pedophiles the gambia

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A tourist wades into the sea with a pocket-size African child in The Republic of the gambia - where child sex abuse is rife

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

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

Sun Online saw get-go hand how poor Gambian children tin be vulnerable to British paedos when nosotros 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 being cared for by 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 artillery

The encounters witnessed included a daughter anile between 6 and eight having lunch with a balding, white haired human being in a eating place filled with similarly aged tourists.

The same mean solar day we saw a stoutly built man in his 50s or 60s wading into the bounding main gripping the paw of a tiny African child in white swimming shorts.

As unsettling was the sight of a Gambian toddler watching wide-eyed with fear as a middle-anile white woman got into a fist fight with a young blackness prostitute at a popular beach bar.

It was 11.30pm at dark and the air was thick with cigarette smoke. The kid, no older than two, was being held closely by a white human being with a British accent.

Children sold for £2

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

Thomas Cook flew 45 per cent of The 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 sectional interview, Lamin Fatty, the National Coordinator of the Child 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 picayune as 150 dalasis, or just over £two in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being abused and they accept information technology 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 centre, while in reality they take bad intentions.

"Kid abuse is going on all the time in The Gambia and the government is non doing enough to put a stop to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

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Two school-age girls play at the feet of 2 men, their mums nowhere in sight

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

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

"Nosotros have laws that are supposed to stop this from happening simply they are not being enforced so we have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' after Thomas Cook collapse

As tourism makes up one-third of the state'south Gdp, there are fears that businesses volition become bust and locals will become hungry post-obit an estimated fifty per cent drop in economic activity that has already hit embankment resorts.

Lawyer and children'south rights advocate Malick Jallow told Sun Online: "While some tourists will e'er want to help poor Gambians, others volition run into this situation every bit an opportunity to exploit young children.

the gambia pedophiles britain

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

"The problem is that the corruption is sometimes carried out with the approval of the parents because they are so 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 man.

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

'She didn't wait comfy at all'

Erstwhile Thomas Melt rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are as poor every bit poor tin can exist — it's rare to meet a child wearing shoes — and there isn't any other trade for them outside tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to e'er give us an extra 10kg baggage allowance so the workers and passengers could bring aid boxes to The The gambia — basic 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 The The gambia?' We were the only airline flight directly there.I've heard that crime has already shot up every bit at that place is not enough coin coming in — the manus that feeds them is gone.

"Sex tourism is already huge in The Gambia — some confined are like brothels — and I exercise worry that more children will get lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working there I would encounter one-time men walking with girls as young as 10, 11 or 12. There is a dark side to The Gambia.

"One fourth dimension when we were flying back to Manchester there was a British homo in his 70s with a girl who was only about viii or 9. This was about eight years ago. I was and so concerned about what was going on that I got chatting to him outside the toilet during the flight. I wanted to speak to the daughter likewise but she never left her seat, she didn't wait comfortable at all. I reported it and border security later told me the man had been 'apprehended' merely I was non able to discover out what happened to him or the daughter after that."

Tots paw-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 propose that whatsoever of the men nosotros pictured were paedophiles.

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

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

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

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

Malick Jallow added: "I would take questioned these men had I seen them myself. As a lawyer and an activist, I would desire to know if they take the authority to be caring for that child. We have a lot of good Samaritans coming to The The gambia but we also have people who apply charity as a front to hide their bad intentions.

"The security guards should accept questioned these men simply there is a civilization of inferiority here and they would have been scared to claiming a wealthy Westerner."

British tourists can withal fly to The Republic of the gambia via Lisbon with the TAP airline or via Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc. There is as well a limited directly service run by 'The Gambia Experience' 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 Republic of the gambia, where some choice up African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Health care assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to enjoy a winter holiday in the country she has come to meet as a 2d home — 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 every bit fifteen or sixteen-years-sometime to their hotel room.

"Information technology made me feel sick and I wish I could take intervened, but this is not the UK and I was scared what might have happened if I tried to confront them. People here are then poor, some of them volition practice anything for coin, even if it means giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the bear upon of Thomas Cook closing down was clear to meet in the resort

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

"They are getting half as many British tourists and that ways they might non make plenty coin to become through the repose flavour, which starts in April."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman too 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 around with big white men. On each occasion I thought, 'What is going on hither? Where is the kid's female parent?' But I didn't want to accuse anyone in case I had misread the state of affairs."

'White men approach little boys and girls'

Father-of-iv Abdullah Labamba, 48, runs a fruit stand up side by side 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 £ane 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 trivial boys and girls right here on the beach. I do my best to terminate them. "I tell the children, 'Get out of here, this is not a safe identify for yous.' The children volition run away merely they usually come back. Information technology's shocking."

"Their parents are desperate for money and they know they won't exist allowed dwelling until they have sold at least five numberless. Some men endeavor to take advantage of that by offering them £50 for the whole basket. Then they will ask them to come back to become somewhere private."

Kid abuse scourge

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

Previous research has shown that paedophiles often pose as clemency workers and Proficient Samaritans so they can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Republic of the gambia is one of Africa's acme destinations for child sex activity tourism.

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

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

But incredibly in that location has been but one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that human being 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-up Gambian family by posing as a do-gooder, giving the parents sacks of rice and new shoes in commutation for time alone with their large breed of 6 kids in a hotel room.

The paedophile had separate convictions for kid abuse in Norway but was sentenced to simply 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 amid a public outcry simply experts fear his case has given a light-green low-cal to other paedophiles.

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

Children in all countries of the globe are at gamble of trafficking and prostitution, likewise as online dangers such as grooming, 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 discover new victims.

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

Predator free

In October terminal year an official UN investigation found that Gambia's tourist areas keep to exist a unsafe place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments so 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 evidence 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 child victims were allegedly inconsistent."

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

A report by the Independent Enquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found 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 programme to tackle the trouble, Debbie Beadle, Director of Programmes at the kid protection organization ECPAT UK, said: "We hope that past bringing these institutional failings to light, the UK 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 authorities.

Global manhunt for Aussie paedo monster Simon Gordon Davies who ran child sex ring from charity gear up to 'aid' homeless kids

Stop Kid Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting primary inquiry, as well every bit bringing together data from various sectors and countries effectually the world, to form a reliable and professional range of bookish 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 .