TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN: West and Central Africa

(Posted December 2002)

CONTENTS

Overview

A Grim Picture

A Complex Problem

Taking Action

Toward a Long-Term Solution

Nongovernmental Organizations

PUBLICATION:
Executive Editor—
George Clack
Writer—
Phyllis McIntosh
Editor—
Kathleen E. Hug
Art Director—
Chloe D. Ellis
Photo Editors—
Maggie Johnson Sliker
Editorial Consultants—
Robin Sanders;
Miriam Guichard;
Arthur Skop;
Nicole M. Peacock;
Tameka N. Veasy
Web Art Director—
Min Yao

A 14-year-old boy with a pocket torch strapped to his head sits by the shaft of a gold mine in Niger. About 30 percent of those who live and work in the mines are children. (Samba Ndiaye/Reuters/
TimePix)

Our day began at 5 a.m. Carrying heavy tools on our heads, we had to walk six kilometres through mud and stones in bare feet to reach the fields. By the time we reached them we were soaked through and exhausted. Once we arrived the overseer showed us the area we each had to plant before the day's end. We were afraid of what he would do to us if we could not finish the work. This threat and the threat of being denied food if we could not finish in time forced us to work quickly. The work was hard, and bending all day gave us back pains. If we were ill and couldn't work we were afraid that we would be tortured to death. One day I witnessed two of my colleagues being tortured for trying to escape. They became seriously ill and died.
The words of a trafficked child as reported by Anti-Slavery International

The young man who endured these horrors was only 13 when he was taken from his home in Mali and sold to work on a coffee and yam plantation in C�te d'Ivoire. For him and thousands of young Africans like him, slavery has not vanished into history. It is an everyday reality.

In the words of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell: "It is incomprehensible that trafficking in human beings should be taking place in the 21st century — incomprehensible, but it's true, very true.� Deprived of the most fundamental human rights, subjected to threats and violence, victims of trafficking are made to toil under horrific conditions in sweatshops and on construction sites, in fields and in brothels."

Increasingly, those victims are children, some as young as six or seven. UNICEF estimates that as many as 200,000 children in West and Central Africa alone are smuggled across national borders every year to provide what amounts to forced labor in neighboring countries. Countless others are sold or traded within their own countries.

A Grim Picture »


This site is produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs. Links to other internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
	Home \| About USINFO \| Site Index \| Webmaster \| Privacy Topics \| Regions \| Resource Tools \| Products