To Better Know A Country: Human Trafficking in Djibouti

categories: Human Trafficking in Africa, To Better Know A Country

Published September 16, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT

Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a Trafficking in Persons report which rates countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking. Each week, I'll be providing a brief glance at human trafficking in one of those countries, based off the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, with my own (often snarky) analysis added. This is just a snapshot of what's going on in the country. For more information, you can check out the full text of the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report here.

This Week's Country..... Djibouti

Basic Stats

Ranking: Tier 2 Watch List

Status: Source, transit and destination country for trafficking victims

Political Stability: Djibouti is to democracy as Simon Cowell is to gushing praise.

Cash Flow: Like rain in the Sahara

Do I Think They Care?: They might care more if we stopped giggling at their name

Who Are the Victims and What Are They Doing?

Women: Commercial sex and domestic servitude

Girls: Commercial sex

Where Are They Coming From and Where Are They Going?

Victims are trafficked from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to Djibouti.

Victims from Djibouti are trafficked to the Middle East and some parts of Europe .

Victims are trafficked through Djibouti fom Ethiopia and Somalia to the Middle East, especially Yemen.

What's Gotta Happen?

Enforce anti-trafficking laws.

Educate government officials on all forms of human trafficking.

Establish victim identification procedures.

What Can I Do?

You can support Resource Exchange International, an organization which works to support development and communities in Djibouti.

In summary, Djibouti may have a funny name, but its got a serious human trafficking problem. Its location makes it the perfect transit country for slaves being transported from East Africa to the Middle East. Couple with its small size, lack of financial resources, and heavy reliance on foreign aid, Djibouti is a trafficking nightmare. Even if the government steps up efforts and fully commits to fighting trafficking, it will still be a long battle.

Share this Post

Comments (1)

We may be able to catch many of these traffickers by monitoring a few of the ACORN offices. It might be a good place to start.

Posted by Turk Fowler on 09/16/2009 @ 08:15AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- 1 person likes this comment. Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Turk
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.