Their personal accounts of survival in poverty are emotionally gripping and profoundly disgusting, yet Ethiopia`s street children are avowedly determined not to go back to their countryside roots.

Many of them are orphans, but in their ranks too are those who have been abandoned by parents or close relatives after being intentionally subjected to cruelty, including maiming.

Others simply find the streets as the only haven where they can strike up friendship that actually gives them the strength to survive as they forage for food.

"I don`t want to go back home. My parents are very poor. I know they are enduring hardship.

"They have three other children and there is nothing they can do for me," said 12-year-old Gutama Zombiye (not his real name) who hails from Arba Minch, some 400 km south of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Gutama was brought to the city by his uncle on a false promise to find him a good school.

"When I arrived here I had the impression of starting a new life," he recalled. But soon he was thrown into a terrible confusion, as he had to come to terms with the deception of his uncle.

To his disappointment, Gutama ended up being one of the uncle`s child- labourers in a backyard shawl-weaving factory located at Shoromeda in the city.

For one year, he was paid two birr as his daily wages to buy himself meals. He slept rough and the uncle never talked again about his school promise.

Colourful, traditional shawls made by the child-labourers sell for 17 up to 30 birr apiece ($1 is equivalent to 8.67 birr) and they have become part and parcel of the nation`s cultural image.

However, tourists and other foreign visitors flocking to Shoromeda market to buy traditional Ethiopian dresses as souvenirs pay no attention to the plight of children forced to work on shawl looms.

Like Gutama, these children lead a horrible life in shacks behind the shops, where they toil to fill the pockets of their callous masters.

Besides starvation, they are exposed to confinement, physical violence and overwork.

"My uncle has a penchant for booze. As a result of his hard drinking, he did not give me food. He was beating me for no reason. Several times he threatened to kill me if I reported the matter to the police," said Gutama, narrating his ordeal at a child protection unit, jointly run by Forum on Street Children-Ethiopia (FSCE) and the city police.

FSCE, a child rights NGO formed in 1989, strives to create supportive conditions for urban disadvantaged and street children.

With support from Save the Children Sweden, the NGO works to protect child victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation, trafficking as well as separation from families.

"Thousands of young girls and boys from destitute families in rural Ethiopia are taken to the cities every year just like commodities," explained Sammo Sima of FSCE.

"They are trafficked by brokers who make deals with bar owners, `baluka` (brothel) operators and other occasional employers. They think city life is wonderful but the reality turns out differently."

In the case of girls, FSCE officials explain, the most distressing experience they face is sexual abuse and exploitation.

According to UNICEF, child labour is a common phenomenon in Ethiopia and there are large numbers of child sex workers.

A host of factors drive Ethiopian children into the streets, sex work and bonded labour against their will.

An assessment carried out at the end of 2004 by UN agencies, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, came up with a figure of 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.

This is the largest number of orphans in any country in the world, according to UN agencies.

Of these, about 800,000 have been orphaned by AIDS. Given the current HIV prevalence rate of 4.6 percent, the orphaned population is expected to grow.

Up to 70 percent of Ethiopia`s orphans live with immediate family members, 20 percent live with other relatives and the rest live alone or with friends.

Around 65 percent of all orphans come from households with a monthly income of less that 100 birr (about $11), showing a clear correlation between household poverty level and the social status of children.

Most of the households taking care of orphans were female-headed. It is estimated that half of the orphans in the country lack adequate food.

With regard to education, UNICEF officials say school attendance is one aspect of the problems facing orphans.

Confronted with shortages of daily meals, clothing, school uniforms and supplies, many orphans drop out of school at an early age.

Government and UNICEF officials admit that the situation is far worse for girls who are taken out of school to look after their younger siblings or sick adults in the household.

"The fact that they are not going to school makes orphans more vulnerable to abuse, neglect, dispossession, exploitation and stigmatisation," said Alessandro Conticini, head of Child Protection and HIV/AIDS section at UNICEF`s country office in Addis Ababa.

"While orphanhood increases children`s vulnerability, it would be wrong to equate vulnerability exclusively with orphanhood," Conticini added, pointing out that the number of vulnerable kids was higher than the identified orphans.

A recent research by Ethiopia`s Population Council found that more than 30 percent of girls aged 10-14 years in Addis Ababa were not living with their parents.

Some of them lived with supportive relatives but a large number were living in potentially exploitative situations, on the streets, working or begging.

"While this crisis of vulnerable children deprives them of their rights to human development, it also proves to be a growing burden on the already impoverished communities," Conticini observed.

It is against this background that UNICEF and the Ethiopian government will on 25 October 2005 launch a three-pronged `Campaign for Vulnerable Children` to raise the profile of orphans and vulnerable children.

