. Working with NGOs
and international organizations, the government
implemented a national public awareness campaign
through posters, television, radio, and use of
traditional Cambodian theater. Cambodia has not
ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
CAMEROON (Tier 2)
Cameroon is a source, transit, and destination
country for women and children trafficked for the
purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Most victims are children trafficked
within the country, with girls trafficked for domestic
servitude, to work as nannies, or for sexual exploitation.
Both boys and girls are trafficked within
Cameroon for forced labor in sweatshops, bars,
restaurants, and on tea plantations. Children are
trafficked to Cameroon from Nigeria, Chad, the
Central African Republic, Congo, Benin, and Niger
for forced labor in agriculture, street vending and
spare-parts shops. Cameroonian children are trafficked
to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for domestic
servitude, and forced market and agricultural labor.
Cameroon is a transit country for children trafficked
between Gabon and Nigeria, and from Nigeria to
Saudi Arabia. Cameroonian women are sent by
sex trafficking rings to Europe, primarily France,
Germany, and Switzerland. There are also reports
that a religious leader in Cameroon’s Northern
Province holds slaves within his locked compound.
The Government of Cameroon 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, the government
should pass its draft law prohibiting trafficking
of adults, increase its law enforcement efforts
and develop a system for collecting trafficking crime
data, investigate reports of slavery, strengthen efforts
to rescue and care for victims, increase trafficking
awareness-raising initiatives, and adopt its draft
national action plan to combat trafficking.
Prosecution
The Government of Cameroon made weak law
enforcement efforts to combat trafficking during the
last year. Cameroon does not prohibit all forms of
trafficking, though it criminalizes child trafficking
and slavery through its 2005 anti-child trafficking
law, which prescribes a penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment
— a punishment sufficiently stringent and
more severe than that for rape. The government
continued to draft a law prohibiting trafficking of
adult women. In November 2006, police arrested
nine individuals for trafficking 16 Nigerian children
from Nigeria through Cameroon en route to Saudi
Arabia. According to NGOs, the government may
have prosecuted or convicted traffickers during the
year; however, it did not report this due to its lack
of a crime data collection system. Eight traffickers
whose cases have been pending since 2005 are still
awaiting trial. The government does not provide
trafficking training to law enforcement officials.
Protection
The Government of Cameroon demonstrated
minimal efforts to protect trafficking victims over
the last year. The government continued operating
temporary shelters in all 10 provincial capitals of
the country. These shelters provided care to victims
while officials located their families. The government
also continued to refer victims to NGOs and
private orphanages for assistance. In 2006, the
government began recruiting 60 social workers
it plans to train by 2008 to work in its trafficking
victim centers. In November 2006, police rescued
16 Nigerian children being trafficked through
Cameroon to Saudi Arabia, referred them to a
Cameroonian NGO, and are conducting investigations
to locate the children’s families in Nigeria.
The government does not encourage victims, most
of whom are children, to participate in investigations
or prosecutions. Cameroon provides short
term residency, a limited legal alternative to the
removal of foreign victims to countries where they
face hardship or retribution. Victims are not penalized
for unlawful acts committed as a direct result
of being trafficked.
Prevention
The Government of Cameroon made insufficient
efforts to raise awareness about trafficking during
the reporting period. With NGOs and the ILO,
the government in June 2006 jointly organized a
conference, concert and exhibit commemorating
the World Day Against Child Labor. In September
2006, the Ministry of Social Affairs launched a
radio campaign on 18 stations throughout the
country to educate the public about the dangers of
child labor exploitation.
C A M E R O O N
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