pedophiles the gambia

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

Gambian children are being sold to British paedophiles for as little as £2-a-time past their drastic parents, Sun Online can reveal.

Huge numbers of predators are taking advantage of lax laws in the poverty stricken African country to embark on ill child corruption holidays where they openly target niggling boys and girls.

Lord's day Online saw first paw how poor Gambian children tin be vulnerable to British paedos when we visited the beach 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 beingness cared for by heart-aged, Western men who did non 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 anile between half-dozen and viii having dejeuner with a balding, white haired man in a restaurant filled with similarly aged tourists.

The same 24-hour interval we saw a stoutly congenital man 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 as a eye-aged white adult female 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 smoke. The child, no older than two, was beingness held closely by a white homo with a British accent.

Children sold for £two

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

Thomas Cook flew 45 per cent of The The gambia's 100,000 almanac visitors from the Uk to the capital Banjul until information technology 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 Alliance in The Gambia, reveals that both male and female tourists are targeting African minors.

He warns: "Sex is cheap in my country and children are being sold for as petty as 150 dalasis, or just over £two in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being abused and they take information technology because they are so desperate for food in their bellies.

"Others are too naïve to realise. They remember the Westerner is paying their bills and helping their male child or daughter out of the kindness of their heart, while in reality they take bad intentions.

"Child abuse is going on all the time in The The gambia and the regime is non doing enough to put a cease to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

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Ii 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 Britain are coming here for this.

"I want to make articulate that this does not just involve men just too developed women who are paying for sex with teenage boys in The Gambia.

"Nosotros accept laws that are supposed to stop this from happening but they are not being enforced and then we have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' afterward Thomas Cook collapse

Every bit tourism makes up one-third of the state'due south GDP, in that location are fears that businesses volition become bust and locals volition get hungry following an estimated 50 per cent drib in economical activity that has already striking beach resorts.

Lawyer and children's rights advocate Malick Jallow told Sun Online: "While some tourists will always want to assistance poor Gambians, others will see this situation as an opportunity to exploit young 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 so late at night, adding: "Nosotros do not encourage physical affection with minors"

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

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

"It actually makes them feel proud and so they give their permission for the boy or girl to go with the person and when the police endeavour to question them they volition not co-operate."

'She didn't await comfortable at all'

Former Thomas Cook rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are every bit poor equally poor can be — it's rare to see a child wearing shoes — and at that place isn't any other trade for them exterior tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to always give united states of america an extra 10kg baggage assart so the workers and passengers could bring aid boxes to The Republic of the gambia — basic things similar dress, medicine and schoolhouse equipment.

"The first thing I idea of when we went under was, 'What is going to happen to people in The gambia?' Nosotros were the only airline flying direct at that place.I've heard that crime has already shot upwardly every bit there is not enough money coming in — the hand that feeds them is gone.

"Sex activity tourism is already huge in Gambia — some bars are like brothels — and I do worry that more children will get lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working at that place I would see old men walking with girls as immature as 10, 11 or 12. At that place is a dark side to The The gambia.

"One time when we were flying back to Manchester there was a British man in his 70s with a girl who was merely about eight or nine. This was about 8 years agone. I was and then concerned nigh what was going on that I got chatting to him outside the toilet during the flight. I wanted to speak to the daughter too 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 not able to find out what happened to him or the girl after that."

Tots hand-in-hand with 'paedos'

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

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

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

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

"Information technology is also forbidden for a child to be in a bar so late at night and we do not encourage concrete amore with minors.

"I work with immature girls and boys and I would non hug them or option them upwards, information technology is not 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 dominance to exist caring for that child. We accept a lot of good Samaritans coming to The gambia simply we also take people who use charity as a front to hibernate their bad intentions.

"The security guards should have questioned these men but there 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 Majestic Air Maroc. There is also a limited direct service run past 'The Gambia Experience' visitor and package 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 upwardly African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Wellness care assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to savour a winter holiday in the country she has come to run into every bit a second habitation — just says she was shocked by some of the things she had witnessed during her trip.

She said: "I've seen sometime men taking girls looking every bit young as 15 or 16-years-old to their hotel room.

"Information technology made me feel sick and I wish I could accept intervened, only this is non the Britain and I was scared what might have happened if I tried to confront them. People here are and so poor, some of them will do anything for coin, fifty-fifty if it means giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the bear on of Thomas Cook closing down was clear to see in the resort

Lucy's mum, pensioner Marjorie Botton, 68, also from Gloucester, added: "The collapse of Thomas Cook has hit people so hard.

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

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman too witnessed suspected child abuse during her two week, wintertime vacation in December.

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

'White men approach little boys and girls'

Male parent-of-four Abdullah Labamba, 48, runs a fruit stand up next to ane 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 bag.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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

He said: "I've seen white men approach the footling boys and girls right here on the beach. I do my best to stop them. "I tell the children, 'Go out of here, this is non a safe identify for you.' The children volition run away but they normally come up back. It'southward shocking."

"Their parents are desperate for coin and they know they won't be allowed home until they take sold at least five bags. Some men try to take advantage of that past offering them £50 for the whole basket. Then they will ask them to come back to become somewhere private."

Child abuse scourge

Tragically, kid abuse is now endemic in The gambia, where 60 per cent of the 1.9m population alive below the poverty line.

Previous research has shown that paedophiles ofttimes pose as clemency workers and Proficient Samaritans so they tin can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is ane of Africa's top destinations for child 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 "stiff sentences" to paedophiles that are caught.

But incredibly there has been only one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that homo ended up being 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 6 children, the youngest anile three, in 2006.

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

The paedophile had dissever convictions for child abuse in Norway just 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 amidst a public outcry but experts fear his case has given a green calorie-free to other paedophiles.

ECPAT is the but child rights clemency that is solely focusing on catastrophe the sexual exploitation of children.

Children in all countries of the globe are at risk of trafficking and prostitution, also as online dangers such equally preparation, sextortion and the proliferation of child sexual abuse 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, knowledge and bear witness must exist of the highest possible quality to inform decisions and guide activity.

Predator gratis

In October last twelvemonth an official UN investigation plant that The gambia'south tourist areas proceed to be a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments so they can avoid prying eyes.

Un Special Rapporteur Maud de Boer-Buquicchio reported: "The rare instances when complaints are lodged with the law are non 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 besides reportedly been dismissed on the grounds that statements past kid victims were allegedly inconsistent."

Our report comes after the UK authorities was slammed for declining to protect children overseas from British predators.

A report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) establish more than 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 program 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 low-cal, the Great britain can go a world leader in tackling the abuse of vulnerable children globally, and that child victims abroad are no longer 'under the radar' of authorities.

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

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting primary research, every bit well as bringing together information from various sectors and countries around the world, to grade 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 Gambia. You can donate to ECPAT hither .