New York, Dec 18 2008 11:00AM

A chilling angle is emerging from the abduction of 17 children rescued by police in Kapsabet last week.

Police believe the slave market in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and child pornography could be the driving force behind the business.

The rescue of the children and the arrest of two suspects purported to be clerics sheds light on child trafficking involving bogus churches in Nairobi’s Eastlands and an underworld network of crime.

Wary of the growing vigilance of the public in Nairobi, the makeshift churches, which the police believe to be at the centre of the scandal, have now opted to open up child trafficking cells in remote towns.

Heightened activities this Christmas season, according to the police, provide the child traffickers with a perfect cover to transport human cargo on the western Kenya route. This ideal given the increased traffic by holidaymakers at this time of the year.

Disguised as refugees
Police believe the culprits are linked to highly organised international cartels, which have been smuggling children disguised as refugees and taking them to Darfur.

The Kapsabet incident bore the hallmarks of a meticulously arranged underground business with initial investigations by the police revealing that the children were transported at night and secretly whisked to the secluded compound.

"We have established that the two suspects arrived in this town at night with 17 children and were behaving in a manner that raises public concerns," said DO Beverly Okwara on the behalf of DC.

The house in which the children were found was hidden in a compound of high and dense hedges and an iron sheet gate to deny passersby a glimpse of the activities.

Stranger still was the fact that in the populous Kapsabet town, a block of seven neat houses in a securely fenced compound had until the entry of the strange visitors not attracted the interest of tenants.

"I was surprised that two men travelling with 17 children from Nairobi quickly settled down without any hitches. There must have had intensive ground work," said an official from the District Children’s Office.

Sombre looks
Fifteen children were between three and 10 years old, while only two were 17. The children had sombre looks and wore dirty and discoloured clothes. Most of the girls had untidy hair and moved around the compound bare feet.

They also appeared sickly, with the little ones crying most of the time. Little pieces of mattresses and utensils littered the compound where they had been rescued and a hint of outdoor cooking. While the suspects alleged that the children had been brought together only recently, they showed a level of closeness, which suggested they may have been together for longer than the suspects were willing to admit.

"I don’t know the name of this place, but we came to rest and play. We will go back to Nairobi," says a boy who only identified himself as Robert.

The two male suspects arrested did not have any identification papers.

The third accomplice, a woman, escaped shortly before the police raided the hideout.
"These people have never left this compound from the day they sneaked in. They just keep to themselves and when we forced our way into the compound they wouldn’t let the children speak to us," says Mr Peter Rotich, a resident. Kapsabet is more than 30km from Eldoret and is accessed via a dilapidated road. Commercial significance has been reduced by the nearby Eldoret, making it an ideal destination for child abductors.

Shorter route
But the town is important for long distance buses that ply between western towns of Busia and Kakamega to Nairobi because it is a shorter route and less policed compared to the Kisumu-Kericho highway.

This creates a conducive environment for child and drug trafficking between western Kenya and Nairobi. The town is also cosmopolitan making it easy for strangers to mingle with residents without arousing the town’s suspicion.

That this is the third incident in Kapsabet after a similar one four years ago involving 25 children and a recent one where both children and the suspects vanished on suspicion, shows the town’s significance to child trafficking.

"These people say the children are orphans and cannot speak Kiswahili. But when we talk to the children, they give us some information which suggests they were coached," said Mr Peter Malakwen, the Kapsabet AP commandant.

The bogus clerics also start unregistered orphanages through which they rake in millions of shillings in donor funding.

A ten-year-old child we talked to says he knows his parents.

"My father is called Dada and my mother is Elizabeth and they stay in Nairobi. Auntie (in reference to caretakers) have been feeding us with tea in the morning, rice for lunch and ugali and beef for supper," he says. The rented house was about 100m from a bungalow where 21 children were rescued from members of a religious sect in the town in 2001.

During that raid police arrested six suspects and charged them in court for child trafficking.

The children were taken to the AIC Rainbow Diguna Children’s Home in Tinderet. They were taken back to their homes.

Drugged
Some of the children rescued in 2001 had been drugged while others had tattoos on their bodies.

Like children rescued recently, they could not effectively communicate in English and Kiswahili. Parents identified their children and collected them while those who remained were enrolled in school.

The arrest of the two suspects, police say, would offer crucial links to end the crime.

New Delhi (PTI): A total of 40 Private Members' Bills, including those seeking to prevent atrocities and offences against women and check trafficking of girl child, were introduced in Rajya Sabhaon Friday.

