Tijan, Angelika and Sis Jabu:



You've all hit on the various pertinent questions to be asked of the
parents, authorities, victims and perpetrators.



Parents, I agree, need to value the love and care needed by their offspring
to help them weave through the intricacies of life into maturity and self
reliance. They need to nurture values at home to help these innocent kids
understand that their dignity and prosperity is of the utmost import
regardless of what life may throw at them. The example starts at home, what
these kids see happening and what other social activities are there for them
to be occupied with. I can understand the hardship that most of these
parents go through to put a decent meal up for the family on a daily basis
but it all comes down to how much we value our dignity and how far we want
to go in order to survive. I will neither absolve nor blame the parents
hundred percent, granted I don't have full knowledge of the individual
circumstances of the parents and kids involved. However, I must say this;
the moral compass in the Gambian society has been whacked of late as Sis
Jabu alluded.



The authorities, as I understand from the excerpt of the report, are taking
steps in the right direction to implement and enforce laws to curb the trend
but there is still much to be desired in that regard. It is great and
encouraging having laws in the books but it should take much more effort to
ensure these laws are enforced to set good examples for would be
perpetrators. The authorities must go further to include an element of
social re-engineering and using mass education. Awareness is the key as one
of you mentioned. The government, NGOs and civil societies must recognize
the need to curb the urge for these kids to fall for the perpetrators. I
understand the CPA is very much involved in such activities but it sounds
like they need more resources and support not just form government but from
individuals, private businesses and religious groups. Private entities like
Africell keep shelling out millions of dalasis in lotteries every now and
then, I don't see a reason why they should not be willing to give back to
community by organizing summer camps, and things like that for these
vulnerable kids. They can also sponsor the CPA to say, print millions of
pamphlets to educate parents, tourists and kids to be aware of the dangers
and the consequences therein. Tourist that set foot in Gambia should be
greeted with a pamphlet outlining the problem and emphasize the legal and
social consequences of exploiting these vulnerable kids.



The victims, the sore losers in this whole phenomenon, receive both ends of
the sword. Some blame them for being greedy and materialistic while they are
being exploited for being destitute in most instances. Again, education is
the key here. As a society, everyone has the duty to recognize and act on
our moral and social responsibility to help the future of our nation. As
parents, government, religious groups, NGOs, hoteliers, we must all
recognize in these kids the value they can bring into our social uplifting
in being productive citizens of today and tomorrow. We cannot sit and watch
or future generation ruined right in front of our eyes while we go about our
normal business. That is wrong to the core! These kids have no voice in
society, we must be the voice for the voiceless. Instead of going round
casting blame on the victims themselves, we must find a way to channel the
fury in us to better things in order to avoid the victimization in the first
place.



In the eyes of the perpetrators, they see the social degradation as perfect
and fertile grounds to exercise their moral turpitude at the detriment of
the most vulnerable. These perpetrators must be deterred before they act.
Emphasis must be placed on deterrence rather than punishment and
restitution. Like I mentioned earlier, the first thing any single tourist
must know the moment they set foot on our soil is the fact that acts of
moral turpitude of such grave nature will not be condoned by  the
authorities and the people of Gambia. If they decide not to come to the
Gambia, so be it. One of the greatest tourist destinations in the world
today - Dubai - has laws against such behavior and are very much enforced.
Just the other day I read about a British couple caught having sexual
encounter on one of beaches. They got six months in jail and deportation
immediately after serving their sentence. These were mature adults folks.
What I'm trying to say is that yes we can have our cake and eat it when it
comes to tourism and the safeguard of our moral and social values.



I've said too much already but thanks for the discussion.

