Human Trafficking Around the World (36 page)

The Court considers that the slavery situation of the applicant [Mani], although it was due to a particular individual acting in a so-called customary or individual context, gave her the right to be protected by the Nigerien authorities, be they administrative or judicial. Consequently, the defendant [the Republic of Niger] becomes responsible under international as well as national law for any form of human rights violations of the applicant founded on slavery because of its tolerance, passivity, inaction and abstention with regard to this practice. (ECOWAS, 2008)

The ECOWAS court found Niger in breach of both its domestic anti-slavery laws and those existing under the treaty of ECOWAS, all ratified by Niger. The court also awarded Mani $22,626.94 in restitution, to be paid by the Nigerien government (INTERIGHTS, 2009a). The landmark decision serves as precedent to all members of the ECOWAS (Pflanz, 2008). The Republic of Niger accepted the verdict and paid the fine in March 2009 (U.S. Department of State, 2009). In response to the decision, Mani said:

It was very difficult to challenge my former master and to speak out when people see you as nothing more than a slave. But I knew that this was the only way to protect my child from suffering the same fate as myself. Nobody deserves to be enslaved. We are all equal and deserve to be treated the same. I hope that everybody in slavery today can find their freedom. No woman should suffer the way I did. With the compensation I will be able to build a house, raise animals, and farm land to support my family. I will also be able to send my children to school so they can have the education I was never allowed as a slave. (INTERIGHTS, 2009b)

In addition to traditional slavery, Nigerien children are trafficked for forced labor in the agricultural sector, gold mines, stone quarries, as well as for domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation (particularly in Zinder and Birni-N’Konni, both cities that border Nigeria), and forced begging. While traffickers often mislead parents with promises of bright futures for their children, some parents are more involved in the process of trafficking their children within Niger. For instance, some parents facilitate in the trafficking of boys for forced cattle herding. Sometimes the boys manage to escape and return to their parents with signs of psychological and physical abuse, but parents frequently return the boys to their employers (U.S. Department of State, 2009).

Some forced-labor cases stem from the traditional practice of sending boys to koranic teachers (marabouts) to receive an education. This may include an apprenticeship or vocational component. The National Nigerien Association of Human Rights states that koranic teachers are often implicated in domestic and cross-border child trafficking from Niger, often for forced begging and manual labor. Amadou Idrissa, coordinator at the nonprofit Niger Association to Deal with Delinquency and Prevent Crime, says it is difficult to estimate the number of koranic students (
almajiris
) in Niger because marabouts move their classes frequently and their attendance lists are unreliable. The most recent data available from the Ministry of Education reveal that in 2004 there were 384,000 students registered with more than 50,000 Koranic schools in Niger. In 2009 the NGO Arewa Youth Mobilization reported that 30 percent of youths from northern Niger are almajiris (Kumolu, 2012). Begging for alms is part of these students’ daily routine. “These youths are completely dependent on their teachers, at least for their food,” Idrissa told IRIN (IRIN, 2009b). Oumarou Garba, a koranic teacher, says that Islamic principles do sanction child begging to a degree: “Once the child has received his daily quota in his tin can, he should return to his koranic teacher to pursue his religious studies and not stay on the streets. These children should under no condition serve to enrich their teacher. But certain rogue teachers take advantage of this situation to deprive children entrusted to them of an education” (IRIN, 2009b).

Children who work are vulnerable to health risks, physical injury, and exploitation, including human trafficking. The minimum age for employment is 14 (16 for hazardous labor), but roughly 66 percent of Nigerien children between ages 5 and 14 work. In fact more children in that age group work (66.2 percent) than attend school (31.1 percent). Because education is compulsory only until age 12, many children are thrust into the labor market before they are of legal employment age; as a result they are particularly vulnerable to seeking or accepting jobs that are off the grid and unregulated (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009b). Child labor can be found in Niger’s production of gold, salt, trona, and gypsum. Children also work in domestic jobs and as street vendors, beggars, dishwashers, and porters. They work in welding, carpentry, metalwork, and at slaughterhouses. Those who work at slaughterhouses face significant health and safety risks, while girls working in domestic servitude and street vending are at particular risk of physical and sexual harassment. Children who work as porters are at risk for physical injury from carrying heavy loads. A 2009 study revealed a high incidence of child worker injuries. Of 400 children who were interviewed, 38 percent reported having been injured at work (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009a, 2009b).