The Women and Girl Child (Prevention of Teasing, Stripping, Molestation, Rape and Other Atrocities) Bill, 2008, was introduced by Congress MP E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, which calls for prevention of offences like teasing, stripping or parading naked, molestation, rape of women, or branding or killing them as "witches".

Further, it also seeks prohibition of forcing into prostitution of women as 'devadasis' and for setting up of special courts for the trial of such offences and for relief and rehabilitation to victims.
Another Congress MP Gireesh Kumar Sanghi introduced the Girl Child (Prevention of Trafficking and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008, which seeks to prevent trafficking of girl child and pushing them into prostitution.

The proposed Bill also calls for rehabilitation and welfare of such children by the state.

Among other bills introduced were The Victims of Terrorism (Compensation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, The Public Financial Institutions (Conversion of Loans to Companies into Equity Share Capital) Bill, The Agricultural and Other Unorganised Workers (Protection and Welfare) Bill, The Special Courts for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, Protection of Cultural Heritage Bill, and Prevention of Vexatious and Frivolous Litigations Bill.

ABOUT 3.3 million children are vulnerable to trafficking, abuse and exploitation. Christine Guwatudde, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, said, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the number stood at 49 million children. 

“Such children are susceptible to trafficking, sexual exploitation and harassment and the majority of these are orphans.” 

Guwatudde said child labour perpetuates poverty and called upon all stakeholders to fight it. 

She made the remarks in a speech read by George Bekunda, the director of social protection, on November 25, at the closure of a workshop which discussed how HIV/AIDS forces children into labour. 

The meeting at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Kampala, was organised by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child labour. 

Country coordinator Gilbert Ssendugwa said the project, funded by the US labour department, had been implemented in Uganda and Zambia. 

According to an evaluation report, 5,338 children have been prevented from child labour in both countries in the last three years. 

“Some 1,076 children had completed vocational training and Government schools are receptive in integrating HIV affected children,” the report said. 

Following the success of the project which ends this month, the US labour department has earmarked another sh8b to fight child labour in Uganda. 

Ranchi, Nov. 28: That incidents of child trafficking are on the rise is not news. Rather, what’s more important is to chalk out a plan to battle the social malaise.

With such concerns in mind, a state-level sensitisation workshop was today held for police officers and the state government at a hotel here.

The workshop, Child Protection, was organised jointly by the state chapter of NGO, Action Against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Against Children, and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Ranchi, in collaboration with CID, Jharkhand, and Unicef, Jharkhand.

Apart from highlighting the role of the police in curbing crime, the programme also dwelled on statistics which tell us how the state is exposed to child trafficking.

Around one million children are victims of trafficking in Malaysia, Sudan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Middle East. They are sold to serve as bonded labourers, camel riders and beggars. Some are forced into prostitution abroad.

According to figures released by the NGO, about one lakh girls from Jharkhand have migrated to big cities in the past eight years.

The most sensitive areas as far as human trafficking is concerned are Gumla, Simdega, Pakur, Sahebganj, Lohardaga, Giridih, Chatra and Khunti.

Speakers at the meet discussed the role of the police in prevention of trafficking and re-trafficking, rescue of victims and post-rescue care and attention. They also deliberated on the police’s role in enforcing the Child Labour (Prohibition And Regulation) Act, along with other issues.

SPs, DSPs, CIDs and officers of police stations across 14 districts attended the workshop and vowed to cleanse the society of crime. V.D. Ram, the director-general of police (DGP), pointed out that controlling human trafficking is a big challenge for the government.

“The role of the police is important in this area. Hence, the state police will lend all possible support to deal with the issue,” Ram assured. State representative of Unicef Prakash Gurnani laid stress on three Ps — prevention, protection and prosecution. “Today, childhood is under threat. So, we need to create an environment for the survival of children’s rights,” Gurnani said. “We should also have a state juvenile police unit and conduct training for both men and women police force. More importantly, a special cell should be formed in Naxalite strongholds, along with a special police force,” Gurani said.

G.S. Rath, the additional DGP of CID, Jharkhand, rued that there is a serious lack of sensitivity regarding the issue. State co-ordinator of the NGO Sanjay Mishra said they have decided to conduct sensitisation workshops in every district of the state.

Islamabad

Increasing domestic child labour, an invisible worst type of exploitation, has become a potential threat to the future of thousands of underage children belonging to poor households who otherwise can become useful members of society.

