pedophiles the gambia

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A tourist wades into the ocean with a small African child in Gambia - where child sex abuse is rife

Gambian children are beingness sold to British paedophiles for as little as £2-a-time by their desperate parents, Sun Online can reveal.

Huge numbers of predators are taking reward of lax laws in the poverty stricken African country to embark on sick child abuse holidays where they openly target little boys and girls.

Dominicus Online saw first hand how poor Gambian children can exist vulnerable to British paedos when we visited the beach resorts that dot Kololi on the country'southward picturesque Atlantic coastline.

Our reporter was constantly shocked by the number of unaccompanied African minors he saw existence cared for by center-anile, Western men who did not appear to be their biological fathers.

gambia pedophiles child british man

A human being with a British accent holds a scared toddler in his arms

The encounters witnessed included a daughter aged betwixt half-dozen and eight having lunch with a balding, white haired man in a eating place filled with similarly aged tourists.

The same day we saw a stoutly built man in his 50s or 60s wading into the ocean gripping the hand of a tiny African child in white swimming shorts.

As unsettling was the sight of a Gambian toddler watching broad-eyed with fright equally a middle-aged white woman got into a fist fight with a young black prostitute at a popular beach bar.

It was 11.30pm at night and the air was thick with cigarette fume. The child, no older than ii, was being held closely past a white homo with a British emphasis.

Children sold for £2

Our investigation comes every bit experts warn that the economical crisis unleashed by the collapse of travel firm Thomas Cook is helping turn the former British colony into a "paedophile paradise" where perverts can operate unchecked.

Thomas Cook flew 45 per cent of The Republic of the gambia's 100,000 annual visitors from the United kingdom to the uppercase Banjul until it went into liquidation under the weight of its debts in September.

The gambia map pedophiles

In an exclusive interview, Lamin Fatty, the National Coordinator of the Child Protection Brotherhood in The Gambia, reveals that both male and female tourists are targeting African minors.

He warns: "Sexual practice is cheap in my country and children are being sold for as lilliputian equally 150 dalasis, or but over £2 in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being driveling and they accept it considering they are so desperate for nutrient in their bellies.

"Others are also naïve to realise. They think the Westerner is paying their bills and helping their boy or girl out of the kindness of their heart, while in reality they have bad intentions.

"Child abuse is going on all the time in Republic of the gambia and the regime is not doing enough to put a stop to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

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Two school-age girls play at the anxiety of two men, their mums nowhere in sight

"Our children are beingness approached directly on the beaches or the street and child abusers from all over Europe including the Uk are coming hither for this.

"I want to brand clear that this does not only involve men but also adult women who are paying for sex with teenage boys in Gambia.

"We have laws that are supposed to stop this from happening merely they are not existence enforced so we have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' after Thomas Cook collapse

As tourism makes up one-3rd of the state's Gross domestic product, there are fears that businesses will go bosom and locals volition go hungry following an estimated 50 per cent drib in economic activity that has already striking beach resorts.

Lawyer and children'due south rights advocate Malick Jallow told Dominicus Online: "While some tourists will ever want to assistance poor Gambians, others will encounter this situation as an opportunity to exploit young children.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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Lamin Fatty, National Coordinator of the Children'due south Protection Alliance, said this boy shouldn't be in a bar so tardily at night, adding: "We do non encourage concrete affection with minors"

"The problem is that the abuse is sometimes carried out with the blessing of the parents because they are so in demand.

"The perception is that white people, or 'toubabs' as they call them, have stacks of cash and these parents are oft excited that their child has attracted the attention of a white man.

"It really makes them feel proud so they give their permission for the boy or girl to get with the person and when the police try to question them they will non co-operate."

'She didn't look comfortable at all'

One-time Thomas Cook rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are every bit poor as poor can be — information technology'southward rare to encounter a child wearing shoes — and there isn't any other trade for them outside tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to always give united states an extra 10kg baggage allowance then the workers and passengers could bring aid boxes to The Gambia — basic things like clothes, medicine and school equipment.

"The first thing I thought of when we went under was, 'What is going to happen to people in The Gambia?' Nosotros were the only airline flying directly there.I've heard that crime has already shot up as there is not enough money coming in — the hand that feeds them is gone.

"Sexual practice tourism is already huge in The Gambia — some confined are similar brothels — and I do worry that more children will get lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working there I would see old men walking with girls every bit young as ten, eleven or 12. There is a night side to The Gambia.

"One time when we were flight back to Manchester there was a British man in his 70s with a girl who was only about eight or ix. This was about eight years agone. I was so concerned well-nigh what was going on that I got chatting to him outside the toilet during the flight. I wanted to speak to the girl likewise but she never left her seat, she didn't look comfy at all. I reported it and edge security later told me the man had been 'apprehended' but I was non able to detect out what happened to him or the girl after that."

Tots hand-in-hand with 'paedos'

We came beyond a number of tourists with young children in the W African resortCredit: My Story Media

There is no proof to propose that any of the men we pictured were paedophiles.

However the experts nosotros showed our dossier of photos to said the police should have questioned them according to Gambian kid protection laws.

Lamin Fatty said: "This does worry me because, if the children are unaccompanied, they should not be alone in tourist areas without their parents.

"It is also forbidden for a child to be in a bar so late at night and we do not encourage physical affection with minors.

"I work with young girls and boys and I would not hug them or choice them upwardly, information technology is non advisable."

Malick Jallow added: "I would accept questioned these men had I seen them myself. As a lawyer and an activist, I would want to know if they have the authority to exist caring for that child. Nosotros have a lot of good Samaritans coming to The The gambia but we also have people who use clemency as a front to hibernate their bad intentions.

