Gabon Issues - 2023

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

UN urges Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and lesser islands and to establish a maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Gabon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials investigated more trafficking crimes and convicted more traffickers; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; for the third consecutive year, the government did not adopt its anti-trafficking national action plan and lacked inter-ministerial coordination; fewer potential victims were identified and efforts to identify, protect, and provide justice for victims remained inadequate; the government did not amend its law to ensure penalties for adult sex trafficking were commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes, nor report investigating allegations of judicial corruption related to trafficking crimes; therefore, Gabon was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Gabon, as well as 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; poverty continues to represent a key risk factor in forced labor and sex trafficking; girls are exploited in forced labor in domestic service, markets, or roadside restaurants, and boys are forced to work as street vendors, mechanics, and laborers in the fishing sector; West African women are coerced into domestic servitude or commercial sex within Gabon; criminals may exploit children in illegal gold mines and wildlife trafficking; Gabonese labor recruiters force some Cameroonians to work on rubber and palm oil plantations in northern Gabon; West African traffickers reportedly exploit children from other countries to work in markets and urban centers in Gabon; shopkeepers force or coerce Gabonese children to work in markets; smugglers who assist foreign adults migrating to or through Gabon subject them to forced labor or commercial sex; some families willingly give children to intermediaries promising education or employment who instead subject the children to forced labor; women are exploited in sex trafficking at roadside bars, and brothel owners reportedly conduct child sex trafficking (2022)

NOTE: The information regarding Gabon on this page is re-published from the 2023 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Gabon 2023 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Gabon 2023 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.