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Trafficking happens in nearly all countries of the world, including
the UK. As a result, more
than 1.2 million children are living away from their homes and families
with people who force them to work.
The ILO (International Labour Organization ) the UN body which
regulates the world of
work, has adopted 12 June as World Day Against Child Labour. This
year the focus is on child trafficking, and the damage it can do
to children, families, communities and ultimately whole countries.
Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human
rights organisation, estimates that tens of thousands of children
are trafficked each year in Africa alone.
Under international law, trafficking is a crime. Through coercion,
deception, and the threat
or use of violence, people are forced into a range of exploitative
work. Where children are concerned, it makes no difference if they
leave voluntarily or are coerced -- where there is
movement of children in order to use them as unpaid, or minimally
waged labour, there is trafficking.
Trafficking is not a single action -- rather, it is a series of
events that takes place in the child's home community, at transit
points and at final destinations. Whenever a child is relocated
and exploited, it is trafficking. And those who contribute to it
-- recruiters, middlemen, document providers, transporters, corrupt
officials, employers and service providers -- are all traffickers.
Gymfoe was trafficked in Ghana when she was 12: "The woman
told my mother I'd go to school, I was so happy. But that's not
what happened." In reality she was forced to work long
hours in harsh conditions. She received no money and was denied
her rights to school and rest. If she could, she said, "I
would go back to my village and tell other children that all they
would do was work in the city with no food."
Since 1999 the fight against trafficking has been reinforced by
ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182), which
denounces child trafficking as a practice similar to slavery. Altogether
the ILO estimates that 8.4 million children are in slavery, trafficking,
debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment
for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit
activities.
Efforts to prevent children from falling into trafficking can make
an impact. Yu Wanjiao, a primary school child from Yunnan province,
China, said: "After I learned about trafficking prevention,
I understood how easy it is to cheat a person who has no knowledge
and no skills. I will share with my brother and sister what I have
learned and tell them not to follow strangers. If they are trafficked,
they will have no freedom."
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