"The security guards should have questioned these men merely at that place is a culture of inferiority here and they would have been scared to challenge a wealthy Westerner."

British tourists can still fly to The Gambia via Lisbon with the TAP airline or via Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc. There is also a express directly service run by 'The Gambia Experience' company and package deals tin can be snapped upwards for just over £500 a person.

Pensioners taking teens to hotels

Older British women are famed for holidaying in Republic of the gambia, where some pick up African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Health intendance assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to enjoy a wintertime holiday in the country she has come to see as a 2nd dwelling house — but says she was shocked past some of the things she had witnessed during her trip.

She said: "I've seen former men taking girls looking as young equally 15 or xvi-years-old to their hotel room.

"It made me experience sick and I wish I could have intervened, but this is not the UK and I was scared what might have happened if I tried to confront them. People here are and so poor, some of them volition do anything for coin, fifty-fifty if it means giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the impact of Thomas Cook closing downward was clear to see in the resort

Lucy's mum, pensioner Marjorie Botton, 68, also from Gloucester, added: "The collapse of Thomas Cook has striking people and then difficult.

"They are getting half as many British tourists and that means they might not make plenty coin to become through the tranquillity season, which starts in April."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman likewise witnessed suspected child corruption during her two week, winter vacation in December.

The social worker, 54, said: "I've seen a number of tiny African children walking effectually with big white men. On each occasion I thought, 'What is going on hither? Where is the kid's mother?' Simply I didn't want to accuse anyone in instance I had misread the state of affairs."

'White men approach little boys and girls'

Male parent-of-four Abdullah Labamba, 48, runs a fruit stand next to 1 of the many hotels that line Kololi'south palm-tree fringed embankment and says he has witnessed paedophiles targeting vulnerable child workers selling peanuts for less than £i a purse.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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Fruit seller Abdullah Labamba, pictured, says paedos often target vulnerable child workers selling peanuts

He said: "I've seen white men arroyo the little boys and girls right here on the embankment. I do my best to stop them. "I tell the children, 'Get out of hither, this is non a rubber place for you lot.' The children will run away but they normally come back. It's shocking."

"Their parents are desperate for coin and they know they won't be immune home until they have sold at to the lowest degree five numberless. Some men try to take advantage of that past offering them £50 for the whole basket. And so they will inquire them to come up back to go somewhere private."

Child corruption scourge

Tragically, kid abuse is now endemic in The Gambia, where 60 per cent of the i.9m population live below the poverty line.

Previous research has shown that paedophiles often pose as charity workers and Good Samaritans so they can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is ane of Africa's height destinations for kid sex tourism.

The Gambian government meanwhile has tried to crack downward and in 2013 introduced new laws allowing them to seize hotel properties if children are knowingly driveling on the premises.

They also pledged to give out "hefty fines" and "strong sentences" to paedophiles that are caught.

But incredibly there has been only one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that man ended up existence pardoned by the president.

Svein Agesandakar pedophile gambia

Svein Agesandakar was jailed for sexual offences against children

Norwegian teacher Svein Agesandakar, 57, was found guilty of abusing six children, the youngest aged 3, in 2006.

The court heard how he had tricked his manner into a hard-upward Gambian family by posing as a practice-gooder, giving the parents sacks of rice and new shoes in exchange for fourth dimension alone with their big brood of 6 kids in a hotel room.

The paedophile had separate convictions for child corruption in Norway but was sentenced to just three years in jail.

Then, in 2018 President Adama Barrow decided to pardon him for reasons that have never been explained. The pardon was later revoked among a public outcry but experts fear his case has given a green light to other paedophiles.

ECPAT is the only child rights clemency that is solely focusing on ending the sexual exploitation of children.

Children in all countries of the globe are at run a risk of trafficking and prostitution, as well every bit online dangers such as grooming, sextortion and the proliferation of child sexual corruption images.

In recent years, the travel and tourism sector has imperilled millions of children worldwide as travelling child sex offenders find new victims.

To end these crimes, noesis and evidence must be of the highest possible quality to inform decisions and guide activity.

Predator gratis

In October concluding yr an official UN investigation plant that Gambia'due south tourist areas go along to exist a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments then they can avoid prying eyes.

United nations Special Rapporteur Maud de Boer-Buquicchio reported: "The rare instances when complaints are lodged with the police are not duly acted upon, the gathering of compelling evidence is delayed, and investigation and prosecution is stalled, resulting in victims or witnesses withdrawing their complaints.

"Some cases have also reportedly been dismissed on the grounds that statements by kid victims were allegedly inconsistent."

Our report comes after the Britain government was slammed for failing to protect children overseas from British predators.

A report past the Independent Inquiry into Kid Sexual Abuse (IICSA) plant more needs to exist done to make sure offenders operating in poor countries like The Gambia are caught and prosecuted.

Calling for a new national plan to tackle the problem, Debbie Beadle, Manager of Programmes at the kid protection arrangement ECPAT U.k., said: "We hope that by bringing these institutional failings to calorie-free, the UK can go a world leader in tackling the corruption of vulnerable children globally, and that kid victims abroad are no longer 'under the radar' of authorities.

Global manhunt for Aussie paedo monster Simon Gordon Davies who ran kid sexual activity band from charity set to 'assist' homeless kids

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting main research, every bit well equally bringing together information from various sectors and countries around the world, to form a reliable and professional range of academic sources.The clemency supports the protection of children and empowerment of 113 members in 98 countries - including The Republic of the gambia. You tin donate to ECPAT here .