Child Trafficking: a contemporary form of slavery

Child trafficking is a pattern of human rights violations that is known to affect at least one million children worldwide and probably many more. It concerns the business of taking children away from their homes and families, transporting them elsewhere, often across frontiers and even to other continents, to be used by others – usually to make money. Trafficking in human beings is a very lucrative business. Children can be exploited over and over again. Those trafficking children often go unpunished because of lack of adequate law to prevent such activity, while trafficked children are often penalised as illegal migrant workers. The consequences of trafficking are devastating for children. They are at risk of both physical and mental damage, and are deprived of education and basic rights.

Children are trafficked for different purposes including commercial sexual exploitation, marriage, adoption, slavery or bonded labour, domestic work, begging, illicit activities and hazardous labour.

Causes of child trafficking include poverty, globalisation and restrictions on migration, lack of educational opportunities, discrimination, harmful cultural practices, crisis and natural disasters, demand for cheap labour and commercial sex with children, and simple indifference. While poverty is an important factor leading to child trafficking it is not the only cause; there are plenty of poor communities around the world whose children are not trafficked.

Terre des Hommes strategies are aimed at developing protective mechanisms within the communities of children at risk, and ensuring the long-term reintegration of trafficked children. It researches the causes and mechanisms of child trafficking in order to provide adequate responses that really improve the lives of affected children. Terre des Hommes also works with trafficked children’s countries of origin and destination to foster bi-lateral and regional cooperation.

Terre des Hommes launched its campaign to end child trafficking in 2001. The campaign combines research and field programmes to prevent child trafficking, support for children who have been trafficked, lobbying governments for appropriate national policies, and alerting the public to the existence and scale of the problem.

After eight years of campaigning against child trafficking, Terre des Hommes is seeing visible results. Child trafficking is now firmly on the international agenda, and some national legislation has improved. The international community has also gained knowledge and experience in combating child trafficking and in protecting victims. However these outcomes remain insufficient, as they have not yet reached hundreds of thousands of trafficked children. Terre des Hommes therefore continues to provide direct aid to child victims of trafficking through 72 field projects in 40 countries, and is active at a global level to improve human rights access and standards of care for children who have been trafficked or are at risk.