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Chad

Chad

Country Profile

Action Plan on Trafficking in Persons – Smuggling of Migrants

National Structures Responsible for Identifying Traffickers and Victims of Trafficking

There is no identification mechanism or network in place. The identification of VOTs or traffickers, stricto sensu, is done, as per the law, by the police and by courts.


National Structures Responsible for Border Management

The Directorate in charge of Emi/Immigration (DIE) and the Directorate in charge of Territory Surveillance (DST). These two agencies are in charge of national security and border control.


National Coordinating Bodies

As of June 2020, the Presidential Decree Project is under development, so as to establish the National Committee to Counter Trafficking in Persons in Chad. After the President’s signature, the National Committee to Counter Trafficking in Persons (NCCTIP) will be the future agency to coordinate TIPs actions.


Specialized Units - Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrants (SOM)

There currently aren’t any specialized units for TIP-SOM

Institutional Framework

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrant (SOM) Hotlines

TIP/SOM (24/7 - National Police)- 2121



National Referral Mechanism and/or Standard Operating Procedures

There is no NRM or SOPs in place specifically on TIP and TIM. However, the development of a referral mechanism once the National Committee on combating trafficking in persons will be established is envisaged. 


Measures to Detect Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) Cases along the Borders

There are no special measures to detect TIP and SOM, except usual intelligence diligence under the Directorate in charge of Territory surveillance.


Law Enforcement Agencies Responsible for Investigating Cases of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrant (SOM)

There is no special Unit in place. TIP and SOM cases, if identified, are handled by the Gendarmerie or the Police, depending on the which institution is seized or identifies the case.


The government has not developed comprehensive written victim identification and referral procedures to guide front-line officials. NCCTIP policy directed officials to refer suspected child trafficking cases to the Child Protection Brigade, to investigate and report the cases to the Ministry of Justice, and cases involving adult victims to police. The government did not report officials referring any cases to the Ministry of Justice or police during 2019. The Child Protection Brigade within the National Police is not well known by the public, thus limiting its impact.


  • The National Police enforces and investigates criminal laws against the worst forms of child labor, including child trafficking, and refers them to other ministries, as appropriate. Through its Child Protection Brigade, it works in collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Childhood Protection and National Solidarity (MWCPNS), MOPS, and the Ministry of Justice to specifically monitor violations of children’s rights. Active in six cities: N’Djamena, Moundou, Sarh, Mongo, Mao, and Abéché.


Identity and Travel Documentation/Investigation and Forensic Lab

(This is in views to support identity verification/establishment as for victims and traffickers).


The country has a Forensic Laboratory which is managed by the National Agency for Document Security (ANATS). The Agency’s aims to:


  • ensure, in consultation with the administrations concerned, the registration and updating of the identification information of citizens and foreigner’s resident or passing through Chad;

  • Implement an information system guaranteeing the reliability, integrity and security of this information;

  • Customize and produce Secure Titles by implementing an integrated Population Management and Secure Titles System (SIGPTS) that is reliable, secure, extensible, etc.

The Agency will implement a system for identifying and securing national documents. By design, this system is based on the establishment of a National Biometric Population Register (RNBP) ensuring the uniqueness, integrity and security of data relating to individuals, thus preventing any identity theft or falsification of documents. The ANATS also has an Integrated Population and Secure documents Management System (SIGPTS) with a biometric device (AFIS system) which allows the identification of a person on the basis of recognizable and verifiable data. On this base, different components have been integrated to produce civil status documents (birth, marriage, death certificates, etc.), identity cards, passports, resident cards, registration certificates. (gray card), driving licenses and visa. The system also includes a device for authenticating individuals, monitoring and verifying the titles acquired to enable each administration concerned to fully fulfill its mission. The system also includes a component necessary for managing migration flows and combating crime, terrorism and illicit trafficking.



Technical Working Groups (TWG)

There are no TWG specifically responsible for studying TIP and SOM. However, there other TWG to coordinate efforts on child labor.


NATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE ON CHILD LABOUR

  • Working Group on the Worst Forms of Child Labor: It coordinates government efforts on child trafficking, including providing training, conducting awareness-raising activities, and strengthening the network of government organizations that address human trafficking. Chaired by the MWFNS Child Protection Directorate and includes representatives from four other ministries, including MOPS. In 2018, met regularly and supported the work of the Child Protection Brigade, including by purchasing beds for children removed from abusive situations.

  • MWFNS’s Regional Child Protection Committees: It coordinates regional government efforts to address the worst forms of child labor and refer victims as appropriate. Includes representatives from relevant ministries, police, and civil society. In 2018, facilitated the placement of child victims in safe spaces.

