Human Trafficking in Togo - Prosecution

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.