Increase efforts to proactively identify adult and child trafficking victims, including among key sectors such as domestic service, local markets, and individuals in commercial sex, and refer trafficking victims to care. * Amend the penal code to define human trafficking in line with the international definition and ensure penalties for adult sex trafficking are commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes, such as rape. * Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Empower the National Commission for the Prevention and Fight Against Human Trafficking to fulfill its mandate to coordinate the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and implement the 2024-2028 NAP, including by providing financial and in-kind resources, and convening regular meetings. * Provide training for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges on the penal code and victim-centered, trauma-informed investigations. * Increase the availability of protection services for all trafficking victims, including by allocating sufficient funding and in-kind support to NGO-run shelters. * Develop, finalize, and implement SOPs for victim identification and referral to care for adult victims and train stakeholders on their use. * Dedicate resources to ensure hotlines to report trafficking crimes are fully operational. * Regularly convene Libreville’s Court of First Instance to increase the number of trafficking cases heard. * Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including training labor inspectors to identify and report trafficking crimes and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable. * Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. * Develop an information management system to capture nationwide trafficking investigation and victim identification data in partnership with international organizations. * Given significant concerns about forced labor indicators in Cuban international work programs, screen Cuban overseas workers, including medical professionals and refer them to appropriate services.

The government made mixed law enforcement efforts. Articles 225 to 225-7 of the 2020 revised penal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking, prescribing penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100 million Central African francs (CFA) ($168,520) for trafficking crimes involving adult victims, and up to 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 100 million CFA ($168,520) for those involving child victims. These penalties were sufficiently stringent, but with respect to adult sex trafficking, not commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. Inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, the penal code established the use of force, fraud, or coercion as aggravating factors rather than essential elements of the crime; penalties were increased to up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100 million CFA ($168,520) if such factors were involved. Finally, the penal code conflated the crimes of migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons. The government reportedly proposed new legislation to amend the penal code, and that was submitted to Parliament for adoption.

The government investigated three trafficking cases, compared with zero investigations in 2022. Officials also continued one ongoing investigation from a previous reporting period. The government initiated prosecution of three alleged traffickers, compared with 10 in 2022. Courts convicted three traffickers, compared with 10 in 2022. The government did not report sentencing data. Only the country’s Special Criminal Session court was authorized to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases. In March 2024, the Libreville Court of First Instance (the country’s only Special Criminal Session court) resumed court hearings, including trafficking cases; however, the government did not provide any updates on if the court had a dedicated budget to operate and meet regularly.

Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action. The government investigated and arrested the president of Gabon’s football federation for alleged complicity in the sexual abuse of children, which may have included sex trafficking, by a number of coaches; the prosecution remained pending at the end of the reporting period. Due to alleged corruption and a lack of training, prosecutorial judges tasked with investigating trafficking cases did not always investigate cases brought to their attention. Experts alleged some traffickers bribed judges to actively delay or dismiss trafficking cases, while the government stated delays were the result of insufficient knowledge of anti-trafficking laws. The government, in partnership with an international organization, provided anti-trafficking training to judicial officials on topics such as victim care, trafficking data collection, and screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations. The government reported coordinating with a foreign government to investigate trafficking cases. Authorities established border checkpoints at trafficking hotspots such as Kabala, Kiossi, and Meyokié to screen for trafficking indicators.

The government marginally increased protection efforts. The government identified and referred to care 16 trafficking victims, compared with zero trafficking victims identified in 2021. An NGO identified four additional trafficking victims (all women) and referred them to social services for care. In addition, the government repatriated two trafficking victims. The government continued to use a trafficking procedural manual, developed in coordination with an international organization, that outlined SOPs for identification and referral to care of child trafficking victims. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs continued to have a referral process to transfer child trafficking victims to government and NGO-run shelters for assistance. The government continued to lack robust SOPs for the identification and referral to care of adult trafficking victims. In partnership, with an international organization, the government developed new SOPs on providing care for vulnerable migrants, including trafficking victims.

The government reported allocating funding for victim protection services but did not provide an amount. Observers reported limited shelter space hindered support for some law enforcement investigations due to concerns victims would not have access to long-term shelter. The government continued to fund and provide in-kind support to two NGO-run shelters offering holistic services to child trafficking victims, orphans, and children experiencing homelessness, including funding for social workers, medical support, psychological services, legal assistance, and education. Authorities reported one NGO-run shelter was specifically designated for trafficking victims. The government reported it provided shelter services to eight trafficking victims (two men and six women). NGOs reportedly had inadequate funding to effectively care for victims. The same services were available for male, female, foreign national, and Gabonese victims, including those repatriated from abroad. Observers reported foreign victims were eligible for services; however, they were not always entitled to the same medical and educational benefits. Adult victims could potentially access government services for victims of crime, including domestic violence, or other forms of maltreatment.

