pedophiles the gambia

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A tourist wades into the bounding main with a small African kid in The The gambia - where child sexual practice abuse is rife

Gambian children are being sold to British paedophiles for as trivial as £2-a-time past their desperate parents, Lord's day Online can reveal.

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

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

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

gambia pedophiles child british man

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

The encounters witnessed included a girl anile between six and viii having lunch with a balding, white haired man in a eating house 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 paw of a tiny African kid in white swimming shorts.

Equally unsettling was the sight of a Gambian toddler watching wide-eyed with fear as a middle-aged white woman got into a fist fight with a young black prostitute at a popular embankment bar.

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

Children sold for £two

Our investigation comes as experts warn that the economic crunch unleashed past 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 The Gambia's 100,000 annual visitors from the UK to the majuscule Banjul until it went into liquidation under the weight of its debts in September.

The gambia map pedophiles

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

He warns: "Sex is cheap in my country and children are beingness sold for equally little as 150 dalasis, or just over £two in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being driveling and they accept it because they are so desperate for food in their bellies.

"Others are too 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 The Gambia and the regime is non doing enough to put a finish to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

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

"Our children are being approached directly on the beaches or the street and kid abusers from all over Europe including the Britain are coming here for this.

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

"We have laws that are supposed to finish this from happening but they are not being enforced then nosotros have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' afterward Thomas Cook collapse

As tourism makes up one-third of the country'south Gdp, in that location are fears that businesses will go bust and locals will go hungry following an estimated 50 per cent drop in economic activity that has already hit embankment resorts.

Lawyer and children'southward rights advocate Malick Jallow told Sunday Online: "While some tourists will always want to help poor Gambians, others will run across this situation equally an opportunity to exploit immature children.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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Lamin Fatty, National Coordinator of the Children's Protection Alliance, said this boy shouldn't be in a bar then late at night, calculation: "Nosotros do not encourage concrete affection with minors"

"The problem is that the corruption is sometimes carried out with the blessing of the parents considering they are then in need.

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

"Information technology actually makes them feel proud and so they requite their permission for the male child or girl to go with the person and when the law try to question them they will non co-operate."

'She didn't look comfortable at all'

Former Thomas Cook rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are every bit poor every bit poor tin exist — information technology'southward rare to see a kid wearing shoes — and there isn't whatever other trade for them exterior tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to always give u.s.a. an extra 10kg luggage assart then the workers and passengers could bring assistance boxes to The Gambia — bones things similar clothes, medicine and school equipment.

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

"Sexual practice tourism is already huge in The Gambia — some bars are like brothels — and I practice worry that more children will become lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working at that place I would meet old men walking with girls as young as 10, eleven or 12. There is a dark side to The Gambia.

"One time when nosotros were flight back to Manchester there was a British man in his 70s with a girl who was merely near eight or 9. This was most viii years ago. I was then concerned about what was going on that I got chatting to him exterior 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 it 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 afterward that."

Tots hand-in-manus with 'paedos'

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

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

Nevertheless the experts we showed our dossier of photos to said the police force should have questioned them co-ordinate to Gambian child protection laws.

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

"It is as well forbidden for a child to be in a bar so late at dark and nosotros do not encourage physical amore with minors.

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

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

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

British tourists can however fly to The The gambia via Lisbon with the TAP airline or via Casablanca with Purple Air Maroc. There is as well a limited direct service run by 'The Republic of the gambia Experience' company and package deals can be 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 upwards African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Health intendance assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to enjoy a wintertime holiday in the land she has come to see as a 2nd domicile — but 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 as young as 15 or 16-years-old to their hotel room.

"It made me feel sick and I wish I could take intervened, but this is non the UK and I was scared what might have happened if I tried to face them. People here are so poor, some of them will do anything for coin, even if it ways giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the affect of Thomas Cook closing downward was articulate to see in the resort

Lucy'south mum, pensioner Marjorie Botton, 68, besides from Gloucester, added: "The plummet of Thomas Cook has hitting people and then hard.

"They are getting half every bit many British tourists and that means they might not make enough money to go through the serenity season, which starts in April."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman also witnessed suspected child abuse during her two week, winter holiday 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 idea, 'What is going on here? Where is the kid's mother?' Merely I didn't want to accuse anyone in case I had misread the situation."

'White men approach little boys and girls'

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

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 approach the little boys and girls right here on the beach. I exercise my best to cease them. "I tell the children, 'Go out of hither, this is not a safe place for you.' The children volition run abroad simply they normally come back. It'southward shocking."

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

Child abuse scourge

Tragically, child abuse is now endemic in The Gambia, where 60 per cent of the 1.9m population live below the poverty line.

Previous enquiry has shown that paedophiles oft pose as charity workers and Skillful Samaritans so they tin can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is i 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 premises.

They as well pledged to give out "hefty fines" and "potent sentences" to paedophiles that are caught.

But incredibly there has been only one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that man ended upwardly beingness pardoned past the president.

Svein Agesandakar pedophile gambia

Svein Agesandakar was jailed for sexual offences against children

Norwegian teacher Svein Agesandakar, 57, was establish guilty of abusing vi children, the youngest anile 3, in 2006.

The court heard how he had tricked his way into a hard-upwards Gambian family by posing as a do-gooder, giving the parents sacks of rice and new shoes in exchange for time lone with their large brood of six kids in a hotel room.

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

And then, in 2018 President Adama Barrow decided to pardon him for reasons that take never been explained. The pardon was later revoked amid a public outcry but experts fear his case has given a dark-green calorie-free to other paedophiles.

ECPAT is the only 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, too as online dangers such equally grooming, sextortion and the proliferation of child sexual abuse images.

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

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

Predator free

In Oct last yr an official Un investigation found that The gambia's tourist areas continue to be a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments then they tin avoid prying eyes.

Un 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 testify 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 past kid victims were allegedly inconsistent."

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

A written report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) constitute more needs to be washed to make sure offenders operating in poor countries similar The Republic of the gambia are defenseless and prosecuted.

Calling for a new national plan to tackle the problem, Debbie Beadle, Director of Programmes at the child protection organisation ECPAT UK, said: "We hope that by bringing these institutional failings to light, the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland tin can go a world leader in tackling the abuse of vulnerable children globally, and that child victims abroad are no longer 'nether the radar' of regime.

Global manhunt for Aussie paedo monster Simon Gordon Davies who ran child sex ring from clemency set upwards to 'help' homeless kids

Finish Kid Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting primary enquiry, besides as bringing together information from various sectors and countries around the earth, to form a reliable and professional range of bookish sources.The charity supports the protection of children and empowerment of 113 members in 98 countries - including The The gambia. Y'all tin can donate to ECPAT hither .