[child-rights] World Day Against Child Labour draws attention to plight of trafficked children

***IMMEDIATE RELEASE***IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

ILO WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR DRAWS ATTENTION TO PLIGHT OF TRAFFICKED 
CHILDREN

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."

10 June 2003
Press release ILO and Anti-Slavery International


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CONNECTIONS

* Find out more about child labour, human trafficking  and World Day 
Against Child Labour 2003: 
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/day-against-childlabour-03.html


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