pedophiles the gambia

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

Gambian children are existence sold to British paedophiles for as footling as £ii-a-fourth dimension by their desperate parents, Sun Online tin reveal.

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

Sun Online saw first manus how poor Gambian children can exist vulnerable to British paedos when nosotros visited the beach resorts that dot Kololi on the country's picturesque Atlantic coastline.

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

gambia pedophiles child british man

A man with a British accent holds a scared toddler in his arms

The encounters witnessed included a daughter aged betwixt six and eight having lunch with a balding, white haired man in a restaurant filled with similarly anile tourists.

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

Equally unsettling was the sight of a Gambian toddler watching wide-eyed with fear equally a middle-aged white adult female got into a fist fight with a immature black prostitute at a pop beach bar.

Information technology was 11.30pm at nighttime and the air was thick with cigarette smoke. The child, no older than two, was beingness held closely by a white man with a British emphasis.

Children sold for £2

Our investigation comes as experts warn that the economic crunch 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 Melt flew 45 per cent of Gambia'south 100,000 annual visitors from the UK to the capital 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 Alliance in The The gambia, reveals that both male and female tourists are targeting African minors.

He warns: "Sex activity is cheap in my country and children are beingness sold for every bit little as 150 dalasis, or merely over £2 in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being abused and they accept it because they are and then desperate for food in their bellies.

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

"Child abuse is going on all the fourth dimension in The Gambia and the government is not doing enough to put a stop to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

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

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

"I desire to make articulate that this does not just involve men but also adult women who are paying for sex with teenage boys in The Gambia.

"We accept laws that are supposed to stop this from happening but they are not being enforced so we have get a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' later on Thomas Cook collapse

As tourism makes up one-third of the state's Gross domestic product, at that place are fears that businesses volition get bust and locals will go hungry following an estimated fifty per cent drop in economic action that has already hit beach resorts.

Lawyer and children'southward rights advocate Malick Jallow told Dominicus Online: "While some tourists will always want to help poor Gambians, others will see this state of affairs equally an opportunity to exploit young children.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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Lamin Fat, National Coordinator of the Children'southward Protection Alliance, said this male child shouldn't be in a bar so late at night, adding: "We do not encourage concrete affection with minors"

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

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

"It actually makes them feel proud then they give their permission for the boy or daughter to go with the person and when the police try to question them they volition non co-operate."

'She didn't look comfortable at all'

Erstwhile Thomas Cook rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are as poor as poor can be — it's rare to see a kid wearing shoes — and there isn't any other trade for them outside tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to always give us an actress 10kg luggage allowance so the workers and passengers could bring help boxes to The Republic of the gambia — basic things like clothes, medicine and schoolhouse equipment.

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

"Sex tourism is already huge in The gambia — some confined are similar brothels — and I practice worry that more children will go lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working there I would see old men walking with girls as immature equally 10, 11 or 12. There is a dark side to The Republic of the gambia.

"In one case when nosotros were flight back to Manchester there was a British man in his 70s with a girl who was only nigh eight or ix. This was about eight years ago. I was so concerned most what was going on that I got chatting to him outside the toilet during the flight. I wanted to speak to the girl too but she never left her seat, she didn't look comfortable at all. I reported information technology and edge security later told me the man had been 'apprehended' but I was not able to find out what happened to him or the girl after that."

Tots hand-in-hand with 'paedos'

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

There is no proof to suggest that whatsoever of the men we pictured were paedophiles.

However the experts nosotros showed our dossier of photos to said the police force 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 non be lone in tourist areas without their parents.

"Information technology is also forbidden for a child to exist in a bar so late at night and we practise non encourage concrete amore with minors.

"I work with young girls and boys and I would not hug them or pick them up, it is non appropriate."

Malick Jallow added: "I would have questioned these men had I seen them myself. As a lawyer and an activist, I would want to know if they accept the authority to be caring for that kid. We have a lot of skilful Samaritans coming to The Gambia but we besides have people who utilize charity as a forepart to hide their bad intentions.