The first part of the drive focuses on hearing the children`s dreams through a nationwide consultation.

In the second part, headed by Olympic champion and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Kenenisa Bekele, the campaign would seek to raise funds for organisations supporting Ethiopia`s most vulnerable children.

The third part will focus on candidates for `woreda` (district) council elections across Ethiopia in January and February next year.

Candidates will be asked to sign up to the `call to action` before the election, committing them to work towards fulfilling its goals.

Making the dreams of Ethiopia`s vulnerable children come true will, indeed, save them from alienation to shake off the shackles of poverty and make a name for themselves.

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=385126

Most of the time, the sale of a baby is a private affair, a contract between the would-be parents and the pregnant woman, who for personal reasons chooses to give up her child. 

“The first reported case was in 1992, and since then, the numbers have remained low (fewer than 10 per year). In recent years, however, there has been a new ‘trend’.  

“In Sarawak, the police uncovered a syndicate whereby the women were smuggled in from Indonesia and hidden away in the jungle or kongsi. These girls were forced into prostitution primarily to give birth to babies that were meant for the local market and sold for RM20,000 to RM30,000 per baby,” explained Federal deputy CID director Datuk Mohd Nawawi Ismail. 

The sale of babies is not a rampant problem in Malaysia. 

However, when these babies are recovered, a whole new set of problems arises such as the race of the babies, their nationality and health condition. 

“There is no special unit within the Royal Malaysian Police to handle such cases. What we need is more awareness programmes and the welfare department to help in putting up these babies for adoption. 

“We also need tighter control of the registration of babies and of the borders (between the countries),” he said. 

And what of human trafficking? That’s not to say that we don’t recognise the act as a criminal offence. But the fact is, commercial or sexual exploitation is not recognised in Malaysia.  

“There is also no distinction between illegal immigrants and victims of human trafficking,” said Nor Amini Yusoff, Director, Child Division Social Welfare Department. 

“The Malaysian strategy is to develop an environment that protects all children from violation of their rights,” she added. 

According to Professor Vitit Mubtabhorn, professor of law, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, human trafficking is defined as the transfer of a person into exploitation such as prostitution, forced labour, or reason of adoption. 

“One of the most heinous crimes being committed currently is human trafficking, an offence that particularly affects women and children,” he said.  

However, he emphasised that there was a distinct difference between smuggling and trafficking.  

“While human trafficking is tested by the fact that a person ends up in a situation of exploitation, human smuggling, which involves more women than men, is a situation where an intermediary helps a person to cross the border illegally into another country. 

“Trafficking is not linked to poverty and there are many rich communities where it is a major problem. It is also not just a problem of developing countries but also of developed countries.  

“Laws and policies on the issue of human trafficking shouldn’t treat victims as criminals but as persons who need protection. Humane action is essential, especially for those with medical problems such as HIV/AIDS,” said Professor Mubtabhorn, who spoke on Trafficking ofChildren in Asia.  

The forum was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). 

He suggested a few solutions which could be effective in tackling the problem such as coming up with policies and programmes which promotes awareness and are victim and gender sensitive, coupled with quality enforcement and dealing with the problem at source and addressing the criminality and poverty issue. 

He also stressed the importance of the protection of the rights of the victims and penalisation of the traffickers.  

But it doesn’t stop there as national commitment has to be reviewed.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2005/10/24/lifefocus/12188425&sec=lifefocus

Addis Ababa - Poverty-stricken Ethiopians sell thousands of their children for as little as $1.20 (about R8) each to traffickers who put them to work as prostitutes, domestic labour, weavers or professional beggars, said the International Organisation for Migration on Wednesday.

Families sell as many as 20 000 children, some as young as 10, every year.

About two-thirds are trafficked by brokers who earn a part of the child's earnings, while a third are trafficked by friends and family, said Alem Brook, a legal expert with the group's counter-trafficking unit in Ethiopia.

"The parents are often deceived with promises of money or that the child will be educated," said Alem.

"Traffickers pay around 10 to 20 birr (about R8 to R16) for each child."

At least 85% of Ethiopia's 71 million people survive on subsistence farming, and more than 45% of those live in abject poverty. Annual incomes are just $100 (about 660).

The spread of HIV/Aids has taken its toll on families, leaving many children without proper care-takers and vulnerable to traffickers.

Traffickers are also increasing recruitment of Ethiopian women to work as prostitutes abroad, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

At least 10 000 Ethiopian women have been trafficked to the Gulf States to work as prostitutes, according to the group.

