pedophiles the gambia

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A tourist wades into the body of water with a small African child in Gambia - where child sex corruption is rife

Gambian children are existence sold to British paedophiles for as picayune as £2-a-fourth dimension past their desperate parents, Sun Online can reveal.

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

Sun Online saw starting time hand how poor Gambian children can be vulnerable to British paedos when we visited the embankment 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 being cared for past middle-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 girl anile betwixt vi and viii having lunch with a balding, white haired human being in a eating place filled with similarly aged tourists.

The aforementioned twenty-four hour period 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 pond shorts.

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

It was xi.30pm at night and the air was thick with cigarette smoke. The child, no older than ii, was beingness held closely by a white man with a British accent.

Children sold for £two

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

Thomas Melt flew 45 per cent of The Republic of the gambia's 100,000 annual visitors from the Britain to the upper-case letter 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 Brotherhood in The Gambia, reveals that both male person and female tourists are targeting African minors.

He warns: "Sex is cheap in my land and children are beingness sold for equally little every bit 150 dalasis, or just over £ii in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being abused and they accept information technology because they are so drastic for food in their bellies.

"Others are too naïve to realise. They think the Westerner is paying their bills and helping their male child or daughter out of the kindness of their heart, while in reality they have 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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2 school-age girls play at the feet of two men, their mums nowhere in sight

"Our children are beingness approached directly on the beaches or the street and kid abusers from all over Europe including the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland are coming here for this.

"I want to make clear that this does non but involve men but 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 but they are non beingness enforced and so nosotros have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' afterward Thomas Cook collapse

Equally tourism makes upward one-third of the country's GDP, there are fears that businesses volition go bust and locals volition go hungry following an estimated 50 per cent drop in economic activeness that has already hit beach resorts.

Lawyer and children's rights advocate Malick Jallow told Sunday Online: "While some tourists will e'er want to help poor Gambians, others volition see this situation equally 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 belatedly at night, calculation: "We do not encourage concrete affection with minors"

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

"The perception is that white people, or 'toubabs' as they phone call them, have stacks of cash and these parents are often excited that their kid 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 will not co-operate."

'She didn't look comfortable at all'

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

"Thomas Cook used to always give us an extra 10kg baggage assart so the workers and passengers could bring aid boxes to The Gambia — basic things similar clothes, medicine and school equipment.

"The first matter I thought of when we went nether was, 'What is going to happen to people in The Gambia?' Nosotros were the only airline flying directly there.I've heard that offense has already shot up as there is not enough coin coming in — the hand that feeds them is gone.

"Sex tourism is already huge in The Republic of the 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 there I would meet sometime men walking with girls as young equally ten, 11 or 12. At that place is a dark side to The gambia.

"Once when we were flying back to Manchester in that location was a British human being in his 70s with a girl who was only about eight or 9. This was about eight years ago. I was 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 girl also but she never left her seat, she didn't expect comfortable at all. I reported it and border 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 immature children in the West African resortCredit: My Story Media

There is no proof to suggest that any of the men nosotros pictured were paedophiles.

Withal the experts we showed our dossier of photos to said the police 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 alone in tourist areas without their parents.

"It is also forbidden for a child to exist in a bar so late at night and nosotros exercise not encourage physical affection with minors.

"I piece of work with young girls and boys and I would non hug them or choice them up, it is not advisable."

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

"The security guards should accept questioned these men but there is a culture of inferiority here and they would take been scared to challenge a wealthy Westerner."

British tourists can still fly to The The gambia via Lisbon with the TAP airline or via Casablanca with Regal Air Maroc. At that place is also a limited direct service run by 'The Gambia Experience' company and package deals tin can be snapped up for simply over £500 a person.

Pensioners taking teens to hotels

Older British women are famed for holidaying in The Republic of the gambia, where some pick upwardly African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Health intendance assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to relish a winter vacation in the state she has come to run across every bit a second 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 equally young as xv or 16-years-former to their hotel room.

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

Marjorie said the touch of Thomas Cook closing down was articulate to come across in the resort

Lucy's mum, pensioner Marjorie Botton, 68, as well 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 not brand enough money to get through the quiet season, which starts in Apr."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman also witnessed suspected kid abuse during her 2 week, winter vacation in December.

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

'White men approach little boys and girls'

Father-of-iv Abdullah Labamba, 48, runs a fruit stand 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 £i 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 lilliputian boys and girls right here on the beach. I do my best to end them. "I tell the children, 'Get out of here, this is non a rubber place for you lot.' The children will run away simply they commonly come up dorsum. It's shocking."

"Their parents are desperate for money and they know they won't be allowed home until they have sold at least five bags. Some men try to have advantage of that by offering them £fifty for the whole basket. And then they volition enquire them to come dorsum to go somewhere individual."

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 oftentimes pose as clemency workers and Good Samaritans so they tin befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is one of Africa'southward top destinations for child sex activity tourism.

The Gambian government meanwhile has tried to fissure down 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 defenseless.

Just incredibly at that place has been merely i successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that man ended upwards existence 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 vi 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 exchange for time lone with their large brood of six kids in a hotel room.

The paedophile had divide convictions for child abuse in Norway but 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 subsequently revoked amidst a public outcry but experts fear his case has given a green lite 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 world are at risk of trafficking and prostitution, as well every bit online dangers such as grooming, sextortion and the proliferation of child sexual corruption images.

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

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

Predator gratis

In October last year an official United nations investigation found that Gambia's tourist areas go along to be a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments and 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 also reportedly been dismissed on the grounds that statements by child victims were allegedly inconsistent."

Our report comes afterwards the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland government was slammed for failing to protect children overseas from British predators.

A report by the Independent Research into Child Sexual Corruption (IICSA) found more than needs to exist done to brand certain offenders operating in poor countries similar The Republic of the gambia are defenseless and prosecuted.

Calling for a new national programme to tackle the problem, Debbie Beadle, Director of Programmes at the child protection system ECPAT UK, said: "We hope that by bringing these institutional failings to light, the UK can become a earth 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 kid sexual practice ring from charity gear up upwards to 'assistance' homeless kids

End Kid Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting main research, as well equally bringing together information from diverse sectors and countries around the world, 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 Gambia. You can donate to ECPAT hither .