-Laye

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Abdoulie Jallow <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>   GAMBIA: Sex tourists exploiting children
> ------------------------------
>
>
> Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN <http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx>
> <http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=2008103010> Security
> staff at the Ocean Bay hotel Gambia are trained to stop tourists from
> entering hotels with under-age sex workersBAKAU, 30 October 2008 (IRIN) -
> Child protection experts say sexual exploitation of children by tourists is
> on the increase in The Gambia, despite national laws against it.
>
> "More and more children are working in the sex industry with tourists,"
> said Bakary Badjie, programme officer with the non-profit coalition the
> Child Protection Alliance (CPA). "Sexual relations between children and
> tourists are shifting from hotels, deeper into communities, where it is
> harder to track."
>
> Though the latest comprehensive report on the problem – by the UN
> Children's Fund (UNICEF) – is from 2003, anecdotal evidence shows the
> practice has grown since then, said Badjie.
>
> A sex worker, 23, who asked not to be named, told IRIN many of her fellow
> sex workers are under 18, and most of her clients are Western male tourists.
> They work in Bakau, a suburb of Banjul popular with tourists. At least half
> of the female Gambian sex-workers UNICEF talked to for its 2003 report said
> they started as a sex worker before the age of 18, some as early as age 12.
>
> *Why *
>
> Many of the girls involved come from deprived socio-economic backgrounds,
> have dropped out of school, or have been uprooted from rural areas and lost
> the protection of their extended families, according to Badjie.
>
> The girls can earn up to 2,000 Dalasi (US$83) a day through this work, he
> said, versus the $1 a day majority of working Gambians earn, according to
> World Bank figures.
>
> They may receive presents such as watches or mobile phones, and some
> consider themselves the 'girlfriends' of return tourists, according to
> Ousman Kebbeh, tourism resource officer for GTA.
>
> He told IRIN many of the girls are also "duped" into getting involved in
> the sex industry, through offers of payment of school or medical fees.
> "Tourists…take advantage of poor girls…they approach them and say 'I will
> sponsor your education'. They do not just stop at the girls…they even
> approach the parents," he said.
>
> According to UNICEF's research, some of the girls' families do not view the
> work as exploitative child labour, and many of the girls involved no longer
> consider themselves children.
>
> Many of the mainly European tourists involved come to Gambia specifically
> looking for "cheap sex" with young girls, and some tour operators even
> promote these services to their clients as a lure, said Badjie. Tourists
> meet girls in clubs, on the beaches, in the streets, through "bumsters" –
> local men who act as intermediaries – and even at school gates, according to
> the non-profit group End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking.
>
> *Government response *
>
> UNICEF representative in The Gambia, Min Whee Kang, told IRIN the
> government is reluctant to emphasise child sex tourism as a problem because
> the country relies so heavily on tourist dollars. This is particularly the
> case for the upcoming 2008-09 season, she said, given concerns that the
> global financial crisis could force many tourists to cancel holidays.
>
> With an average of 100,000 travelers per year, according to the Gambia
> Tourism Authority (GTA), tourism brings in approximately 16 percent of The
> Gambia's national income, and 30 percent of its export earnings, according
> to the World Bank. One in five private sector jobs in The Gambia is in the
> tourism sector, according to a 2008 Overseas Development Institute report.
>
> Kang and other child rights experts say the government has made some
> positive steps. The Gambia in 2005 passed the Children's act, which
> harmonises Gambian laws relating to children with the UN Child Rights
> Convention, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and
> other international conventions, according to UNICEF. "The [2005] act is
> quite strong," said Badjie. UNICEF's Kang calls it "a good start…it provides
> the framework for a protective environment."
>
> The government also passed the Tourism Offences Act in 2003 to regulate
> tourists' behavior and outline how hotel owners should act when tourists
> break the law, Kang said. The government has also set up an army-led tourism
> security unit to protect tourists and Gambians.
>
>   [image: '']*Sexual relations between children and tourists are shifting
> from hotels, deeper into communities, where it is harder to track*[image:
> ''] The GTA now has a code of conduct for tourists outlining punishments
> for child protection abuses, which UNICEF and the CPA helped develop. Under
> current law, tourists who sexually abuse a child, whether or not they
> believed the child to be over 18, could face up to 14 years in prison if
> convicted.
>
> "These [laws] have done a lot to curb the situation," Kebbeh told IRIN,
> citing the case of a Norwegian teacher who was recently tried in Norway for
> having sexual relations with a child in The Gambia.
>
> A child pornography case involving tourists is currently being reviewed by
> a court in the capital Banjul.
>
> *Enforcing the law *
>
> But it has been difficult for the GTA to enforce tourist-related laws,
> according to the child protection group CPA. The GTA's Kebbeh said some
> hotels such as the Ocean Bay in Bakau proudly display the code of conduct in
> their lobbies, which helps to raise awareness, but no one is tasked with
> evaluating whether staff adhere to it.
>
> The CPA and UNICEF train immigration and department officials as well as
> hotel staff, from security guards to receptionists, in the code.
>
> "If we see an underage girl who is not a guest entering the hotel, the
> security guards now automatically refer her to reception," said Suleyman
> Corr, duty manager at the Ocean Bay hotel. "We don't allow teens to be used.
> And guests now have to pay for all additional visitors who go to their
> rooms."
>
> When asked if he knew of security guards accepting bribes to let girls
> through, he said, "Of course it is a possibility but we haven't heard of
> it."
>
> Other hotels are stricter and stipulate that no one other than the person
> booked can stay overnight, or ban "bumsters" from their premises. "These are
> basic but effective measures," a hotel manager told IRIN.
>
> Kang said UNICEF would be willing to help the GTA monitor sex tourism, but
> ultimately the responsibility lies with the GTA. According to her it is also
> up to tour operators to promote responsible tourism. Tour operators IRIN
> contacted did not wish to comment on the issue.
>
> But the practice will not end, hotel manager Corr said, unless the GTA goes
> into villages and communities where tourists are increasingly renting houses
> or staying at smaller, less regulated hotels.
>
> "We have to take the fight to the community level, to get families,
> teachers and community leaders involved in better protecting children if
> we're going to be able to reduce the rates [of child sexual exploitation],"
> Badjie said.
>
> aj/mc/np
>
> *Themes:* (IRIN) Children <http://www.irinnews.org/Theme.aspx?Theme=CHI>,
> (IRIN) Economy <http://www.irinnews.org/Theme.aspx?Theme=ECO>, (IRIN) Urban
> Risk <http://www.irinnews.org/Theme.aspx?Theme=URB>
> [ENDS]  Report can be found online at:
> http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81205
>
> [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
>

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