Traffickers who prey on girls in Ethiopia expect to earn around 7 000 Birr (about R5 500) for each person they send overseas.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world, earning those involved about $10bn (about R66bn) a year.

If caught, brokers can face jail sentences of up to 20 years, but few are ever prosecuted.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1819895,00.html

South Africa is a major destination and source for international trafficking of children, a conference on human trafficking heard in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Susan Kreston of the Council of the National Centre for Justice and the Rule of Law in the USA told the conference - arranged by the Institute for Security Studies - that between 28 000 and 38 000 children were currently being prostituted in South Africa.

"Up to 25% of prostitutes in South Africa are children, and up to 25% of street children (are prostitutes)," she told the conference.

In a 2003 study on migration, South Africa was described as the main destination for trafficked children in Southern Africa. "Many are sent from Angola, Botswana, (Democratic Republic of) Congo and Lesotho as well as from Thailand and Russia," the report detailed.

Kreston noted that many of the children prostituted in South Africa had been sold by their parents.

"South Africa is the same as the United States in that it is a magnet state. Because it is mostly economically developed, cosmopolitan and diverse it has become a lucrative market for child traffickers."

In a three-tier grading system - where one is a country doing its utmost to stop trafficking - South Africa is listed in tier two.

"South Africa has laws but needs to do more," said Kreston, adding that legislation combined with a working criminal justice system would jump South Africa into the first tier.

"It's getting there, it just needs that final push," she said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1525242,00.html

FIJI'S Second Secretary to the United Nations has told the assembly that many children in Fiji are being forced to seek work in the informal sectors of society, including the sex industry.

Simione Rokolaqa said while there were no recent statistics, the problem was increasingly evident.

He made the comments while welcoming the UN Secretary General's report on the Promotion and Protection on Rights of Children in New York yesterday.

Mr Rokolaqa said there was an increasing number of under-aged children working in homes as domestic workers, shoeshine boys and in the commercial sex industry in Fiji.

"There are visible signs that more and more under-aged children in Fiji are out on the streets, working in the informal sectors of society, and seeking employment in the sex industry," he said.

"The number is increasing and many of those already in the sex industry were lured by both local and foreign adults wishing to make a profit from pornography.

"It is for this reason that the Government of Fiji signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian government for a joint action Against Sexual Exploitation of Children."

He said this was the backdrop against which Fiji ratified both the International Labour Minimum Age Convention No.138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour No. 182.

"Fiji is currently reviewing laws and legislations to be compatible with the two conventions and necessary policy and legislation will be drawn and relevant programmes implemented once finalised," he said.

Mr Rokolaqa said the Government had also introduced the Family Law Act which aimed to protect the prime interests of children by reinforcing parental and familial responsibilities towards them.

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=30484

United Nations, 18 October: Nearly half of the world's 2.2 billion children under the age of 15 years live in poverty, India has said, asking international community to help tackle the underlying causes for their miserable condition.

Addressing a United Nations Committee Monday [17 October], Indian delegate S.K. Bwiswmuthiary said while need for focusing attention on children's rights is paramount, there should be commensurate attention and support to children's developmental needs, adequate nutritious food, basic health needs and access to education.

India, he said, is fully committed to the goals of ''A World Fit for Children'', which were adopted at the special session of the UN General Assembly in 2002 and shares a "deep concern" for welfare of children who comprise 41 per cent its population.

He said elementary education is a fundamental right in India and the government plans to increase public spending on education to at least 6 per cent of the GDP. At least half of this amount would be spent in the development of the primary and secondary education sectors.

Several legislations have been enacted to ensure protection of children's rights, he said, adding India is committed to eliminate child labour in all its forms and is moving in this direction in a targeted manner.

He also noted that India's Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act bans employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and hazardous environments, and regulates the working conditions of children in occupations where they are not prohibited from working.

"The strategy to eliminate child labour in all its forms recognizes that it is inextricably linked with poverty and illiteracy, cannot be solved by legislation alone, and that a holistic, multi-pronged and concerted effort to tackle this problem, is necessary," Bwiswmuthiary said.

He pointed out that aspects of poverty, development and rights of children are self-evident. Every day 29,000 children under the age of five die largely from preventable diseases, resulting in 10.6m deaths each year.

"The best estimate is that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for reducing under-five mortality will remain unmet in Sub-Saharan Africa well into 22nd century. Moreover, a large percentage of children in Sub Saharan region would be severely deprived of shelter, water, sanitation, education, information, health and nutrition, as compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world," he added.

These are "stark reminders" for the international community to pay more attention to the development of children everywhere, with special focus on regions where there are most vulnerable, such as Sub Saharan Africa, he said.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/5057.asp

THE Government on Wednesday launched a national initiative to root out any exploitative forms of child labour that may occur in the country.