AGENCY RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING

Not available

Introduction

General Information

Chad is a source, transit, and destination country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Chad, and traffickers exploit Chadian victims abroad. The country’s trafficking problem is primarily internal. Families frequently entrust their children to relatives or intermediaries to receive education, apprenticeship, goods, or money; some of those relatives or intermediaries subsequently force or coerce the children to work in domestic service or cattle herding. Criminals force children to beg in urban areas, and traffickers exploit minors as agricultural laborers on farms; in northern gold mines and charcoal production; and as domestic workers across the country. In the Lake Chad region, community members exploit some children in catching, smoking, and selling fish. Some religious leaders coerce children who leave their villages to attend traditional Quranic schools— known as Mouhadjirin—into forced begging, street vending, or other forced labor. Child herders, some of whom are victims of forced labor, follow traditional routes for grazing cattle and, at times, cross ill-defined international borders into Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Nigeria. Chadian girls travel to larger towns in search of work, where some are subsequently subjected to child sex trafficking or are abused in domestic servitude; Illicit networks may force adult and child refugees, as well as internally displaced persons in Chad, to take part in commercial sex. Experts note Chad hosted approximately 440,000 refugees and more than 170,000 internally displaced persons as of December 2019. NGOs report the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State-West Africa are involved in child trafficking. Vigilante groups tasked with defending people and property in rural areas may have recruited and used children in armed conflict. Recent routes are identified as SOM and TIP from Chad to Libya through the north of Chad and deportations of migrants from Libya to Chad.


Main Trends and Figures

No data available: to date, the Government does not collect comprehensive law enforcement data on trafficking in persons. The Government did not screen for trafficking indicators or identify any victims during 2019, compared with identifying 21 trafficking victims in 2018. Furthermore, the government did report investigating or prosecuting any traffickers, compared with investigating multiple cases involving 82 suspects and prosecuting two of those suspects in 2018. In February 2020, courts reportedly convicted the one trafficker for forcing multiple victims to work in Chad’s northern gold mines and sentenced the trafficker to three years in prison.


SOM: Data not available, however some data is available on migrations flows from IOM DTM. The displacement dynamic analysis is rooted in the experiences of the 2011 response to the Libya crisis during which IOM supported more than 150,000 people arriving in northern Chad. 64

In June 2020, UNHCR reported a total of 236,426 IDPs, 69343 Chadian Returnees from CAR at risk of stateless, 33,476 Chadian returnees from Lake Chad Basin.

Chad

Existing Mechanisms

Competent Authority and Mechanism to Identify Victims of Trafficking

The competent authority to officially identify a VOT is the Prosecutor, under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), who also invested with the authority to investigate TIP. Officially, access to assistance in unconditional, but there is no indication of specific services for VOTs in Chad.


Assistance Services and Contacts

There is no booklet available related to existing assistance services in Chad. To date, no mapping of services has been done.


  • Ministry of Women, Childhood Protection and National Solidarity (MWCPNS): Protects children’s rights, provides temporary shelter to victims, and assists with reintegration when appropriate. Through its Child Protection Directorate, leads government efforts on child protection, including from child labour, and liaises with the Child Protection Directorate at the MOJ.

  • There are Children Reception Centres (RCs): They are run by MWFNS with the assistance of UNICEF and local NGOs; centres located throughout the country provide temporary assistance to victims of child trafficking, including food, education, medical and psychological care, and reintegration services. The National Solidarity Fund, maintained by the Prime Minister’s Office, funds temporary shelter or reunification assistance for victims. Child Protection Directorates at various ministries and the Child Protection Brigade work together to provide support and reintegration services to victims of exploitation.

Protection and Assistance to Victims of Trafficking Agencies

Competent Authority and Mechanism to Identify Victims of Trafficking

The competent authority to officially identify a VOT is the Prosecutor, under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), who also invested with the authority to investigate TIP. Officially, access to assistance in unconditional, but there is no indication of specific services for VOTs in Chad.



Assistance Services and Contacts

There is no booklet available related to existing assistance services in Chad. To date, no mapping of services has been done.

  • Ministry of Women, Childhood Protection and National Solidarity (MWCPNS); Protects children’s rights, provides temporary shelter to victims, and assists with reintegration when appropriate. Through its Child Protection Directorate, leads government efforts on child protection, including from child labour, and liaises with the Child Protection Directorate at the MOJ.

  • There are Children Reception Centres (RCs): They are run by MWFNS with the assistance of UNICEF and local NGOs; centres located throughout the country provide temporary assistance to victims of child trafficking, including food, education, medical and psychological care, and reintegration services. The National Solidarity Fund, maintained by the Prime Minister’s Office, funds temporary shelter or reunification assistance for victims. Child Protection Directorates at various ministries and the Child Protection Brigade work together to provide support and reintegration services to victims of exploitation.


Shelter

  • Ministry of Women, Childhood Protection and National Solidarity (MWCPNS) - D’Jamena - Children

  • IOM - D'Jamena - ALL public


Psychological and Medical assistance

  • IOM - D'Jamena - ALL public


Reintegration and Return Assistance

  • Ministry of Women, Childhood Protection and National Solidarity (MWCPNS) - D’Jamena - Children

  • IOM - D'Jamena and International - ALL public

Cross-Border Cooperation

International Cooperation Agreements - Cross Border and Extradition Treaties

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocols ratified by Chad in 2009.



