|
Parents sell kids into slavery
12/03/2002 09:55 - (SA)
Matthew Tostevin
Abidjan - What do you do when you rescue an African child from trafficking and the first thing his family wants to do is send him back to the cocoa plantations?
A conference in Gabon this week will look not only at ways to curb a sordid trade in West and Central African youngsters, but also ways to make sure that solutions do not create as much pain as the problem.
Unlike the slave trade in which tens of thousands of Africans were seized and shipped to the Americas, present-day trafficking involves parents selling their children for cash and the promise of more when the children are put to work.
"Maybe some practices with the best intentions are not providing the best for children," said Jean-Claude Legrand, regional protection adviser to the UN children's agency Unicef.
"We need to find out what is going on and what can be improved... This conference is also an opportunity to push for a better legal and practical environment to address child trafficking," he said in Abidjan before the meeting.
Fourteen countries will join the debate on child trafficking from Wednesday to Friday in Libreville.
The issue is as complex as it is emotive, and could harm regional economies through threatened chocolate boycotts by Western consumers angry at reports of child slavery on cocoa farms.
Unicef reckons some 200 000 children are exploited in West and Central Africa, although far from all of them are caught up in trafficking for work on plantations or as domestic servants.
Parents sell children
Children are not being kidnapped on a massive scale, as happened in the transatlantic slave trade that depopulated Africa's west coast from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Parents part with them for money and the promise of more to come.
"They don't expect their children to be beaten, unfed and uncared for. They expect their children to make a living and a future," said Legrand.
"We are not opposed to child labour as long as it is in the best interest of the children. What is unacceptable in the trafficking is the way in which the children are exploited."
Unicef hopes the success of a landmark anti-trafficking agreement between Ivory Coast and Mali last year will be repeated elsewhere, possibly leading to deals between Gabon and nearby countries.
As the richest countries in one of the world's poorest regions, Ivory Coast and Gabon are the main destinations for trafficked children.
But the agreement between Ivory Coast and Mali has been far from perfect when it comes to repatriating trafficked children to the homes that sent them off in the hope of money.
"To repatriate a child is a good thing if there is an alternative created for the child back home. If not, he will be back in the trafficking process soon after," said Legrand.
"As long as we don't create a critical mass to bring a change where these children are, the families will continue looking for a way for them to go and work outside."
The region's child traffic grabbed world headlines a year ago with a chase for a ship that aid workers said was carrying 200 child slaves. It turned out the ship was carrying only a few children.
"It would be easy for us to put an end to the traffic if it took such easy routes as a fleet of boats," said Legrand.
"What makes trafficking so complicated is that it is not organised by organised crime groups. It is about one individual crossing a border with three children."
- Reuters
|
News
