Caste-based slavery practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, continued primarily in the northern part of the country.
Niger is a transit country for women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo en route to Northern Africa and Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger as domestic servants, forced laborers in mines and on farms, and as mechanics and welders.
[6] The Government of Niger demonstrated improved but limited law enforcement efforts to address child trafficking and traditional slavery.
Two alleged trafficking offenders arrested for recruiting six girls and two boys for a prostitution ring in Nigeria were released after serving two months in jail; it is unclear whether this was imprisonment imposed post-conviction or was pretrial detention.
In November 2009, the Tribunal of N'Guigmi sentenced a man to five years' imprisonment in addition to a fine of $20,000 in damages to the victim and $2,000 both to the government and an anti-slavery NGO.
In October 2008, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled the Government of Niger had failed to protect the victim, a former slave, and ordered damages in the amount of $20,000.
In July 2009, a local Nigerien court convicted and sentenced the defendant to a two-year suspended prison term, and ordered him to pay $2,000 in damages to the woman he had enslaved and $1,000 to the Government of Niger.
No date has been set for hearings, and the status of seven other women - who reportedly remained enslaved by the trafficking offender after the complaining victim's escape - is unknown.
The Ministry of the Interior continued to operate a program to welcome and provide temporary shelter - for about one week - to repatriated Nigeriens, some of whom may be trafficking victims.
In partnership with another local NGO working in Makalondi and Niamey and international organizations, authorities rescued, rehabilitated, and returned to their families 141 exploited children.
The government provided some basic health care to child trafficking victims and assisted in returning them to their home villages.
During the reporting period, authorities supported a group of local NGOs and associations in organizing a conference on trafficking and exploitation.