Hi Jabou,

I just finished doing this translation about an hour ago and mailed it to
the journalist who wrote it. She read through it and mailed back to say
that she is quite happy with it.

Regards,

Kabir.

----------------------------------------

Child sex tourists hunt for new grounds

Child sex tourists hunt for new grounds where they can molest children
with impunity. Thailand has become too dangerous. Gambia is the new target
of paedophiles. Also Norwegian men who help poor families are suspected of
abusing small girls in The Gambia.

Inger Anne Olsen
Gambia

Risky work

Isa is 11 years and Sofie is 12. The two girls sell fruits and nuts at the
tourist beach in Gambia. Their objective is to become friends with as many
tourists as possible, get regular customers so as to get their bananas and
peanuts sold.

Isa and Sofie say that almost all the tourists are nice. But some want to
buy more than just fruits and nuts. Some want for example, to take
pictures of the two – in a compromising situation.

“We let them do it, if they promise not to make postcards or such from the
photos” says Sofie.

“Are there some who do things that you don’t like?”

“Most of them are quite nice. But some are nasty,” says the 12 year old.
She then drags her friend with her along the beach.

According to the Gambian police it is the young fruit sellers who are most
vulnerable to sexual abuse by Europeans on holidays. The Gambia does not
have child prostitution as can be seen in other countries. But the country
has many poor families. The U.N. reports that 69 percent of the population
live under the poverty line.  During some hectic winter months, the
country’s 1.5 million inhabitants are host to some 95 000 European charter
tourists. They flock on some stretch of kilometres of sparkling sandy
beach.

The fruit sellers – boys and girls in school going age – appear alone on
the beach. For them a couple of two hundred Norwegian crones is a wealth
and they stretch themselves long in order to secure money for the family.

According to the report “Gambia, the smiling coast,” written by The
Gambian organisation Child Protection Alliance (CPA) and Dutch Terre des
Hommes, many sexual abuses against children occur inside the family’s
belly, so to speak. The report states that most of the abusers who are
observed in The Gambia are European men over 45. They prefer girls between
the ages of nine and sixteen.

It is in this report that an experienced child-protection worker (social
worker) expresses her fear about what Norwegian men actually do in the
country.  The social worker who works at the “Children’s center” told CPA
about two families that receive economic assistance, each from Norwegian
men. The men pay school fees for the children and are sexual partners with
the mothers. But over time the behaviour of the children in the family has
changed in such a way that the social worker has fears that the children
are being abused sexually by the Norwegians.

Neither Kripos (Norwegian criminal police) nor The Gambian police have
received any reports about the two Norwegians. But police sergeant Havard
Aksnes of Kripos is not surprised:

“We know that paedophiles always move to places where the risk of being
apprehended is minimal, where the price is lowest and access to children
is best. Now it is away from Asia and over to Africa, Eastern Europe and
South America” according to Aksnes.

For the mean time, the police in Europe know very little about what goes
on in African countries.

“We stumble on child pornography pictures and films that are made in
Africa but we don’t even know which countries they come from” says Aksnes.

He says the paedophiles use the same methods everywhere: They are men who
come back to the country year after year, some as tourists, some under the
guise of being aid workers, some as businessmen.

“For us to be able to do something about Norwegians abroad we are
dependent on the country involved to also do something itself” says Aksnes.

Even though Norwegian Wing cut out Gambia as a charter resort in 1994,
some Norwegians still travel to the small country. Many of them travel
year after year and many eventually get Gambian friends and support poor
families economically. Most of the tourists do not break the law. But it
is in this tourists group that both Kripos and UNICEF are convinced one
should search for abusers.

Already in 2001 UNICEF warned that Gambia is vulnerable to child sex
tourism. In the report “The Situation of Children and Women in The Gambia”
UNICEF warned specifically against paedophiles who exploit poor families
and who offer to adapt or foster the families’ children.

John Staale Stamnes is Crime Intelligence Officer at Interpol’s general
secretariat in Lyon. He is worried about what happens in poor countries as
it becomes too dangerous for child abusers in the West:

“The focus that child abuse has had in the Western world has resulted in
those committing child abuses travelling to poor countries in stead. If we
don’t focus on this problem we will be guilty of adding weight to the
already heavy burden of the children in these countries” says Stamnes.

He defied the Norwegian police to investigate abuses committed by
Norwegians in the countries where the crime is committed. “Norwegian
police must be willing to allocate resources and carry out good quality
investigation under quite different conditions than we are used to at
home” say John Staale Stamnes.