The Action Programme of the Elimination of Child Labour (APEC), as the initiative is called, is being co-ordinated by a national Programme Advisory Committee on Child Labour (PAC), headed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.

After consultative processes between the PAC and other stakeholders in 2004, it was established that children are being forced to do crimes such as housebreaking, stock theft and selling drugs, while cases of child prostitution on the streets, at bars and truckports were also reported.

Other forms of extreme child labour in Namibia are children being used in bonded labour, for example when households are threatened with eviction unless children work, and in hazardous tasks such as the production of charcoal.

The aims of APEC, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Petrus Iilonga said on Wednesday, were to establish the extent of exploitative work that children under 18 years do and to address these; to analyse existing policies and programmes and to identify policy gaps; and to formulate an Action Programme that addresses these gaps.

A congress will be held in 2006, Iilonga said, where agreed action steps can be adopted.
"The worst forms of child labour can be eliminated in Namibia,," said Dawie Bosch, the Chief Technical Advisor for the Programme Towards the Elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour (TECL) in Namibia, one of the assisting programmes to APEC.

He attributed this possibility to the country's low population.

"Action should be taken against child labour that harms children's development or education," he said, adding that it should be ensured that the affected child is better off after action has been taken.

TECL is an International Labour Organisation (ILO) programme providing technical assistance and funding to APEC.

The other programme providing assistance to the programme is Reclisa (Reducing Exploitative Child Labour in Southern Africa).

Reclisa currently runs programmes in the Caprivi aimed at reducing the number of children caught in the worst forms of child labour while helping them get an education.

The reason for the project starting in the Caprivi is due to the region's high HIV prevalence as well as well as the reality of cross-border child trafficking, said Casimir Chipere, Project Coordinator for Reclisa's social partner in Namibia, Africare.

The first step of the four-year programme, Bosch said, is to increase public awareness on the extent, nature and causes of extreme child labour, as well as on the rights of children.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200509300018.html

That we do not have a law to curb the illicit trade in human beings is disheartening. The fact that we have not even signed onto the international protocols on the illegal trade is distressing.

Most countries, faced with the grim reality of this nefarious crime, have put in place tough legislation to curb the vice and also signed onto the international protocols.

This inevitably exposes our country as a soft target for the criminals who scheme and execute their vile plans, mainly targeting children and young women who are sold to gangs that run prostitution rings.

Speaking at the closing of a workshop organised for Members of Parliament by the Child Rights Advisory, Documentation and Legal Centre (Clarion), an MP said most children in Nairobi and other urban centres who got lost without trace were victims of child trafficking.

The Attorney-General must rise to the occasion and speed up the preparation of the Bill on the illegal trade in human beings and the signing of the international protocol. Parliament, on the other hand, needs to ensure Kenyans have tough laws to protect their children for they are their heritage.

In the meantime, the police should seek to better understand this crime and its numerous manifestations to be able to reduce its incidence and net its perpetrators.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=30291

More than 1.2 million Ghanaian children are currently engaged in some form of exploitative or hazardous labour, mostly in such areas as prostitution, drug peddling, stone breaking, domestic work and sand winning.

Of the number, over one million are under the age of 13 years and they are part of a growing incidence of internal child trafficking through which process, the victims were exposed to various injuries, toxic substances, sexual abuses and even death.

Mr Emmanuel Otoo, Programme Co-ordinator of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, disclosed this, while addressing a training workshop for officers of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in Koforidua on Monday.

The main objective of the training course, which attracted more than 30 NBSSI staff from the Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra Regions, was to sensitise the participants on how they could help eliminate child labour in the informal sector.

According to Mr Otoo, most child-labour related offences in Ghana were linked to internal trafficking, with the worst forms occurring mostly in rural communities.

He conceded that present statistics on the menace could be far below the actual figure, mainly because of the difficulty and complexity in obtaining information from culprits.

Mr Otoo was worried about the growing incidence of children being put into hazardous labour, such as going to sea, mining and quarrying, production of chemicals, using minors to operate certain machines and working in bars and other places of entertainment.

He explained that such hazardous work poses great danger, not only to the health, safety and morals of the over 200,000 children currently engaged in them, but that they were also a contributing factor to high crime rates, high adult unemployment and reduction of national productivity.

Presenting a paper on the physical and psychosocial impact of hazardous labour on children, Dr Erica Dickson, a Clinical Psychologist and Physician at the 37 Military Hospital, Accra, was worried that some Ghanaian definitions of who constituted an adult still did not conform to international standards.