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

British tourists can notwithstanding wing to The gambia via Lisbon with the TAP airline or via Casablanca with Purple Air Maroc. At that place is also a limited direct service run by 'The Gambia Feel' company and packet deals can exist snapped up for just over £500 a person.

Pensioners taking teens to hotels

Older British women are famed for holidaying in The Gambia, where some pick upward 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 encounter as a 2nd dwelling house — only says she was shocked by some of the things she had witnessed during her trip.

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

"It made me feel ill 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 face up them. People here are so poor, some of them volition do annihilation for coin, even if it means giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the impact of Thomas Cook closing downwards 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 then difficult.

"They are getting one-half as many British tourists and that means they might non make plenty money to get through the tranquillity season, which starts in April."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman also witnessed suspected kid abuse during her two week, winter vacation in Dec.

The social worker, 54, said: "I've seen a number of tiny African children walking around with big white men. On each occasion I thought, 'What is going on here? Where is the child'south mother?' But I didn't want to accuse anyone in case I had misread the situation."

'White men approach footling boys and girls'

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

the gambia pedophiles britain

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

He said: "I've seen white men arroyo the little boys and girls right here on the beach. I do my all-time to stop them. "I tell the children, 'Get out of here, this is not a rubber identify for yous.' The children will run abroad simply they normally come up back. It's shocking."

"Their parents are drastic for money and they know they won't be immune home until they have sold at least five bags. Some men try to take advantage of that by offering them £50 for the whole basket. Then they will enquire them to come up back to go somewhere private."

Child abuse scourge

Tragically, child abuse is now endemic in The Republic of the gambia, where 60 per cent of the ane.9m population alive below the poverty line.

Previous research has shown that paedophiles often pose as charity workers and Proficient Samaritans and then they can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is one of Africa's top destinations for child sexual activity tourism.

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

They also pledged to requite out "hefty fines" and "stiff sentences" to paedophiles that are caught.

Only incredibly there has been merely one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that man ended up being pardoned by the president.

Svein Agesandakar pedophile gambia

Svein Agesandakar was jailed for sexual offences confronting children

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

The court heard how he had tricked his fashion into a hard-upwardly Gambian family past posing as a do-gooder, giving the parents sacks of rice and new shoes in commutation for fourth dimension alone with their large brood of six kids in a hotel room.

The paedophile had dissever convictions for kid abuse in Norway but was sentenced to just 3 years in jail.

Then, in 2018 President Adama Barrow decided to pardon him for reasons that take never been explained. The pardon was later on revoked amidst a public outcry merely experts fear his instance has given a greenish lite to other paedophiles.

ECPAT is the just child rights charity that is solely focusing on ending the sexual exploitation of children.

Children in all countries of the world are at risk of trafficking and prostitution, likewise as online dangers such as grooming, sextortion and the proliferation of kid sexual corruption images.

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

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

Predator costless

In Oct last year an official UN investigation found that Republic of the gambia's tourist areas go on to exist a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and individual apartments so they can avert prying eyes.

UN Special Rapporteur Maud de Boer-Buquicchio reported: "The rare instances when complaints are lodged with the police are non duly acted upon, the gathering of compelling bear witness is delayed, and investigation and prosecution is stalled, resulting in victims or witnesses withdrawing their complaints.

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

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

A report by the Independent Inquiry into Kid Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found more needs to be done to make sure offenders operating in poor countries like The The gambia are caught and prosecuted.

Calling for a new national programme to tackle the problem, Debbie Beadle, Director of Programmes at the child protection system ECPAT Britain, said: "We hope that by bringing these institutional failings to light, the UK tin become a earth leader in tackling the abuse of vulnerable children globally, and that kid victims abroad are no longer 'nether the radar' of authorities.

Global manhunt for Aussie paedo monster Simon Gordon Davies who ran child sexual practice ring from charity set to 'help' homeless kids

Stop Child Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting primary 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 Republic of the gambia. You can donate to ECPAT hither .