NIGER AS A DESTINATION AND TRANSIT NATION

Women and children are trafficked from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo to and through Niger for forced labor in agriculture and fishing, spare-parts shops and street vending, mining (gold mines and stone quarries), domestic servitude, and commercial sexual exploitation. Those who transit into Niger typically continue on to North Africa and western Europe. Teenage girls are trafficked from Nigeria through Niger to Libya and then shipped to Europe for sexual commercial exploitation. The girls are offered lucrative legitimate jobs in Europe by trafficking recruiters. When they arrive, their passports are confiscated, and they are forced into prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2010). This is exactly what occurred when a Nigerian trafficker, Samuel Osagie, transported at least 21 girls from Nigeria through Niger to Libya. When he was apprehended in Nigeria in 2008, it was discovered that Osagie resided in Libya with 21 trafficking victims, 16 of whom were teenage girls. After their rescue the Nigerian girls informed officials that Osagie had arranged with their parents for the girls to obtain legal employment in Libya as maids. He planned to deduct the transportation fee of $1,272 each from their wages. “The work promise is a ruse,” Oemi Bio Ockiya, the head of the Nigerian Immigration Department in Kano, told IRIN. “The truth of the matter is that they were going to pay the fees from the money they would make from prostitution in Europe” (IRIN, 2008).

Although Nigeria has begun using passport-reading machines to deter the use of false passports, according to Ockiya, traffickers are constantly changing their tactics to work around new enforcement strategies. In response to the state-of-the-art passport-reading machines, traffickers simply drive the victims to Niger, then to Libya, and then ship them to Europe; the border between Nigeria and Niger is simply too vast for adequate police enforcement (IRIN, 2008). Because Niger has fewer personnel and resources than Nigeria, the porous border between the two nations is significantly underpoliced. According to an anonymous Niger official, this is an issue that has to be tackled collectively (IRIN, 2008).

WHAT HAPPENS TO VICTIMS AFTER TRAFFICKING

The Nigerien government provides little direct assistance to trafficking victims, but it does refer them to NGOs on an ad hoc basis. The government has no formal system for the identification and referral of trafficking victims, nor does it offer any legal alternative to removal of foreign victims who face potential retribution or hardship upon return to their country of origin. The Ministry of the Interior does provide short-term housing of roughly one week to repatriated Nigeriens, some of whom are trafficking victims. However, while most victim assistance appears to be conducted by NGOs, local authorities have aided NGOs in the rescue, rehabilitation, and return of child-trafficking victims, though the government did not assist any foreign victims with repatriation in 2011 (U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2010, 2012).

Unfortunately, the ECOWAS court decision may not have the widespread impact on current practices and enforcement of anti-slavery legislation that NGOs had hoped for. One case that highlights this concern is that of Assibit Wanagoda, enslaved for 50 years. Wanagoda’s duties encompassed anything that her master, Tafane Abouzeidi, requested, such as collecting water and firewood, milking camels, herding goats, moving heavy tents to ensure that the lady of the house was well shaded, and even acting as the outdoor pole for her master’s tent amidst horrendous rain and winds (BBC News, 2004; The Independent, 2004; Anti-Slavery International, 2008d). After escaping in 2004, Wanagoda pressed charges against Abouzeidi. Nearly four years later a Niger court ordered that she be awarded the equivalent of $3,321.06 in restitution for her years of enslavement. Abouzeidi received a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of $165.79. In December 2008, just two months after the Mani case was decided, the Niamey Court of Appeals dismissed the case, stating that there were no grounds to prosecute Abouzeidi (Anti-Slavery International, 2008a; U.S. Department of State, 2009). Another enslavement case,
Midi Ajinalher v. Hamad Alamine and three brothers
, was pending from 2006 to at least 2011. There have been no reported developments in the case. Further evidence that the nation’s focus on traditional slavery has once again waned is that in 2008 the government provided assistance to 40 victims of traditional slavery; in 2011 it provided assistance to none (U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012).