Unfortunately, the ratio of underage children being forced to work as domestic servants is increasing day-by-day in the capital. Employed through ‘informal arrangements’ between employers and parents, these children are often subjected to physical and mental torture that adversely affect their natural abilities.

Employers usually prefer these children over adult workers because they are considered more obedient and argue less against nominal monthly pays. Parents think it a two-fold opportunity that not only relieve them from upbringing of their children in some cases but also enable them to grab some money on monthly basis. 

This kind of child labour sometimes turns into a bonded labour when employers refuse to let the child servants go out of their houses unless their parents return back the money borrowed from them. In such cases the children become the real protagonists of whole ‘drama’ where they can do nothing but to suffer endlessly.

One such case in the recent past exposes the ground realities that are generally ignored even in the capital city where an incumbent parliament is supposed to enact laws to protect each and every right of citizens irrespective of their age and sex.

The parents of two little girls, who were made ‘hostage’ by employers for non-payment of borrowed money by their parents, have vowed not to send their daughters to any household for domestic work in future despite lacking financial resources for their upbringing.

The case of these girls were brought to the notice of the local police officials who simply advised the ‘poor’ parents to return back Rs25,000 taken from the employers living in Sector F-11. Three days after the report was registered with the police station, a local non-government organisation (NGO) working for children’s rights intervened into the matter.

The NGO after getting involved some mediapersons succeeded in rescuing the girls from the ‘clutches’ of their employers who are known to be ‘respectful’ citizens of this society. But who knows how many children are facing this kind of situation in which their parents are doing nothing except knocking at the doors of the employers with a hope that one day they may feel pity and release their children.

The exact number of children exploited in domestic labour is not known as they work behind closed doors and it is difficult to collect data to identify the numbers of children involved in this form of labour. However, it is easily said that thousands of families living in the slum areas send their children for domestic work in every locality of the federal capital.

A survey conducted by ‘The News’ revealed that male members of the families even small boys living in the slum areas get to their work places early in the morning and the adult female members who work in other houses bring their little daughters with them.

“Both my daughters who are under 10 years of age share my work which provides me with some kind of relief during a consistent hectic work all the day. So it is quite better to get them engaged in domestic work instead of leaving them alone in the house,” said Rashida Bibi, an inmate of a slum in Sector G-7.

The initiation of a project named ‘I am paid to learn’ by famous pop star Shahzad Roy under the banner of Zindagi Trust must be an encouraging step for other welfare organisations who may establish schools in pattern of this project that provides education to working children besides compensating their parents for monetary losses.

The National Education Foundation (NEF) has recently set up a charity school in a slum area adjacent to the Railway Carriage Factory to provide education to under-privileged children of the society. According to NEF Project Director Sirajuddin a total of 14,000 such schools have so far been established across the country.

If all these schools start providing compensation money to the parents of working children then it can yield extra ordinary results but it may not be possible for NEF that even lacks resources to get permanent land and structures for these schools. The government should provide adequate funds for these kinds of projects to save the future of hundreds of thousands of working children that would help eliminate child labour and increase literacy rate in the country as well.

Reassurance needed that services are improving

ABERDEEN politicians are demanding a ministerial statement giving assurances that child protection services in Aberdeen are on the mend.

The protection of vulnerable children in the city was heavily criticised in a report from HM Inspectorate of Education last month after it was found that many children were left at considerable risk and not getting the support they needed.
Children’s Minister Adam Ingram agreed to make a parliamentary statement on the situation.

Last night, MSPs based in Aberdeen and the north-east called for assurances that vulnerable children were not being left at risk, particularly in light of £8.5million in cuts to the city’s social work budget.

Aberdeen Central Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said he wanted to hear that the Scottish Government and the council were taking urgent action to address the shortcomings identified in the inspectors’ report.

“Some of what is said about the council social work services is very serious indeed,” he said. “It does not reflect badly on the commitment of the individual social workers but it does reflect very badly on the organisation of the service, and that is something I hope we will hear about in parliament on Thursday.”

Several months ago, ministers received a report from the social work inspectorate saying the department was perhaps the “most badly organised social work service in the country” and a social work director should be appointed, he said.
Mr Macdonald said he was pleased that troubleshooter Philip Cotterill had been appointed to the post on an interim basis, an important step in the right direction.”

North East Labour MSP Richard Baker said he wanted to hear that the government would be directly involved in turning around the situation. “What we need to hear is that the council is getting the support that it needs,” he said.