UNITED NATIONS—“Dora,” a young Mexican woman, was helped by another Mexican woman to cross the US border in the promise of a good job there. She ended up in Texas, working in a sweatshop and not allowed to go out or even take a shower. v “Sandra” was sold as a child for $400 to a pedophile, who repeatedly raped her for four years.

Both were victims of a global trafficking network that has ensnared an estimated 10 million people, although hard data about the underworld of human slavery remains elusive—partly because of the reluctance of some countries to cooperate with investigations.

“We have a big picture, but it is impressionistic and lacks depth,” admitted Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which just released its annual Global Report on Trafficking in Persons on Thursday.

“Although we can talk with specific numbers about drug trafficking, for example, we do not have an estimate for this area of crime [human trafficking],” Costa said.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2 million as the yearly net addition to the total number of slaves worldwide. Subtracting the number of people rescued or who die annually, the total number is thought to be over 10 million.

However, the actual number of known trafficking victims is only 22,500.

“We are not able to segment today’s slave markets into their components. We must—but cannot—catalogue different types of slavery. Exploitation through child-begging in Europe is different from what goes on in a brothel, or in a street corner in Australia,” Costa noted.

“Preventive measures must also be adapted to take into account that an Asian father sells his underage daughter under circumstances different than what pushes an illegal immigrant at a sweatshop in the Americas,” he explained. “If we do not overcome this knowledge crisis, we will be fighting the problem blindfolded.”

The report is based on data gathered from 155 countries. Of these, 125 have signed the UN Protocol against Trafficking in Persons. However, not all of those who ratified it are enforcing the provisions of the treaty—40 percent of the countries in the sample did not convict anyone for trafficking in the past year.

Overall, the number of convictions for human trafficking is growing, says the report, notably in a handful of countries, but it is still much lower than the estimated number of victims.

Many large countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran remain uncooperative and provided no data.

The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation (79 percent) followed by forced labor (18 percent). Forced labor is detected and reported less because it frequently goes unnoticed, especially in big cities.

Nearly four in five victims are women and girls. Including boys, 20 percent of all trafficking victims in the world are children, but in some parts of Africa and Asia’s Mekong region, children are the majority.

The report also reveals that intraregional and domestic trafficking are themajor forms of trafficking in persons. “Criminals prey on their own kin, something even animals don’t do,” Costa said.

The report shatters some illusions about victims and victimizers. Although generally speaking, most crimes are committed by young men, when it comes to trafficking, women perpetrators play an important role. In 30 percent of the countries that provided evidence on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion.

In regions like Eastern Europe and Central Asia, women trafficking women is the norm, according to Costa. Psychological, financial and coercive reasons often induce former victims to become traffickers.

Mira Sorvino, an actress and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador, shared stories of trafficking victims that she had met.
Dora’s trafficker threatened that if she ran away, her family would be killed. “Here in Texas you are lower than a dog,” she would tell Dora. “People here actually care if a dog is abused. No one cares about you.”

Dora managed to escape, but even years later, she is plagued by nightmares and afraid for herself and her family. The woman who enslaved her was punished with one year of house arrest.

Sandra, sold as a child, was forced to sleep on a black magic “altar” that her “owner” had in his house. He claimed to be a sorcerer and would tell her that he could read all her thoughts. Eventually, he decided to exploit her economically as well, sending her to work at a factory and keeping her earnings.

Sorvino described Sandra today as “a burned-out soul.” “So much suffering in a person could only be encountered maybe in a Holocaust survivor,” she said.

The report was unable to confirm that the number of victims is rising. However, based on intuition and experience, Costa said the global economic crisis is likely affecting demand and supply, and making a greater number of people more vulnerable to predators.

Kevin Bales, president of the abolitionist group Free the Slaves, struck a more optimistic note. “Slavery as an institution is pushed to the end of its extinction,” he said.

Never before has slavery represented such a small fraction of the global economy, he said. Bales believes that with sufficient commitment and resources, slavery is a phenomenon that can be eradicated.

To liberate and rehabilitate a slave in a poor country, the cost is around $400-600. Multiplied by the estimated number of slaves, the total needed would amount to $10.5 billion.

“That is small change compared to the money spent on the bank bailout,” he said.

Sorvino added that the term “trafficking” is really a euphemism. “It still should be called slavery so that people can’t tune out the suffering that goes along with it,” she said.

