Kids As Commodities? Child Trafficking and What to Do About It
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Kids as Commodities? Child trafficking and what to do about it Kids as Commodities? 1 Terre des Hommes ‘Kids as Commodities? Child Trafficking and Terre des Hommes in Germany and Peter Brey, Ignacio What to do about it’ Packer and Pierre Philippe of the Terre des Hommes Foun- dation in Switzerland. More broadly, this study has at- tempted to build on analytical frameworks developed by Copyright © International Federation Terre des Hommes, others in four continents. I am particularly grateful to Ann Terre des Hommes Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland and Jordan and Matt Friedman for advice given to me over the Terre des Hommes Germany, May 2004 years, and to my friends in West Africa, Cléophas Mally, Elkane Mooh, Norbert Fanou Ako and Salia Kante, and ISBN number: 2-9700457-0-2 to a long line of researchers who have shown that well intentioned interventions do not always have the impact This study has been produced with the financial assistance which is expected. Thanks are also due to a large number of the Oak Foundation, the Terre des Hommes Founda- of others who provided information so willingly in the tion in Lausanne, Switzerland (www.tdh.ch) and Terre des hope of seeing methods to protect children improve. Hommes Germany (www.tdh.de). The views expressed are Thanks also to Christiane Bruttin, of Terre des Hommes those of Terre des Hommes. Switzerland, for her contribution on lay-out and printing. Terre des Hommes was created in 1960 to provide direct The names attributed to individual children in this study help to underprivileged children who were not (in case studies or photographs) are not their real names. being helped by existing relief agencies. Today it consists Fictional names have been used to protect the children of a network of organisations based in eight different concerned. countries, the International Federation Terre des Hommes (IFTDH), which has consultative status with the United Photograph credits Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Photographs on page 12, page 41, page 62 UNICEF, ILO and the Council of Europe. The network and page 65 : © Terre des Hommes Germany works in partnership with Terre des Hommes organisations Photograph on page 23 : © Veit Mette in Spain and the Netherlands. Members of the Photograph on page 27 : © CDP/Anti-Slavery IFTDH support 840 development and humanitarian aid International projects in 71 countries. Photograph on page 35 : © Erick Christian Ahounou Photograph on page 47 (and cover page) and The countries where members of the IFTDH have their on page 71 : © Andrea Motta headquarters are: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Photograph on page 69 : Mike Dottridge Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland (where there are two ©Anti-Slavery International organisations, Terre des Hommes Switzerland and the Terre Photograph on page 78 : © Jörg Böthling des Hommes Foundation in Lausanne) and Syria. The author of this study is Mike Dottridge, an independ- For more information on Terre des Hommes’ International ent human rights consultant. From 1996 until 2002 he was Campaign Against Child Trafficking, consult the cam- director of a London-based non-governmental organisa- paign’s web-site : www.stopchildtrafficking.org tion, Anti-Slavery International, where much of his work focused on cases of human trafficking, of both adults and children. In 2002 he was part of a panel of UN experts which helped draft human rights guidelines concerning Designed by Martine Cavalar victims of trafficking. He lives and works in the United Cover page by Barbara Monteleone Kingdom. Author’s acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the sup- port and comments from a large number of people, es- pecially Eylah Kadjar-Hamouda, without whose constant support and advice the study would not have seen the light of day. She provided comments, edited the text and coped marvellously with all the challenges of finalising the text. Many of her colleagues in Terre des Hommes around the world have provided comments, particularly Raffaele K. Salinari, President of the International Federation Terre des Hommes, Vincent Tournecuillert of the Terre des Hommes Foundation in Albania, Boris Scharlowski of Kids as Commodities? 2 Terre des Hommes Kids as Commodities? 3 Terre des Hommes Kids as Commodities? Child trafficking and what to do about it by Mike Dottridge Foreword by Graça Machel Kids as Commodities? 2 Terre des Hommes Kids as Commodities? 3 Terre des Hommes CONTENTS Foreword by Graça Machel 12 Chapter 1 Introduction 14 Chapter 2 What is ‘child trafficking’? 