Child Trafficking around the Globe
Trigger Warning: child trafficking, Forced Labor
Today´s blog post is to remember trafficked children, within the theme of this year: Leave no Child Behind. The post focuses on forced child labor cases, often a motivation for child trafficking. Children´s forced labor is often observed in the mining sector around the world; some examples can be found in the article.
Today is the 30th of July, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The United Nations declared this day in 2013 finding such a day necessary to “raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights.” The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (GLOTIP) 2022 by the UNODC (UN Office of Drugs and Crime) provided information based on more than 450,000 victims and 300,000 (suspected) offenders, detected worldwide between 2003 and 2021.
Within these global trends, there are large regional differences in the proportions of victims identified. While countries in North, Central America and the Caribbean are the most women and girls are the most likely to be victims of sexual exploitation, countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa detect more males, especially men, for forced labor and boys for forced criminal activity. Other regional differences exist in the most common types of victims detected. In sub-Saharan Africa, child children are the most commonly tracked, primarily for the purpose of forced labor. In South Asian countries, female and and male victims about equally, for forced marriage, forced labor, and, to a lesser level, sexual exploitation. A sizable fraction of the victims in Western and Southern Europe who have been discovered are either trafficked in mixed forms or are exploited in criminal activities. Lastly, a significant number of girls are identified for sexual exploitation in Central America and the Caribbean. The average age of detected child victims ranges around 14-15 years of age, for all forms of exploitation.
The same dataset shows that globally, children (girls and boys) are 1.7 times more likely to suffer physical or extreme violence than adults, and girls are 1.5 times more likely to suffer violence than women.
Forced labor is a common purpose for human trafficking across all groups. GLOTIP 2022 states that trafficking for forced labor accounted for 39% of total victims detected in 2020, a bigger share than ever seen before. The majority of the victims trafficked for that purpose are men and the women and girls take up to a third of the victims.
Socioeconomic imbalances, migration, natural disasters, extreme poverty, violent conflicts, weak legal frameworks, and law enforcement are possible factors that contribute to exploitative practices. Therefore, forced labor of children is a phenomenon more often observed in underdeveloped regions. It is also highly related to education and awareness, however, economic concerns and cultural practices are the main drivers. Improving the legal framework and its effective application through law enforcement is the main tool for the prevention of both child labor and trafficking.
In sub-Saharan Africa, slightly more than 1 in 4 children aged 5 to 17 years are engaged in child labor. This is in stark contrast to the prevalence of child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa at 5%.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, more children than adults have been identified as victims of human trafficking in the last years. Droughts and floods in Ghana are causing many people to migrate. As a result, there are more reports of children being trafficked for forced marriage or labor. Additionally, men and boys migrating from northern to central and southern Ghana to find work on farms or in mines are also at risk of being trafficked, especially since these industries are labor-intensive and unregulated. Women and children in particular may end up working as kayayie (porters), being entirely reliant on their low-paying, commission-based occupations to cover necessities like housing and food. Intermediaries who recruited them may never pay them, meanwhile only increasing their debt.
Children in Ghana are trafficked to work in illegal small-scale gold mines known as “galamsey,” especially those from poor rural communities. They work in deep pits and handle mercury to extract gold, enduring physically taxing labor. The mine operators frequently have complete control over the trafficked children, denying them any freedom or educational opportunities.
Similar child labor is practiced in unofficial gold mines in Peru’s Amazon region. Traffickers trick children into believing they will be employed in lucrative jobs, only to be forced into hazardous and exploitative situations. Long work hours and frequent handling of hazardous materials like mercury by the kids without any safety precautions cause serious health problems.
Indonesia´s islands of Bangka and Belitung, the tin mines hide similar atrocities. Children trafficked to work here dive into water-filled pits to retrieve tin ore, an activity fraught with dangers such as drowning and landslides. The traffickers who control them treat these young divers as expendable, exploiting their labor for the tin trade that feeds the global electronics industry.
In the Kono district of Sierra Leone, trafficked children dig through gravel in search of precious stones, especially diamond, enduring horrible conditions and physical abuse. Their labor enriches others while they remain trapped in a cycle of exploitation, deprived of education and a safe childhood.
Madagascar’s mica mines are filled with trafficked children, their small hands ideal for extracting the mineral used in cosmetics and electronics. Traffickers exploit their innocence, forcing them into dangerous, dusty mines. The children work long hours, exposed to respiratory hazards, with their labor feeding global supply chains.
Child trafficking is an inhumane phenomenon observed globally. The reasons underlying are a complex mixture of socioeconomic structure on regional and transnational levels, political and military conflicts, gender, class, ethnic inequality, and many more. Child trafficking rates are especially high in some economically underdeveloped and regions with ongoing wars, such as West Africa and Asia’s Mekong region including Cambodia, parts of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The motivations vary from forced labor to adoption, from sexual abuse to military use.
The trafficking of children may lead to children´s exploitation in labor, which is a terrible practice observed independently and a crime in many countries. Socioeconomic imbalances, migration, natural disasters, extreme poverty, violent conflicts, weak legal frameworks, and law enforcement are possible factors that contribute to exploitative practices. Child labor and trafficking in children are complex issues with factors like education, economic development, migration, gender, and many more.
To eliminate the factors contributing to these is a hard task, although the states can be supported through nongovernmental organizations.
Community-led NGOs play a crucial role in the fight against human trafficking. They are often on the front lines, working directly with affected populations and implementing localized strategies to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers.
Written by Deniz, member of the Advisory Board.
Ressources:
https://www.alliance87.org/pathfinders/democratic-republic-congo
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-labour/