Two hundred years ago, a group of abolitionists in Britain sat down together and took action to end slavery. Twenty years later, slavery was abolished in Britain, he said.

“If 12 people can take it on and beat something perfectly legal at the time, are we so timid that we can’t put an end to this crime?” Bales asked.

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the US president who outlawed slavery in that country, a quote from him was echoed at the UN conference: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

------------------------------

Philippine Report

Institutional Framework

The specific offense of trafficking in persons was established in the Philippines in 2003. The legislation criminalized trafficking in persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labor and other forms of exploitation.

Services provided to victims
State authorities and NGOs provide recovery and reintegration programs for victims of trafficking. These programs include residential, medical and psychological services, maternal and child care skills development, legal services and others.

All victims identified by the State authorities were sexually exploited.

The Visayan Forum Foundation is a nongovernment organization founded in 1991. The Visayan Foundation centers cater to marginalized migrants, especially those working in the invisible sector such as domestic workers, and victims of trafficking, particularly women and children.

The Foundation provides halfway houses and safe houses for victims of trafficking in persons in different areas of the country. These shelters have a capacity of about 120 beds and have assisted a total of 2,000 victims each year in 2006 and 2007.

All the victims sheltered are Filipinos and trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation.

A lot of progress has been made over the years in the fight against child trafficking in Ghana and the world at large. One very notable achievement is the increased awareness amongst the general public. This increase in public awareness can be said to be as a result of the activities of organizations (mostly NGOs) and the government in curbing this menace as well as the media’s role in making public, findings by these organizations. The media has actually done a lot in exposing what was hitherto an ‘underground crime’. Their stance so far as child trafficking is concerned is commendable. Only that lately, I find the media’s inclination to be very much towards politics.

Child trafficking may pass for a crime because of laws that have been enacted but it being considered a crime is not merely because of some parliamentary act or executive fiat. There is the need for one to consider the moral aspects of the issue.

Child trafficking is a violation of another person’s rights. It involves bonded labour. Children who are trafficked are often abused. Abuse of trafficked children is more of a norm than an accident or occasional incident. They are underfed, made to do work beyond their capacity and are often victims of verbal denigration, not forgetting corporal punishment. For girls, the forms of abuse sometimes include sexual abuse. There have been reports of children drowning whiles they tried disentangling the nets of their fishermen masters under water.

The term Child trafficking is nothing but a euphemism for one of the most subtle yet worst forms of modern slavery.

Who are those responsible for the high incidence of trafficking?

The Masters

There are the “masters” who give ‘offers’ to beleaguered parents of those small children.

The children serve as an alternative source of labour. In fact a “better” source of labour. They are easy to handle and they come cheap. The Parents and Guardians One very unfortunate thing is the role the guardians and parents of these trafficked children play. They are the worst offenders. They are the ones who offer the children up for sale. Sometimes under the guise of apprenticeship, children are sold for as ‘much’ as $50. Doesn’t it defy logic that instead of working to ease difficult conditions a parent or guardian would rather ‘send’ a child out to work. Here is the case where they do not even ‘send’ the children out to work. They sell them; at best they ‘rent’ them out for certain periods of time.

Many other reasons are given so far as the dynamics of child trafficking are concerned.

Traditional practices such as children being sent away to live with relatives and the high rate of poverty (especially among the rural folk) are cited. But I don’t think that in any way offers a good enough excuse for the selling of a child.

Trafficking in children is not a crime just because it has been made illegal by an Act (The Trafficking Act, 2005). Even if it were not considered illegal, it involves a blatant and crude violation of the rights of children, who are very vulnerable. It is an abuse of human rights.

What happened to the Children’s Act?

Not only are they made to do work or engage in activities way too dangerous, they also do not have voices with which to state their case and make their protests heard. The various NGOs and government agencies offer them a voice. They are their voice.

However, in a bid to solve the problem of child trafficking some good-intentioned organizations are rather promoting it. With some of the approaches they have adopted those who should be the solution have become a part of the problem. As a means of helping curb this menace some organisations offer money to the ‘slave masters’ for the release of the ‘slaves’. By so doing they are gradually eroding gains that have been made and possible gains that will be made in combating trafficking. The Trafficking Act is being undermined. The giving of monies to these ‘masters’ may appear to work, in the sense that they release the children but it conveys the wrong message. It makes trafficking a viable and enviable venture. Others will engage in it because they know they will be given some ‘incentives’ for the release of the trafficked children. It can be likened to negotiating with a kidnapper or hijacker for the release of hostages.