Relying on this disparity, some unscrupulous individuals in society have tended to inflict physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse on children, she said.

What Ghanaian parents ought to do, she suggested, was to give children age-appropriate chores that do not inflict any physical or psychological abuse on them.

According to Dr Dickson, Ghana currently had a total children population of 6.3 million out of which over 1.2 million were engaged in some form of child labour or the other, adding that, over 200,000 of them were presently engaged in hazardous labour.

Volta Region, she said, was leading with 33 per cent as the region with most working children, followed by the Western Region with 27 per cent, while the Upper West Region was the region with the least working children. GNA

http://allafrica.com/stories/200510170739.html

ZIMBABWE'S six year-old economic crisis coupled with worsening poverty has resulted in a surge in the number of children involved in child labour especially in the agricultural sector.

According to a Rapid Assessment Study by the Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) conducted last week in the tea estates of the Eastern Highlands, more than 20% of the workforce were children who should not be working.

John Mufukare, an executive director with EMCOZ attributed the high number of children working on the tea estates to mounting poverty and the prevailing economic hardships in general.

"We undertook the study to raise awareness on the negative impact of child labour but child labour practises will only stop after eradicating poverty," said Mufukare.
The study was conducted at the Katiyo and Eastern Tea Estates and according to EMCOZ it was not comprehensive but provided some insight on the situation on the ground.

Economic hardships that have afflicted the country over the past few years have resulted in many children opting out of school after their parents failed to pay the exorbitant fees now charged by most schools.

The Aids scourge has also contributed to the rise in child labour, as most families are now child-headed and the children cannot pay their school fees.

Mufukare said the use of child labour in the tea estates was not a result of the complicity of the employers but most were unaware of the situation.

"Most of the children work as sub-contractors and are used by other employees like their parents who would have been tasked to pick the crop," added the EMCOZ executive.
He said that the use of child labour was now rampant in the country particularly in the agricultural and domestic sectors and the practice needed to be stamped out forthwith.
"Communities should take more responsibility and come up with measures to eradicate this bad practice and that is why as EMCOZ we took this initiative to visit the tea estates," he added.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is against the use of children and has always advocated for the eradication of this practice.

Efforts to get comment from the government were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200510090197.html

Accra, Ghana, 10/05 - More than one million Ghanaian children are engaged in child labour, the majority of them under 13 years of age, according to Emmanuel Otoo, Country Programme Coordinator on capacity building project of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

He said here Monday most of the children were engaged in agriculture, hunting and forestry, with an estimated 242,000 of them engaged in hazardous work.

Some the children were into street hawking, drug peddling, domestic work and prostitution.

Otoo noted that most of the child labour situations in Ghana were linked to "internal trafficking" with the worst forms dominant in the rural areas.

According to him, those in hazardous working environment are exposed to injuries, toxic substances, sexual abuse, violence and even death.

He attributed the rising incidence of child labour in the country to parental neglect, noting that "Over 91 percent of parents of child labourers are alive, which indicates that neglect of parental responsibility is a major cause of child labour."

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=380430

More than 120 children working at an illegal embroidery factory in Delhi, India were rescued in a massive joint operation by police and social workers on Friday.

New Delhi-based organization Global March Against Child Labour reported the boys, aged between 8 and 14, were found working in dingy, cramped rooms with no light or ventilation.

"These small rooms were homes as well as workplaces for children trafficked from the states of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand," the organization reported in a written statement.

According to the Press Trust of India news agency, the children were forced to work up to 16 hours a day.

One 14-year-old boy told reporters he was being paid a little over $2 US a week for 12 hours of work a day.

A Delhi lawyer involved in the case said the whole factory was illegal, and the children were essentially working as slaves.

"The whole factory is illegal. They do not have a contract with the owner and because there is no contract, they are, as it is, working as a slave," said a Delhi lawyer identified as Bhuvan.
It's a familiar problem in India's cities.

In Delhi alone, authorities believe there are 50,000 children working in factories similar to this one.

The raid, supported by the police, administration and judiciary, was conducted as part of an ongoing campaign to free Delhi of illegal child labour.

"We will take their statements, (to find out) where do they belong, how long they have been working? When everything is there, then we will take them to the children's home, then we will inform their parents," said Sonika Singh, Delhi government official.

While the raids are an effort to eradicate the problem, it will be difficult.

According to British-based aid agency Oxfam, India has the largest number of children under the age of 15 in work in the world. Some estimates put the figure at 100 million children.

While international agencies are pressuring the Indian government to crack down, there is little chance the owner of the factory, who managed to escape, will be prosecuted when caught.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051007/child_labour_051007/
20051008?hub=World