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Child trafficker held in Mali
02/01/2007 22:32 - (SA)
Sanakoroba - A group of children apparently being trafficked from Mali for unskilled labour in Ivory Coast were rescued after passers-by were alerted by their cries, said witnesses on Tuesday.
"It was the cries of the children from a small lorry ... that attracted our attention," said Saliou Diarra, a local teacher, in a village south of the Malian capital Bamako. "There were 11 children crammed in the vehicle headed for Ivory Coast."
Two men managed to flee but the driver, who was arrested, confirmed that the children were being trafficked from Bamako and was headed to Ivory Coast where they were to work on farms or as domestic servants, said two other witnesses.
Child trafficking has exploded in west Africa in recent years, with thousands, some as young as three, recruited every year for long hours of hard labour in homes, markets, fields and factories.
In many cases, they undergo extreme forms of physical and mental abuse, including beatings, death threats, and the prospect of never seeing their families again, according to Human Rights Watch.
Many are forced into begging and into becoming sex workers to survive.
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