The sexual age limit in The Gambia is 16 years but in certain ethnic
groups and some parts of the country it is not uncommon for a 13-year old
girl to be married away to an adult husband. Therefore it does not
necessarily cause uproar within the family if a tourist has a sexual
relationship with a young girl as long as he also takes economic
responsibility.

Gambian boys are not protected by any sexual age limit and homosexuality
is forbidden. So if a 14 year old boy is abused by an adult man the boy
can himself be prosecuted for homosexual behaviour. Up till now few cases
of abuse of boys have been reported. But Jalamang Camara, head of CPA,
tells ‘Aftenposten’ that he is worried about the lack of protection for
boys.

When the UNICEF report came out in 2001 The Gambian authorities showed
very little interest concerning child sex tourism.

In CPA’s report this is illustrated thus:

A Scandinavian man lived with a young girl. The girl’s mother got worried
and contacted The Gambian Social Security Department. But the girl’s
father was satisfied with the money the family was getting. The
authorities tried to approach the case through an acquaintant of the
family but nobody was willing to cooperate – and therefore nothing more
happened.

“Nothing happened until it became understood that it will ruin The
Gambia’s tourist industry if the country gets stamped as the new resort of
child sex tourism. But now the authorities are taking this seriously” says
Jalamang Camara. He heads the umbrella organisation Child Protection
Alliance which organises both state and private bodies with a common goal:
To prevent commercial and sexual exploitation of children.

Two years ago, The Gambian Social Security Department began registering
visa application to Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Norway filed by
children under 17 in order to prevent paedophiles ‘importing’ children
into Europe, under cover of treating them to a holiday.

But it is unclear if this registration has had any effect. Presently, it
is impossible to get a synopsis from The Gambian authorities on how many
such applications that have been received. The Norwegian ambassador in The
Ivory Coast, Egil Andhoey, also has The Gambia within his purview.  But
Andhoey has no data on the number of Gambian children who have been taken
on holidays to Norway.

“This is not a phenomenon we are preoccupied with but we will view with
total scepticism, an application for a tourist visa filed by a minor who
has been invited to Norway alone” says Andhoey.

Last winter The Gambian interior minister promised that the authorities
will take on the problem and prevent child sex tourism from having a
foothold in the country.

Even members of government have during the last months spoken out loudly
against child sex tourism. The country’s vice president, Isatou Njie-
Saidy, has read out a declaration on TV in which she condemns the
practice. Also head of crime unit Abdou Njie has used the state TV channel
to reach out with information.

And after many years with rumour that small girls were being abused at the
small hotel, John’s, at Fajara, The Gambian police has now taken action
against its British owner. He is charged with having taken pornographic
pictures and videos and with having sexual intercourse with girl minors. A
number of Scandinavian tourists have over the years lived at John’s, since
Wing, for quite a while, used it as a relief alternative.

In October, the Dutch owner of another small Gambian hotel, Holland House,
was arrested at home in The Netherlands and charged in a similar case.

“This is first and foremost about poverty,” say crime unit boss, Abdou
Njie.

“Every single child that sell fruits alone on the beach or hangs around
tourists, comes from a very poor family. Other families don’t allow their
children to be alone in the tourist areas” according to Njie.

 “Especially children who sell fruits on the beach – and the young boys
who hang around there – are vulnerable. They have never in their lives
owned 1000.00 dalasis (NOK 250.00). So a tourist comes along and gives
them 2000.00 dalasis as a present! The children think that they have come
into heaven, and they take the tourist home to meet the family and
introduce him as a friend. Then the tourist has a unhindered access. In
the few cases that we have had until now, it has been very difficult to
get the girls to witness because they just cry. It is difficult for them
to understand that we are on their side. Here, in this country girls are
brought up to preserve their virginity for a husband. So therefore, this
is a shame for them in many ways” says Abdou Njie.

Have has never had cases in which boys have been abused.

“It certainly happens with boys too. But gay sex is harder to prove. If
the boy denies it there is nothing to see” says Njie.


Places with increasing child sex tourism:
Europe: Romania. Moldavia Ukraine, Russia, the Baltics

Africa: Gambia, Ghana, Senegal

America: The while of South America and Central America

Asia: Laos and Cambodia

And here it still exists:
Sir Lanka Thailand Philippines, West coast of India

Source: Interpol and Kripos

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