CAMBERENE, Senegal | Abdoulaye Ba, 10, looked right, then left, before timidly approaching the taxi and holding out his hand.
A 10-year-old begging is nothing new in this destitute African country, but the fear in his eyes is.
A few days ago, police chased him away from the intersection in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, a 40-minute drive away, where he used to approach tourists. Now he hangs around a gas station in this downtrodden suburb outside the police’s radar, where he says he earns half of what he got before.
Like most other child beggars here, he brings the money back to his Islamic boarding school.
“My teacher told me that if I see a policeman, I should run,” says the boy. “But he still makes me beg. At night, he counts the money, and I get in trouble if I don’t bring back 500 francs [around $1].”
For the first time in recent memory, the streets of Senegal’s capital are largely free of beggars after a police crackdown last month, when the government announced it was banning begging in an effort to comply with the wishes of international donors.
Senegal’s penal code outlawed begging years ago, but officials say they recently felt pressure to impose the law because the U.S. has threatened to cut off aid if Senegal does not address human trafficking.
Although they say numerous other donor countries, as well as the World Bank, also have pushed Senegal to address child begging, a letter from the U.S. Embassy made it clear they needed to take action now.
“We are trying to do what our partners have asked us to do — like the U.S.,” said Abdoulaye Ndiaye, the deputy to the Justice Ministry, who said the letter explained the economic sanctions the country could face if it fails to address its trafficking problem, which includes child begging.
For the past two years, Senegal has been cited on the U.S. State Department’s trafficking “watch list,” in part because of the number of children forced to beg by Islamic religious teachers known as marabouts. If the country is listed for a third consecutive year, the U.S. could halt bilateral aid to Senegal.
In 2009, Senegal received more than $85 million in economic aid from the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department’s website. Senegal is set to start receiving a $540 million aid package through the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corp. It is unclear what portion of this aid could be cut off as a result of failing to improve the trafficking problem.
U.S. officials say the way to show improvement is not by rounding up beggars, but by prosecuting those who force them to beg.
“We consider the beggars to be victims of trafficking,” said Robin Diallo, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Senegal. “What we have recommended is the prosecution of the traffickers — and the beggars are not the traffickers.”
At least seven marabouts have been arrested, according to press reports, but the ban has mostly focused on those doing the begging.
Trucks began crisscrossing the capital last month. They rounded up the children, who were driven to a police station, scolded and released, said Doudou-Sarr Niang, a spokesman for the prime minister.
Aid groups and human rights organizations estimate that as many as 100,000 children in this nation of 13.7 million are forced to beg every day by marabouts. Families do not object to their sons begging because it is seen as a tool for building character and instilling humility, but rights groups say the system has become one of economic exploitation and physical abuse.
Boys as young as 3 were until last month sent out into Dakar’s chaotic traffic and required to bring back a daily quota of change or face a severe beating.
Critics, however, say the government’s crackdown is merely a cosmetic gesture that has at best succeeded in moving the child beggars to a different part of the capital and fails to punish the traffickers.
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