pedophiles the gambia

© My Story Media
A tourist wades into the sea with a minor African kid in The Gambia - where child sex abuse is rife

Gambian children are being sold to British paedophiles for as little equally £2-a-time 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 commence on sick child abuse holidays where they openly target little boys and girls.

Sun Online saw first manus how poor Gambian children can exist vulnerable to British paedos when we visited the beach resorts that dot Kololi on the country'due south picturesque Atlantic coastline.

Our reporter was constantly shocked past the number of unaccompanied African minors he saw being cared for past middle-anile, 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 aged between half dozen and eight having lunch with a balding, white haired man in a eating house filled with similarly aged tourists.

The same day we saw a stoutly built man in his 50s or 60s wading into the sea gripping the hand of a tiny African child in white swimming shorts.

Equally unsettling was the sight of a Gambian toddler watching wide-eyed with fear as a centre-aged white woman got into a fist fight with a young black prostitute at a popular embankment bar.

Information technology was 11.30pm at nighttime and the air was thick with cigarette smoke. The kid, no older than two, was being held closely by a white man with a British accent.

Children sold for £two

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

Thomas Cook flew 45 per cent of The Gambia's 100,000 annual visitors from the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland to the capital Banjul until information technology went into liquidation nether the weight of its debts in September.

The gambia map pedophiles

In an exclusive interview, Lamin Fatty, the National Coordinator of the Child Protection Alliance in The Gambia, reveals that both male person and female tourists are targeting African minors.

He warns: "Sexual practice is cheap in my country and children are being sold for as little as 150 dalasis, or just over £2 in your currency. Some of the parents know their children are being abused and they accept it because they are so desperate for nutrient in their bellies.

"Others are as well naïve to realise. They think the Westerner is paying their bills and helping their male child or girl out of the kindness of their heart, while in reality they have bad intentions.

"Kid corruption is going on all the time in The Republic of the gambia and the authorities is not doing enough to put a stop to it.

The Gambia pedophiles

© My Story Media
Two schoolhouse-historic period 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 hither for this.

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

"We have laws that are supposed to finish this from happening but they are not being enforced so we have become a paradise for paedophiles."

Locals 'desperate' after Thomas Cook plummet

Equally tourism makes upwards ane-tertiary of the country's Gdp, there are fears that businesses will go bust and locals will go hungry following an estimated 50 per cent drop in economical activeness that has already hit beach resorts.

Lawyer and children's rights advocate Malick Jallow told Sun Online: "While some tourists will always desire to help poor Gambians, others will see this situation as an opportunity to exploit young children.

the gambia pedophiles britain

© My Story Media
Lamin Fatty, National Coordinator of the Children's Protection Alliance, said this male child shouldn't be in a bar so late at nighttime, adding: "Nosotros do not encourage physical affection with minors"

"The problem is that the abuse is sometimes carried out with the blessing 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 human being.

"It really makes them feel proud and then they requite their permission for the boy or girl to go with the person and when the police endeavour to question them they volition not co-operate."

'She didn't look comfortable at all'

Former Thomas Melt rep Anne Heap, 53, from Wigan, said: "These people are as poor equally poor can be — it's rare to see a child wearing shoes — and in that location isn't whatsoever other merchandise for them outside tourism.

"Thomas Cook used to always requite us an extra 10kg baggage allowance so the workers and passengers could bring aid boxes to The Republic of the gambia — basic things like clothes, medicine and school equipment.

"The kickoff thing I idea of when we went nether was, 'What is going to happen to people in Gambia?' Nosotros were the but airline flying directly there.I've heard that criminal offense has already shot upwards as at that place is non enough money coming in — the hand that feeds them is gone.

"Sexual practice tourism is already huge in The Gambia — some confined are like brothels — and I do worry that more children will get lured into prostitution to feed their families. When I was working at that place I would see erstwhile men walking with girls equally young as x, 11 or 12. There is a dark side to The The gambia.

"Ane fourth dimension when nosotros were flying back to Manchester in that location was a British man in his 70s with a daughter who was only nigh 8 or nine. This was almost viii years ago. I was so concerned about what was going on that I got chatting to him exterior the toilet during the flight. I wanted to speak to the girl too only she never left her seat, she didn't look comfortable at all. I reported information technology and border security later told me the man had been 'apprehended' but I was not able to discover out what happened to him or the daughter later that."

Tots manus-in-manus with 'paedos'

We came across a number of tourists with young children in the Due west African resortCredit: My Story Media

At that place is no proof to suggest that any of the men we pictured were paedophiles.

Even so the experts we showed our dossier of photos to said the constabulary should accept questioned them according 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 too forbidden for a child to be in a bar so late at night and we practise not encourage physical amore with minors.

