| Child Trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons for the purpose of exploiting them by intimidation or the use of violence or other forms of force, by abduction, deception, fraud, the misuse of power or a position of vulnerability or by giving or receiving money or favours to obtain the consent of a person who holds control over another person. UN-Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP)” |
As if there weren’t enough problems in Burma, I thought, as I read an article from the Courier Mail website entitled “Child Smugglers Target Burma".
“Child traffickers are targeting the youngest and most vulnerable survivors of Burma's cyclone and two suspects have been arrested, according to the UN.”
"A broker came to a shelter and tried to recruit children," said UNICEF's chief child protection officer in Burma, Anne-Claire Dufay.
"There was an intervention. The police intervened and made arrests," she told AFP.
But what is even sadder is that the authorities expected this to be just one of the fallouts of such a disaster.
Back in December online news service The Irrawaddy said in an article entitled “Economic Crisis Fueling Child Labor, Trafficking” that,
“The economic crisis and instability in Burma is driving waves of Burmese children into hard labor, begging and the sex trade, claims exiled Burmese rights groups.”
To realise that the situation has worsened is unthinkable. So what can we do to help? Firstly, we need to understand the ways in which children are trafficked. Studies have shown that trafficked children will fit somewhere into the following five broad scenarios:
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Exploitation through work (incl. slave labour and bonded labour);
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Sexual exploitation (incl. prostitution and pornography);
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Exploitation through illegal activities (incl. begging and drug trafficking);
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The adoption trade;
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Marriage brokering.
As with solving any human trafficking, there are the 4P’s - Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Policy.
Generally, we have prepared a list of how we can help in another article. But on the topic of child trafficking, the Stop Child Trafficking organisation which is part of the terre des hommes International Federation (a network of eleven national organisations working for the rights of children and to promote equitable development without racial, religious, political, cultural or gender-based discrimination) has produced two useful brochures.
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Children – Not For Sale! explains what terre des hommes does, tells you how you can help and tells you who terre des hommes are.
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Stop Child Trafficking – The Campaign Works! Gives a report of activities which will also provide some ideas on how you can help.
In addition to the above, terre des hommes has produced a handbook on planning projects to prevent child trafficking (by Mike Dottridge).
Mr Dottridge seeks a more holistic approach to preventing child trafficking. Rather than just being reactive, his approach stresses the following:
“Action to prevent trafficking is generally initiated to react to a problem: it intends to stop children from being trafficked or exploited. However, to bring about sustainable change, actions to prevent trafficking (whether just of children or of adults as well) have to be formulated in terms of doing something positive which contributes to the development of the communities concerned. So, although the starting point is to achieve something negative (“to stop trafficking”), this can best be achieved by a combination of positive actions, such as increasing the knowledge and skills of the children who are most at risk of being trafficked, increasing the number of school graduates who get jobs near where they live, or increasing income-generating opportunities available to adults who otherwise send their children away from home in circumstances in which they are trafficked.”
So there are useful means that each and everyone of us can do whether it be donating to an organisation such as terre des hommes (information on how to do this can be found from their What Can You Do page) right through to actively participating in a project that Mike Dottridge's handbook might help to plan.
To help in our club's advocacy work, we would encourage you to copy this web page, and duplicate on your own sites. All we ask is that you keep the article in its entirety including this message and the author's details below.
Author: Michelle Jansen
Member - Soroptimist International Brisbane City
Original Article Source
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