I believe that instead of offering the ‘masters’ money they should rather be prosecuted. The Palermo Protocols support this view.

The following form part of the contents of the Palermo Protocols: Providing for proportional criminal penalties to be applied to persons found guilty of trafficking in aggravating circumstances, including offences involving trafficking in children or offences committed or involving complicity by state officials; and, Providing for the confiscation of the instruments and proceeds of trafficking and related offences to be used for the benefit of trafficked persons. That will serve as a deterrent and will do more in helping curb trafficking than the offering of monies which helps perpetuate it. Parents who are found to have sold their children should also be prosecuted. Instead of direct micro-finance aid or compensation to perpetrators (fishermen, farmers, parents and guardians) the aid should be directed towards reducing poverty in ‘trafficking zones’ and building more shelters to house the trafficking victims. Arrests and prosecutions would give an indication of government’s seriousness in dealing with the issue. It is however true that most people are ignorant of the existence of the Trafficking Act, 2005. Campaigns and education on the act should be intensified.

The government faces a great challenge in realising its election pledge of total literacy in the country by 2014 because of the heavy dropout of children from primary schools and acute shortage of teachers.

Academicians and researchers think that to reach these targets, the government will have to recruit seven lakh new teachers -- preferably trained -- and build 30,000 new schools and 60,000 new classrooms in existing schools within the next two years.

Experts also suggest that the government allocates at least four per cent of the GDP towards primary education. At present, this remains at less than two percent.

About three million children in the country still don't go to schools while 50 per cent of students who get admitted to class I drop out before completing five years of primary education, mainly due to poverty.

Achievement in primary education remains tremendously low, with the literacy rate being only 63 per cent. About 73 per cent of all teachers are untrained and there remain 19,043 villages which have no schools at all.

Educationists term the AL election pledges as unrealistic, but not impossible. They say the government will have to take pragmatic steps to achieve the targets.

“It is a tremendous challenge for the government because millions of children remain out of school. But it is possible. However, the government can achieve these goals if they remain dedicated to their pledges,” Kailash Satyarthi, president of Global Campaign for Education, told The Daily Star.

Primary and Mass Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said that the government is going to take pragmatic approaches towards realising their goals.

“To reach our goal, we will first formulate a national education policy over the next few months based on the Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission-1974 report,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rasheda K Choudhury, an education adviser to the past caretaker government, said, “Primary education is yet to be spread to deprived pocket areas like Char land, Monga region and among disabled children, indigenous communities and the Dalit community. The time has come to emphasise on these deprived areas.”

According to a mid-term baseline survey report of Second Primary Education Development Project (PEDP-II), 73 per cent of teachers do not get any of the five types of trainings stipulated for government teachers.

The environment in primary schools remains in shambles as revealed by the survey report. Most of the classrooms are over crowded with more than double the number of students those can accommodate, or is permissible under government rules.

The ideal student-teacher ratio is 1:35 while in reality this stands as 1:55.

About 40 to 80 students share one classroom in schools in 282 upazilas. In 124 upazilas, 80 to 100 students share a room while more than a 100 students share one room in 55 upazilas of the country, the survey revealed.

The government is able to supply new textbooks to only 60 per cent of the primary schools. Besides, the School Tiffin Programme, with support from the World Food Programme (WFP), covers only one per cent of total primary school students in the country.

Experts say that the government will have to improve these situations if they are to make a headway towards their targets.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=76180

From Zambaga Rufai Saminu, Daboase | Posted: Tuesday, February 03, 2009

THE elimination of child labour in cocoa growing communities worldwide has been a challenge to governments, and a source of worry to civil society organisations, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and human rights activists.

In Ghana, the situation is not different, with the latest figures and statistics indicating that 2.4 million Ghanaian children were engaged in worst forms of child labour.
As a result of this statistics, the government of Ghana came out with a five-year programme, which began in 2006, to drastically deal with the problem.

