U.S. Department of State 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report - Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea (Tier 2 Watch List)

Equatorial Guinea is a transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and commercial sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked from surrounding countries – primarily Benin, Nigeria, Mali, and Cameroon – to work in the agricultural and commercial sectors of Malabo and Bata, where demand is high due to a booming oil sector. Children work as farmhands, street vendors, and household servants. Girls and women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation from Cameroon, Togo, Nigeria, and China to Malabo and Bata.

The Government of Equatorial Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Equatorial Guinea is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide adequate evidence of concrete measures to address trafficking over the past year. The government's initial progress made in the prior year appears to have stalled. Specifically, the government made insufficient law enforcement and victim protection efforts, despite having substantial resources. The government, however, conducted some anti-trafficking awareness campaigns and adopted a national anti-trafficking action plan. Additionally, the government launched a campaign to shut down unlicensed foreign shopkeepers in Equatorial Guinea intended, in part, to reduce the incidence of child trafficking. To strengthen its anti-trafficking efforts, the government should educate law enforcement and government officials about its trafficking legislation and increase victim protection efforts.

Prosecution

The Government of Equatorial Guinea made minimal law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking during the reporting period. Although Equatorial Guinea enacted an anti-trafficking law in 2004, the government was unable to report any trafficking arrests or prosecutions during the reporting period. The President of the Supreme Court held a weeklong workshop for all the judges in the country on family law that included seminars on trafficking. The government also passed decrees stating that parents of children working at night would be arrested. The government does not provide law enforcement officials with training on trafficking and has not been active in investigating trafficking cases. Equatorial Guinea has no system of monitoring immigration or emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking or for collecting trafficking crime statistics. The government did not report any investigations or prosecutions of public officials complicit in trafficking.

Protection

Equatorial Guinea provided insufficient protection and care to trafficking victims during the reporting period. The government currently has no facilities for providing care to victims, although the new anti-trafficking action plan calls for the creation of shelters. Equatorial Guinea lacks a screening and referral system to identify and transfer victims found by government officials to NGOs providing victim care. While the government has expressed willingness to support a local NGO shelter, the shelter has not yet received assistance. The government reports that it supports two additional NGO shelters, but has not released details about the extent of its contribution. The government, however, does assist in the repatriation of foreign victims to their home countries.

Prevention

Equatorial Guinea continued to make modest efforts to prevent trafficking during the reporting period. The government conducted several awareness-raising campaigns, including a radio campaign about the anti-trafficking law. Equatorial Guinea adopted a national anti-trafficking action plan in February 2006.