This is a part from the article by Yelibenwork Ayele Slavery in Ethiopia
Ethiopians and African slaves
Since the inquiry into child
trafficking conducted so far in Ethiopia is inadequate, and because of
the clandestine nature of the operation, it is difficult to put the
exact figures of victims. That the network of child trafficking is too
complicated within the country coupled with the inability of children to
protest about the crime perpetrated against them and socities’ silence
about what goes on right under their nose have kept the issue a secret
for long.
Mahider Bitew, Children’s Rights
and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, says that some
isolated studies conducted in Diredawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three
other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child
trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one
thousand children were trafficked via Diredawa to countries of the
Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom
were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The
International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as
the Worst Form of Child Labor.
In Ethiopia, children are
trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to
work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are
usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to
urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to
work in activities like herding cattle in rural areas and in the
weaving industry in Addis Ababa and other major towns. Girls are
expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and
looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.
“Unfortunately, in the exercise of
smuggling and trafficking, the preferred candidates have been girls and
women as they can easily be put to prostitution, pornography and sexual
exploitation…,” said Proffesor Alpha Omar Konare,
Chairperson of the African Union Commission speaking last Saturday at the commemoration of the Day of the African Child.
Poverty, says Mahider, is one of
the causes of child trafficking. Parents participate in child
trafficking by sending their children to other towns for good jobs so
that the children could work and support themselves, or in some case
their families as well. Some children fantasize about working and living
a better life in other towns and grab the opportunity when it presents
itself.
“In reality they are traded like
commodities to work in brutal conditions and many children face beatings
and other forms of physical and sexual abuse from their employers,”
said Ann M.Veneman.
There are some parents who take the
initiative in dealing with brokers to send their children for
employment away from their home town. Such well-meaning parents are
under the impression that their children will work under normal
conditions, be fed properly and paid fairly.
Mahider believes that poverty is
not a necessary cause of child trafficking. Not all the poor send there
children away. There are some parents who have not enough to support
their children yet refuse to send them away from home to work elsewhere
in the country. “In contrast, there are children from well-to-do
families that have fallen prey to trafficking to other countries. And
there they are exposed to harsh, inhumane working conditions and even
death.”
Girls brought from the country to
cities are usually employed in households as domestic workers or in
hotels as waitresses and sex workers. When they can not work any longer
and are kicked out, they become street children. Those who move from
Addis Ababa to smaller towns are employed in hotels only.
Mahider remembers what she saw in Arbaminch when she went there on a field trip.
“In a hotel where I took lodging, I
saw very young girls from Addis Ababa. They were posted there to
attract customers. And they were not paid by the hotel. But, if
customers took them to bed in or elsewhere outside the hotel, the girls
would have to pay the hotel for it.”
Boys who are trafficked from around
Arbaminch to Addis Ababa are employed in the domestic weaving industry
at Shiro Meda, where they work for long, long hours without the
opportunity to play or go to school.
Article 36 of the Ethiopian
constitution states that children have the right not to be subject to
exploitative practices, neither to be required nor permitted to perform
work which may be hazardous or harmful to their education, health or
well-being.
And article 29 of the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which was adopted in
1990 and came to force in 1999, refers to child traffcking and calls on
member states to take appropriate measures to prevent “the abduction,
the sale of, or traffick in children for any purpose or in any form, by
any person, including partners or legal guardians of the child”
Trafficking exposes children to
violence, sexual abuse severe neglect and HIV infection. It violets
their right to be protected, to grow up in a family environment, and to
have access to education. It is a crime committed in defiance of both
the constitution and the African charter on the rights and welfare of
the child.
As the trafficking process involves
a number of players, including, families, relatives, friends,
recruiters, it has become difficult to identify perpetrators and
traffickers and in the process they are left to continue to trade in
human beings.
“Cooperation of the society, among
whom trafficked children are employed with low enforcement bodies is
crucial in preventing child trafficking. But, so far the society in
general has been doing almost nothing to combat child trafficking,” said
Mahider. For example, city dwellers’ demand for household workers is
met by children trafficked from the country, these being much preferred
to city children as they are strangers, have nowhere to go for a few
years and are scared of what could become of them if they try to run
away. Besides they are believed to be more faithful than city children.
So, city folk are in this way
recipients of children from the country. “Even though we witness
violence committed against children brought from the country and
employed next door, we hardly report it to the police. We may observe
something suspicious about children being transported from one city to
another or within a city by men who do not look like their relatives,
but act as if we never saw it. The crime is committed right under our
nose,” said Mahder.
There are laws formulated and ILO
conventions that Ethiopia has accepted and signed for the purpose of
ensuring children’s rights are respected. “The Ethiopian government is
working on a ten-year program for the implementation of the conventions.
An action plan has been prepared and a national committee formed under
the Ministry of Women’s Affairs entrusted with the responsibility of
implementing the action plan.”
The committee is composed of
governmental and non-governmental institutions. The ministry is going to
start a national study on child trafficking next year and that is hoped
to provide inputs for intervention, said Mahider.
Awareness raising activities are
being carried out on radio programs by the Ministry. Mahider says that
besides awareness raising, it is essential that opportunity be provided
for children 14 years and upward from poor families to be employed in
light works in their own localities as long as that does not get in the
way of their education and harm them physically or psychologically.
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