WHAT HAPPENS TO TRAFFICKERS

Most traffickers do not face arrest, and those who do are often released without charge. For instance, in 2008 11 persons were arrested for offenses related to the trafficking of 81 children. Five of them were charged with the abduction of minors; the remaining 6 were released without charge (U.S. Department of State, 2009). In 2009 police and prosecutors rescued 78 trafficked children, but no arrests were made because the children’s families had sent them to look for work. Two alleged traffickers accused of trafficking 8 children (6 girls and 2 boys) for prostitution were arrested but then released after serving two months in jail. Marabouts arrested for exploiting children for economic purposes are commonly released soon after. For instance, in December 2011 police arrested five marabouts suspected of forcing children to beg but then released them all after two days in police custody (U.S. Department of State, 2010, 2012).

Under the Penal Code, those found guilty of practicing slavery can face up to 30 years’ imprisonment, but prosecutions are rare, and stringent sentencing is even less common. For instance, in July 2006 Seidimou Hiya was found guilty of the offense of slavery and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment with a suspended sentence of four years. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $836. On appeal, Hiya’s sentence was reduced to an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of $167 (Kaye, 2008). This outcome is not unlike the sentencing of Naroua, the person who enslaved Mani. His original sentence for slavery was a year’s imprisonment and a fine of $1,140.47. He was also ordered to pay Mani $2,280.94 in damages. Naroua filed an appeal with the local high court, and in June 2009 the tribunal gave him a suspended sentence of three years and reduced his payment to Mani to $1,140.47.
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But the trend to issue suspended sentences to traffickers may be on the decline. In 2009 there was at least one known conviction. A man found guilty of having a slave was sentenced by the tribunal of N’Guigmi to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of $20,000 in damages to the victim. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 to the government and to an anti-slavery NGO. It is unknown if he appealed the decision and, if so, whether the sentence, fine, and damages were reduced (U.S. Department of State, 2010). In June 2010 a court convicted two traffickers, who had prostituted five girls under the age of 15, under a statute prohibiting the corruption of minors. Each of the traffickers received a sentence of six months’ suspended imprisonment and a fine of roughly $100. This case occurred before the adoption of the anti-trafficking law in December 2010. The hope was that, with the new law, the identification of human trafficking cases would increase, as would prosecutions and sentencing. However in 2011 the government investigated only two suspected cases of human trafficking and did not prosecute or convict any offenders (U.S. Department of State, 2011, 2012).

INTERNAL EFFORTS TO DECREASE TRAFFICKING

The adoption of the 2010 anti-trafficking law and the proposed law that would raise the legal age for marriage to 18 (nothing has happened with this proposal since 2009)—if implemented and passed, respectively—could significantly improve the trafficking scenario in Niger. Helen Duffy, co-counsel for Mani, says passing laws that reject practices such as child marriage and slavery is an important element in protecting citizens, but it is not enough. Under the law, Niger’s obligation to protect its citizens is tied to its obligation to ensure that its laws are understood and enforced. The Mani case illustrates that the Niger courts were unaware of the nature and effect of their own laws. According to Duffy, it is critical not only that laws are in place, but that they are implemented: “There was a law criminalizing slavery in Niger when Hadijatou [Mani] and seven other
sadaka
were being held in Souleyman Naroua’s house, and it made little difference to them. Hopefully, this [the ECOWAS decision] will act as a catalyst to educate and increase awareness among judges and, more broadly, society. This is an essential prerequisite to eradicating slavery and child marriage.”
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Duffy also states that in Niger there is an inherent link between discrimination and slavery. She believes the Mani case was not just about slavery, but also inequity based on sex and social origin: “Hadijatou was sold as a sexual and domestic slave because she was a woman and because she had inherited her mother’s servile status. In turn, a representative of her mother’s master sold her to someone who was entitled under custom to own slaves because of his ‘noble’ status. This case demonstrates how extreme the effects of discrimination based on sex and social origin can be, and how important it is to challenge this fundamental problem.” Although discrimination against women and traditional slavery continue, the Mani case opened up a much-needed national dialogue on the practice of slavery. “For the first time, on the evening of the court hearing, people were acknowledging and debating openly in public the fact that slavery exists,” says Duffy. “This is an essential prerequisite to its eventual eradication, though there remains a long and challenging road ahead.”