"I work with young girls and boys and I would not hug them or pick them up, information technology is not appropriate."

Malick Jallow added: "I would have questioned these men had I seen them myself. Equally a lawyer and an activist, I would want to know if they have the authority to exist caring for that child. We have a lot of expert Samaritans coming to The Republic of the gambia but nosotros besides take people who use charity as a front to hide their bad intentions.

"The security guards should have questioned these men but at that place is a culture of inferiority here and they would have been scared to challenge a wealthy Westerner."

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

Pensioners taking teens to hotels

Older British women are famed for holidaying in Gambia, where some pick upwards African gigolosCredit: My Story Media

Wellness care assistant Lucy Mendy, 33, from Gloucester, was trying to bask a winter holiday in the country she has come to see equally a 2nd 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-old to their hotel room.

"It fabricated me feel sick and I wish I could have intervened, but this is not the U.k. and I was scared what might have happened if I tried to face up them. People here are so poor, some of them will do anything for money, fifty-fifty if it means giving their bodies to a tourist."

Marjorie said the bear upon of Thomas Cook closing downward was clear to see in the resort

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

"They are getting one-half every bit many British tourists and that means they might not make plenty money to get through the tranquillity flavour, which starts in April."

Dutch tourist Corina Bouwman likewise witnessed suspected child abuse during her ii 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 here? Where is the child's mother?' But I didn't want to accuse anyone in case I had misread the situation."

'White men approach niggling boys and girls'

Begetter-of-four Abdullah Labamba, 48, runs a fruit stand next to one of the many hotels that line Kololi'due south palm-tree fringed beach and says he has witnessed paedophiles targeting vulnerable child workers selling peanuts for less than £1 a bag.

the gambia pedophiles britain

© My Story Media
Fruit seller Abdullah Labamba, pictured, says paedos often target vulnerable child workers selling peanuts

He said: "I've seen white men approach the little boys and girls right hither on the beach. I do my all-time to stop them. "I tell the children, 'Get out of hither, this is not a safe identify for you.' The children will run abroad simply they normally come up back. Information technology's shocking."

"Their parents are desperate for money and they know they won't be allowed home until they take sold at least 5 bags. Some men attempt to have advantage of that past offering them £50 for the whole basket. Then they will enquire them to come back to go somewhere private."

Child abuse scourge

Tragically, child abuse is now endemic in The Republic of the gambia, where threescore per cent of the 1.9m population alive below the poverty line.

Previous inquiry has shown that paedophiles oft pose as charity workers and Good Samaritans so they can befriend poor families — and UNICEF has warned that The Gambia is i of Africa'southward top destinations for child sexual activity tourism.

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

They also pledged to requite out "hefty fines" and "potent sentences" to paedophiles that are defenseless.

But incredibly in that location has been merely one successful prosecution since laws were tightened and that human being ended upward existence pardoned past 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 6 children, the youngest anile iii, in 2006.

The court heard how he had tricked his style into a hard-upward Gambian family past posing every bit a do-gooder, giving the parents sacks of rice and new shoes in exchange for time alone with their large brood of six kids in a hotel room.

The paedophile had separate convictions for child abuse in Kingdom of norway but was sentenced to just three years in jail.

Then, in 2018 President Adama Barrow decided to pardon him for reasons that take never been explained. The pardon was later revoked amid a public outcry but experts fearfulness his case has given a green light to other paedophiles.

ECPAT is the only kid 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, too 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 every bit travelling kid sexual activity offenders notice new victims.

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

Predator costless

In Oct concluding twelvemonth an official Un investigation institute that Gambia'southward tourist areas continue to exist a dangerous place for children and that predators now stay in motels and private apartments so they tin can avoid prying eyes.

UN Special Rapporteur Maud de Boer-Buquicchio reported: "The rare instances when complaints are lodged with the constabulary 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 accept likewise reportedly been dismissed on the grounds that statements by child victims were allegedly inconsistent."

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

A written report past the Contained Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found more needs to be washed to make sure offenders operating in poor countries like The The gambia are caught and prosecuted.

Calling for a new national plan to tackle the trouble, Debbie Beadle, Managing director of Programmes at the child protection arrangement ECPAT UK, said: "We hope that past bringing these institutional failings to light, the UK can become a earth leader in tackling the corruption of vulnerable children globally, and that child victims abroad are no longer 'under the radar' of government.

Global manhunt for Aussie paedo monster Simon Gordon Davies who ran child sexual practice ring from charity ready up to 'help' homeless kids

End Kid Prostitution and Trafficking - ECPAT is conducting primary research, too as bringing together information from various sectors and countries around the world, to form a reliable and professional person range of academic sources.The clemency supports the protection of children and empowerment of 113 members in 98 countries - including The Gambia. You can donate to ECPAT here .