BILATERAL COOPERATION

  • 2019, Nigeria and the Republic of Chad signed four bilateral agreements aimed at improving relations and boosting economic activities between the two countries. The agreements were related to Security Cooperation, Bilateral Trade, Investment Promotion, and Protection. The other areas of agreement include Air Services which will allow direct flights into each other’s country and reduction in the Residence Permit Payment by nationals of the two Nations. Also, good relationship that exist between the two countries which helped in the decimation of the activities of Boko Haram in the Chad Basin.

  • On 31 May 2018, Niger, Chad, Sudan and the Libyan GNA signed a security cooperation agreement in N’Djaména, after several meetings. The agreement mirrors and expands the 2010 Chad-Sudan arrangements. It includes, notably, a right of pursuit for one country’s forces into a neighbor’s territory, which Chad has already used to chase Darfur rebels crossing from Chad to Sudan. It also invites the four countries’ judiciaries to sign, within two months, other cooperation agreements facilitating extraditions. Its provision responds very much to a Chadian demand to give a legal framework to extraditions of Chadian rebels to Chad, which had already taken place in the past – including from Niger and Sudan, in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

  • Extradition agreements: Generally, cases of extradition are not permitted (Penal Code art. 445). However, Chad has signed agreements with Niger, the General Agreement of 12 September 1961 on Cooperation in Judicial Matters, and the Franco-Chadian agreement (No.138/CSM of 6 March 1976) on mutual legal assistance.

Transnational Referral Mechanism

A transnational referral mechanism (TRM) does not currently exist.


To learn more about TRMs, see IOM’s Transnational Referral Mechanism Model (TACT) project and tool


Other International Instruments

There are no reports from Government related to TIP and SOM.

Relevant National Legislation and Policies

Entry Requirements

6 ECOWAS Member States: are entitled to travel/enter the country with National ID card or ECOWAS Laissez-Passer: (Burkina Faso, Cote d Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo).

Visa exempted: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mali Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda et Togo and United Arab Emirates.

Visa on Arrival: Benin can obtain visa on arrival without entry authorization.

Visa required: all European Union members states and UK as well as many African countries.


National Legislation

The Government of Chad is making significant efforts, that include convicting one trafficker for the first time under its recent 2018 Law, and adopting a formal Roadmap to implement its 2018 National Action Plan. They also ratify the main international anti-trafficking texts in 2009 and other nationals cited here below. Some references are worth mentioning:

  • June 2020- Presidential Decree established the National Committee for Fighting against Trafficking in persons in Chad signed in June 2020.

  • Law 006/PR/2018: in March 2018, the Government of Chad issued an Ordinance prohibiting trafficking in persons. In June 2018, the National Assembly ratified Law 006/PR/2018 on Combatting Trafficking in Persons, which criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Art.7 of Law 006/PR/2018 prescribed penalties of four to 30 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 250,000 to 5 million Central African CFA francs ($414 to $8,280); these penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. (French and Arab)

  • 1996 Constitution (Article 20): Article 20 of the Constitution is related to TIP, with a mention that “No one may be held in slavery or servitude”, as prohibition for forced labor.

  • 1996 Labor Code (Title 1): Article 5 mentions “Forced or compulsory labor is prohibited. Forced or compulsory labor means any work or service exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”.

  • 1967 Penal Code (Articles 279, 280) (2016 amendments forthcoming): Chadian law prohibits acts of exploitation of women and girls and considers them to be crimes. Articles 279 and 280 of the Criminal Code of Chad prohibit child prostitution. Furthermore, it is prohibited, under Articles 281 and 282, to maintain prostitution establishments. In addition, Articles 10, 330, and 331 of the Penal Code (20,21) are related to prohibition of child trafficking.


Existing Policies

Chad is not advanced in terms of policies that address THT and SOM. However, there are other policies related addressing child labor, such as:

  • Five-Year Plan for Development (2017–2021): the Ministry of Economy and Development Planning policy aims to conduct a survey on child labor every 3 years, increased the rate of birth registrations, increased educational opportunities, and strengthened the human and financial capacity of the MOPS’s directorate charged with combating the worst forms of child labor.

  • Vision 2030: The Ministry of Economy and Development Planning policy aims to increase educational opportunities, establish social protection policies, and implement a national employment policy with a youth focus. 


Legal Instruments for Assistance and Compensation to Victims of Trafficking

The law stipulates that victims of TIP can receive a residency permit for 6 months, renewable during the prosecution process if the VOT declares that s/he is a VOT to the competent authorities (Immigration Officials).

  • Any Prosecutor is required to provide or commit a legal assistance to the VoTs;

  • As per the law, all victims have access to assistance regardless of nationality, immigration status. Access to assistance is unconditional for Victims of TIP;

  • The victims are compensated by the “human trafficker” if convicted or by the Government of Chad if the perpetrator is a civil servant;

  • As per the law, the only way to receive compensation for victims is through prosecution and conviction of the perpetrator or from the Government if the perpetrator is a civil servant.


Action Plan on Trafficking in Persons – Smuggling of Migrants TIP

The Government adopted an anti-trafficking Roadmap in 2019 to implement its 2018 National Action Plan; however, to date, officials did not report any information regarding the execution of the plan’s proposed actions.


RELATED ACTION PLANS

Not available

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