Trafficking in Persons (TOGO REPORT) 2008

TOGO (Tier 2)

Togo is a source, transit and, to a lesser extent,
a destination country for women and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and
commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within
Togo is more prevalent than transnational trafficking
and the majority of victims are children.
Togolese girls are trafficked primarily within the
country for domestic servitude, as market vendors,
produce porters, and for commercial sexual
exploitation. To a lesser extent, girls are also trafficked
to other African countries, primarily Benin,
Nigeria, Ghana, and Niger for the same purposes
listed above. Togolese boys are most commonly
trafficked transnationally to work in agricultural
labor in other African countries, primarily Nigeria,
Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, and Benin, though some boys
are also trafficked within the country for market
labor. Beninese and Ghanaian children have also
been trafficked to Togo. There have been reports
of Togolese women and girls trafficked to Lebanon
and Saudi Arabia, likely for domestic servitude and
sexual exploitation. Togolese women may be trafficked
to Europe, primarily to France and Germany,
for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. In
the last year, 19 Togolese girls and young women
were trafficked to the United States for forced labor
in a hair salon.
The Government of Togo 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. Togo demonstrated
solid law enforcement efforts by increasing
the number of traffickers convicted. However,
sentences imposed on convicted traffickers were
inadequate and protection efforts were diminished
over last year.
Recommendations for Togo: Increase efforts to
prosecute and convict traffickers; continue to ensure
that convicted traffickers receive adequate sentences
involving jail time; pass a law prohibiting the trafficking
of adults; provide care for male victims older
than 15 years of age; and establish the National
Committee to Combat Child Trafficking mandated
in Togo’s 2005 law against child trafficking.
Prosecution
The Government of Togo demonstrated sustained
law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking
during the last year. Togo does not prohibit all
forms of trafficking, though in July 2007, the
government enacted a Child Code that criminalizes
all forms of child trafficking. This law supplements
Togo’s 2005 Law Related to Child Trafficking,
which criminalizes the trafficking of children,
but provides a weak definition of trafficking and
fails to prohibit child sexual exploitation. Togo’s
maximum prescribed penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment
for child labor trafficking is sufficiently
stringent. The prescribed penalties of one to five
years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking of children
15 years and older and 10 years’ imprisonment for
sex trafficking of children younger than 15 years
are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with
penalties prescribed for statutory rape. On June 15,
2007 five traffickers were convicted in the northern
cities of Kara and Sokode. They were sentenced to
penalties of one to two years’ imprisonment, and
some also paid a fine of $2,000 each, five times
Togo’s per capita income. In September 2007,
Togolese and American officials worked together
to expel an American accused of child sex tourism
from Togo. In 2007, with support from UNICEF,
the government organized four five-day workshops
and provided some instructors to train 108 law
enforcement officials, including magistrates, police,
gendarmerie, military and customs officers, on
strategies for enforcing laws against child trafficking.
The government relies largely on ILO-funded
local vigilance committees, usually composed of
local government officials, community leaders, and
youth, to report trafficking cases.
Protection
The Togolese government demonstrated modest
efforts to protect trafficking victims over the last
year. Togolese law enforcement officials regularly
referred trafficking victims to government authorities
or NGOs for care. The Ministry of Social Affairs,
the Ministry of Child Protection, and The National
Committee for the Reception and Reinsertion of
Trafficked Children assisted victims primarily by
alerting two NGOs in Lome that provide immediate
victim care, and by working with these organizations
to return victims to their home communities.
In 2007, however, the Minister of Child Protection
also established a vocational training center for
destitute children where the government has placed
some trafficking victims before returning them
to their families. The government reported that
it referred 224 trafficking victims to one NGO in
Lome during the year and that 56 Togolese victims
trafficked abroad were intercepted and repatriated
in 2007. Neither the government nor NGOs provide
any care for male victims older than 15 years. The
government sometimes encourages victims to assist
in trafficking investigations or prosecutions on an
ad hoc basis. The government does not provide
legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims
to countries where they face hardship or retribution;
however the majority of victims are Togolese.
Victims are not inappropriately incarcerated or
fined for unlawful acts as a direct result of being
trafficked.
Prevention
The Government of Togo made steady efforts
to raise awareness about trafficking during the
reporting period. With UNICEF support, in 2007
the government organized a trafficking training
for journalists. With assistance from UNICEF, ILO,
and local NGOs, the government also developed
a national action plan to combat trafficking and a
manual on trafficking victim protection procedures.
Local government officials continued to play an
active role as members of ILO-funded local antitrafficking
committees to raise awareness of trafficking
by organizing skits and radio announcements in
local language. Togolese troops deployed abroad as
part of peacekeeping missions receive some trafficking
awareness training prior to their deployment.
Although the 2005 anti-trafficking law called for a
National Committee to Combat Trafficking, this
coordinating body has not yet been established.
Togo did not take measures to reduce demand for
commercial sex acts. Togo has not ratified the 2000
UN TIP Protocol.