In Africa, biting poverty
has taken its toll on already weak health and education
systems. It has eroded the traditional and social values
that once curbed the exploitation of children.
Poverty is the biggest problem for many families
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Child weddings and sexual
exploitation of domestic help have long been common in
sub-Sahara Africa, and middle-aged 'sugar daddies' have
frequently provided girls with money for school fees, books
or clothes.
But exploitation of
children appeared to have a less commercial dimension than
in Latin America or Asia.
The use of domestic
labour in private homes has always been one of the most
grave and common forms of child exploitation.
But the historical
solidarity networks through which rural families sent their
children to urban relatives and friends to improve their
chances of education and employment have degenerated into
money transactions - with a class of middlemen growing fat
on the profits.
Parents may be paid as
little as £10 to lease their offspring to the Arab Gulf
states, Lebanon and Europe.
Turning a blind eye
When war disrupts rural
economies, children are forced onto the streets: in Somalia,
Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where
10-year-olds are sexually exploited at military bases.
In Luanda, 'catorzinhas'
- 14-year-olds - are now fashionable playthings.
Even in peaceful regions,
children are shipped to work as prostitutes in cities such
as Douala, Lagos, Accra, Dakar, Libreville and Abidjan.
Young Zairois are sold
across the River Congo.
The trade is growing in
Cape Town and Durban, and there are though to be more than
70,000 child prostitutes in Zambia.
In Sierra Leone, child
trafficking is largely in the hands of Lebanese.
The traffic is now
growing from Africa to Europe and is treated almost like any
other business transaction.
Often traffickers who ferry children cannot be
successfully prosecuted
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But, until now,
investigators have been hindered by the lack of statistical
evidence with which to confront communities still denying
the breadth of the problem.
One national from the
Democratic Republic of Congo, with residency in Belgium, was
arrested for allegedly smuggling several children into
Belgium.
The suspect was married
to a Belgian and has four children. He travelled regularly
to DR Congo and is thought to have used his children's
documents to smuggle other children into Belgium.
Legal loophole
Under the guidance of
traffickers, Somali children have been travelling without
the necessary documents, or with false documents, and taking
advantage of their stop-over in Switzerland to apply for
asylum.
This has happened
several times at Zurich airport, involving sometimes more
than 30 Somali children travelling in groups.
To halt this trend, the
Swiss Federal Government has finally adopted a measure
requiring Somali nationals to have an entry or transit visa
or valid residence permit in order to land at a Swiss
airport.
Groups of children have
been taken to Europe, under the pretext of participation in
sports tournaments or, in one case, a public audience with
the Pope.
One official from a
Western embassy in Nigeria was arrested over his alleged
involvement with the trade.
But often, traffickers
who ferry children cannot be successfully prosecuted.
Definitions of trafficking are inadequate and parents merely
say the children were entrusted to the middlemen for safe
passage to relatives or friends.
In many countries,
legislation against the worst forms of child labour does not
exist.
Most countries in Africa
will be falling over themselves to ratify the new
International Labour Organisation convention, which aims to
eliminate the worst forms, but the problem will be
implementation.
In the absence of
adequate national laws and the political will, little can be
done. They will continue unwittingly to exploit their own
kin - and the rights of the child will remain a mere
tradition.