The team leader of the Support for Community Mobilization Project (SCMPP), one of the NGOs working in the Western Region to support the government eliminate child labour in the country, Mr. Gyapah Buah, who disclosed this at Daboase recently, attributed the situation to ignorance of the law.

For the stakeholder institutions to address these, he said, some activities have been going on in the affected areas through engagements, dialogue, and sensitisation.

Through this, he said, the communities were able to develop their own action plans, to be implemented by the leaders, to ensure that the issue of child labour was seriously tackled. According to him, Nine Implementing Partners (IPs) had been selected in some of the cocoa growing districts in the Western Region, to work effectively to educate cocoa growing communities on the dangers of child labour.

These IPs include the Hope for Humanity and Save Life Foundation in New Edubiase, Community Development Consult Network (Codesult) in Asankragwa, Support for Community Mobilisation Project/Programme (SCMPP), as well as Help Advance Community Opportunity Goals (HACOG) in Daboase.

Others include the RECA in Wassa Akropong, Oasis of Love Foundation in Assin Fosu, as well as PROMAG in Sefwi Wiaso.

All these organisations, according to Mr. Buah, were helping with their various contributions to kick out the worst forms of child labour in six districts, identified in the Western and Central regions.

Buah told hundreds of students and stakeholders, who thronged the exhibition grounds this year that one of the responsibilities of the partners involved, was to sensitise district stakeholders to understand the consequences of child labour.

He said their work was to also commit the communities to understanding the consequences of child labour in the cocoa growing areas, with special reference to cocoa farmers, who were willing to abide by their advice, to take measures to address the problem of child labour. 

http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/thestory.asp?id=10397&title=2.4%20million%20Ghanaian%
20children%20in%20worst%20forms%20of%20child%20labour

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), will launch a Child Labour Project on Wednesday (February 4), to address the issue of child labour in Jamaica.

Speaking in an interview with JIS news, Director of the Ministry's Child Labour Unit, Mrs. Marva Ximminies said that one of the main aims of the project is to strengthen the legal framework that now exists.

"The objectives of this launch are to look at the legal framework that currently exists and to strengthen where possible...there is also the need for advocacy so that the loop holes can be filled," she said.

According to her, the Ministry will also seek to improve upon its information capacity. Findings from a study in 2000 showed that the public knows very little about the child care and protection act, she said.

"Another aim is to strengthen and improve upon the information capacity of the Ministry, to create a general awareness because, from the findings (in 2000), it shows that the public knows little", she asserted.

Jamaica has signed two ILO conventions which deals with the worst forms of labour; Convention 138, which provides for a minimum age at which children are supposed to be employed; and Convention 182.

She said that this led to the Child Care and Protection Act, which says that no child under the age of thirteen is supposed to be employed, although between 13 and 15 they can be engaged in light work under conditions prescribed by the Ministry.

Findings from the study show that there are approximately 16000 children engaged in economic activities.

"A study was carried out in 2000 (the Youth Activity Survey) and, before that, we had undertaken one on child labour. The findings suggested that there were a little over 16000 children, aged 5-17, who were engaged in some form of economic activity," she said.

Among these, about 7000 were found to be engaged in the worst forms of child labour, she disclosed.

"Generally speaking the study shows children working in the urban centres. so anywhere you can find a town centre that's where you have the greatest concentration of those children," she explained.

Citing the need for integration and institutional strengthening, the Director said that there will be collaboration between the Labour and Education Ministries to reduce the level of child labour.

"Part of this new project will be institutional strengthening, so within the Ministries of Education and Labour there will be a project to help enforce and integrate measures that will be necessary at all levels to prevent child labour," she outlined. This plan was endorsed by cabinet in 2007.

She informed JIS News that after the launch of the child labour project, the Ministry will be undertaking a public education campaign.

"Part of the new project is to improve advocacy and disseminate good practices.so we will have a public education campaign after the launch," she said.

While she was unable to say how long the public education campaign will last, Mrs. Ximminies said that the Ministry is in the process of recruiting the national project manager.

"When that person comes on stream, we will begin to develop the details as to how the project will unfold.but it is going to be an islandwide campaign, and we are going into the areas where we feel we can make the greatest impact and ultimately eliminate the number of children who are engaged in any form of work", she outlined.

BBC News, Mpumalanga

South Africa has just celebrated 500 days before it hosts the football World Cup - but as millions of people await the sporting festival, there are growing fears that it could create a market for child-trafficking.

