Like most websites we use cookies. This is to ensure that we give you the best experience possible. If you would like to, you can learn more about the cookies we use. Access to over , abstracts including over 12, full text documents , 4, news and review articles, and over 2, eBook chapters. Advanced Bibliographic Search. The Gambia is reported to be becoming an increasingly popular destination for European sex tourists and paedophiles. Sex tourists have been turning to the Gambia as the authorities in destinations such as Thailand and the Philippines run vigorous campaigns to keep them off their soil.
A report released in May by the Government of the Gambia and UNICEF revealed that sexual abuse and exploitation of children is on the rise in the small West African nation that is a favourite destination for tourists from a number of European countries. The report concludes that the sexual abuse and exploitation of children is being perpetrated in two distinct but inter-related ways: sex tourism and the so-called "sugar daddy" syndrome.
Through focus-group discussions, in-depth interviews and questionnaires, the report finds that children are being targeted for sexual relations by adult foreigners and nationals. Poverty, marginalization and lack of development are well known as being among the underlying causes for child sex tourism Leung, The report finds that "The Gambia is a vulnerable target for β¦ unscrupulous visitors such as suspected or convicted paedophiles who enter the country in search of a low profile location to commit their crimes against children silently and with impunity.
It reveals the strong existence of a false "glamorization" of prostitution, particularly in sex tourism. Baboucar Jagne, manager at the African Village hotel, told the paper that he had recently intervened against a suspected paedophile. But he said for many hotels, sex tourists are good business.
They spend plenty of money at the bar. We asked to see the girl's birth certificate and a letter from the parents. Calling the police isn't much good. They will tell you they have no fuel to drive out. Once we stopped a tourist from bringing prostitutes in and he left a week early. Geri Mitchell, a British woman who co-owns the room Safari Garden hotel, said she had brought the problem under control 'as much as possible' through staff training and by turning her back on package tour operators.