Victims were eligible for immigration relief to remain in Gabon if they faced threats to their safety in their country of origin; however, officials did not report any victims utilizing this legal alternative. The government allowed restitution for trafficking victims; however, the government did not report if courts ordered any restitution or if victims received restitution. Victims could file civil suits against their traffickers, but there were no known cases of such action, in part due to lack of awareness of the option. Due to a lack of comprehensive victim identification procedures, authorities may have detained some unidentified trafficking victims. The government reported releasing 562 prisoners, all women and children, which may have included some potential victims arrested for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

The government slightly increased prevention efforts. The government formally created the National Commission for the Prevention and Fight Against Human Trafficking, with the Ministry of Justice designated as the lead agency, and convened the Commission for the first time. The government adopted its 2024-2028 NAP in December 2023, replacing its previous 2019-2023 NAP, and allocated resources for its implementation. The government had a hotline for victims of crime, operated in partnership with an international organization. However, observers asserted the hotline was not fully operational. The government reported calls to the hotline led to victim identification, but it did not provide information on how many calls were trafficking-related or resulted in investigations; it also did not provide additional information on the number of victims identified. In partnership, with an international organization, the government conducted public awareness raising campaigns, including through billboards and television. Authorities enhanced border security to identify and deter traffickers. Authorities also appointed focal points in nine provinces to coordinate local anti-trafficking efforts. In the previous reporting period, officials initiated bilateral agreements with the Governments of Burkina Faso and Benin to cooperate on anti-trafficking efforts; however, both remained pending at the close of the reporting period. The government did not report conducting any labor inspections due to lack of funding for inspectors.

The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Although not explicitly reported as human trafficking, there were 30 open allegations of alleged sexual exploitation with trafficking indicators by Gabonese peacekeepers deployed to UN peacekeeping missions (10 in 2022, seven in 2021, nine in 2020, three in 2019, and one in 2018). The government had not yet reported accountability measures taken, if any, at the end of the reporting period. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Gabon, and traffickers exploit victims from Gabon abroad. Gabon is a primary destination and transit country for West and Central African men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Observers report the majority of child trafficking victims are from West African countries, such as Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Mali, Guinea, and Nigeria. Poverty continues to represent a key risk factor in forced labor and sex trafficking in the country. Traffickers exploit girls in forced labor in domestic service, markets, or roadside restaurants; force boys to work as street vendors, beggars, mechanics, microbus transportation assistants, and laborers in the fishing sector; and coerce West African women into domestic servitude or commercial sex within Gabon. Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, young girls, unaccompanied children, and adults in commercial sex are vulnerable to trafficking. Criminals may exploit children in illegal gold mines and in wildlife trafficking in the country’s interior. Observers reported mining communities are at higher risk of trafficking due to economic hardships ensuing from climate change. NGOs reported Cameroonian and Gabonese labor recruiters associated with large agricultural firms exploit English-speaking Cameroonians displaced by the violence and insecurity in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions. The recruiters force some Cameroonians to labor on rubber and palm oil plantations around Bitam in northern Gabon.

West African traffickers reportedly exploit children from their countries of origin to work in Libreville markets, such as N’Kembo, Mont Bouët, and PK7, as well as in other urban centers, including Port-Gentil. In Gabon’s eastern provinces, shopkeepers force or coerce Gabonese children to work in markets. In some cases, smugglers who assist foreign adults migrating to Gabon – or through the country to Equatorial Guinea – subject those economic migrants to forced labor or commercial sex after they enter the country via plane or boat with falsified documents. In some cases, families willingly give children to intermediaries who fraudulently promise education or employment and instead subject the children to forced labor through debt bondage. Roadside bars – or “maquis” – are a common sector where traffickers sexually exploit women, and the Libreville neighborhood of Lalala is an area where some brothel owners reportedly exploit children in child sex trafficking. NGOs reported actors operating illicit adoption rings, either through women pretending to be mothers of newborn children and paying off the birth mothers, or through tricking birth mothers into thinking their newborn died in childbirth and then selling the children. Some criminals procure falsified documents for child trafficking victims identifying them as older than 18 years of age to avoid prosecution under the child trafficking law. Observers reported the lack of birth certificates increases the vulnerability of children to trafficking. Cuban government-affiliated medical professionals who worked in Gabon during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been forced to work by the Cuban government. Traffickers often operate outside the capital to avoid detection by law enforcement and take advantage of Gabon’s porous borders and unguarded beaches to import victims by car or boat, often using falsified identify documents. Anecdotal reporting suggested women are the primary traffickers in Gabon.