This man told me that we should go, and I took my bags and we left for South Africa 

Carlos

Researchers say the practice is rife especially in Mpumalanga, a province near Mozambique and Swaziland.

Strangers, or sometimes relatives, illegally take children from their homes and send them to cities where they are used for prostitution, pornography or hard labour.

Amazing Grace Children Centre is home to dozens of youngsters who have been abused and neglected.

The centre is situated in a farming area, a few kilometres away from the Mozambique border post.

Among the youngsters living here is 18-year-old Carlos. His parents died when he was seven.

While in Mozambique, a stranger befriended him, promising to take him to South Africa where he said he would have a better life.

But Carlos ended up working on a farm where he says he was beaten and not paid. Life was far from what he had hoped for.

"I wanted to be like one of those who have a better future, who are living at home with their parents," he said.

"This man told me that we should go. And I took my bags and we left for South Africa."
Carlos managed to escape and he was later found on the streets and taken to the centre.
He is now aspiring to be a graphic designer and is working towards finishing his high-school studies.

'Common problem'

The children centre is in a poverty-stricken area called Inkomazi.
The authorities frequently visit farming schools here, explaining to pupils the risks of being exploited.

Stories are already circulating that young girls are being brought in and kept in safe houses where they are being groomed as prostitutes for the games in 2010 

Professor Carol Allias

Vusi Ndukuya has worked with trafficked children for five years. He says traffickers are finding it easy to operate in this region.

"Most of the time, when these people come they come illegally," he said.

"They don't use passports to cross into the country. And it's very easy to cross from South Africa into Swaziland and vice-versa. Even with Mozambique it's the same thing."

He says Mpumalanga province has both Mozambican and Swazi cultures and many people have relatives on both sides of the border.

"We've had cases of people going to Mozambique to recruit children and bring them here," he said.

Mr Ndukuya said it takes only a few days for criminals to organise children for trafficking.

Lack of legislation

With the World Cup around the corner, there are concerns that the practice will increase.
Professor Carol Allias of the University of South Africa has recently compiled a report on child trafficking.

"There's usually an increase in demand for prostitution during international sporting events," she said.

"This was the case during the Olympic Games in Athens [and] the World Cup in Berlin in 2006.

"Stories are already circulating that young girls are being brought in and kept in safe houses where they are being groomed as prostitutes for the games in 2010."

She said some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been expressing concern for two years, but said it seemed very little was being done about it.

In South Africa there is no legislation that deals directly with child trafficking - and NGOs say this means perpetrators get away with light sentences.

The NGOs acknowledge that the government is trying to address the problem, but they warn that if there is no urgency, many more children will be left with emotional scars that will stay with them for a long time. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7865719.stm

Trafficking the children of Kosi

Wednesday, January 21, 2009, (Patna)

The Bihar government has shut down all relief camps across the Kosi flood-affected districts of the state and people are back to their villages. But with most of them staring at a blank future, child trafficking in flood-affected areas is on the rise.

The local police in Katihar in north Bihar have rescued 15 children who were being trafficked to Delhi to work in factories there.

My father has lost all his fields. I have two sisters. Who will marry them? Two people came and asked me if I would come to Delhi and I said yes," said a victim of trafficking.

As the children waited to board the train at Katihar, they were spotted by the police. The children were rescued and five men were arrested for trafficking. 

"Trafficking has increased a great deal , because the flood has devastated everything here, and it is being done with the consent of the parents," said Mohd Farooq Alam , a member of Bal Kalyan Samiti , Katihar.

Once the government relief ends, families like Mahender Das' are left with no support or income. 

Mahender, his wife, and five children lived in a relief camp for four months. After the state government shut down all relief camps they returned to their village, Parsa Birbal. But there was nothing for them to survive on. Their fields are still wet and no farming is possible for at least a year.

"I am worried about my children. Two of them go to school. I have no idea of how I will continue to educate them," said Mahender.

Children are often the real victims of any disaster. Out of the 35 lakh people affected by the Kosi floods, over 1 lakh are children. Post-tsunami and the super cyclone in Orissa, many children were trafficked as cheap labour. Some of them did not return. 

According to a UNICEF report , about 2500 children were trafficked from North Bihar after heavy rains caused damage in 2007. This year those numbers might end up being much more.