16 Trafficking in the context of migration 16 Is child trafficking something new? 18 Migrants, prostitution, and trafficking 18 The difference between the trafficking of children and trafficking of adult women 19 Different ways of trafficking children 19 Patterns of cross-border trafficking around the world 20 How many children are trafficked each year? 21 Chapter 3 How trafficked children are exploited 23 Commercial sexual exploitation 23 Marriage 25 Adoption 25 Slavery and bonded labour 26 Child domestic servants 26 Child beggars 27 Children in illicit activities 27 Hazardous child labour 27 Organ extraction and trafficking 27 Chapter 4 Why children are available for traffickers 28 Poverty, globalisation and restrictions on migration 28 Lack of education 29 Other social factors 29 Discrimination 29 Cultural norms 29 Domestic violence 30 Crises: natural and man-made 30 Ambition and hope 30 Chapter 5 Who helps trafficking to occur? 32 Organised crime or small-scale criminals? 32 Others who facilitate trafficking 33 Transport workers 33 Professionals 33 Officials who help traffickers 33 Chapter 6 The harm caused to children from trafficking 34 Coercion to make children obey orders 34 The effects of exploitation 35 The specific effects of commercial sexual exploitation 35 Chapter 7 Responses to child trafficking and respecting child rights 38 Implication of trafficking as a gender issue 39 Kids as Commodities? 4 Terre des Hommes Kids as Commodities? 5 Terre des Hommes Chapter 8 Standards at the international level for responding to child trafficking 41 The definition of trafficking in international law 41 What the trafficking protocol requires governments to do 42 Forms of exploitation linked to child trafficking 43 Commercial adoption –involving ‘improper gain’ 43 Organ trafficking 43 Regional conventions on child trafficking 43 International guidelines on how trafficked children should be treated 44 UN High Commissioner for Refugees guidelines 44 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ recommendations and guidelines on human trafficking 44 Unicef’s guidelines for protection of the rights of children victims of trafficking 45 Chapter 9 Actors involved in stopping child trafficking and assisting children 47 NGOs and civil society 47 Law enforcement agencies 48 Other statutory bodies 48 Inter-governmental organisations 49 Keeping the UN informed about child trafficking 49 Ensuring that different organisations work together 50 Transnational NGO networks 50 NGOs working together in their own country 50 Law enforcement working with NGOs 51 Cooperation with the authorities in criminal investigations 51 NGOs working with inter-governmental organisations and other governments 51 Chapter 10 Laws and action on child trafficking at national level 53 Enacting law 53 Getting the wording of the law right 53 Using prosecutions to provide compensation to trafficked children 54 Laws that are too harsh 54 Extraterritorial jurisdiction 54 Implementing the law 54 Agreeing other minimum standards at national level 55 Avoiding causing harm to children 55 Chapter 11 Finding out the facts 57 Techniques for collecting information 57 Consulting children 58 Indirect indications that child trafficking may be occurring 59 Collecting information systematically 59 Common difficulties 59 The risks of estimates and statistics 59 The dangers of exaggeration and speculation 61 Being aware of different patterns of child trafficking 61 Challenging preconceptions 61 Kids as Commodities? 4 Terre des Hommes Kids as Commodities? 5 Terre des Hommes Chapter 12 Campaigning against child trafficking 62 Choosing the aims of a campaign 62 Measuring success 62 Campaigning techniques 62 Pressure on a government abroad 63 United Arab Emirates 63 Terre des Hommes’ International Campaign against Child Trafficking 63 Fine-tuning the campaign message for Germany 64 Fine-tuning the campaign message for Mozambique 65 Chapter 13 Publicity as a technique to combat child trafficking 66 Achieving a break-through with publicity 66 Shaming governments into taking action against trafficking 66 Predicting the effects of publicity 66 Fictional representations of child trafficking in films 67 Chapter 14 Preventing children from being trafficked 69 Near to home – preventing trafficking where children are recruited 69 Birth registration 69 Education 69 Increasing household income 70 Information campaigns to increase awareness of the risk of trafficking 70 Information for specific audiences 71 Social work 72 Difficulties to overcome 72 Away from home – prevention in places where children are exploited 72 Help-lines 72 Educating employers 72 Educating ‘consumers’ (tackling ‘demand’) 73 Influencing men who buy sex 74 Chapter 15 Identifying and rescuing children who have been trafficked 75 Recognising children who have been trafficked 75 Unaccompanied minors 76 Interception while children are in transit 76 Intervening on behalf of children being exploited 76 ‘Rescues’ 77 Chapter 16 Protecting trafficked