Child Trafficking in Africa
In a world where human rights if fast gaining grounds, child trafficking is one of its gravest violations.
Children are ensnared with fake promises of a better life, smuggled across borders and sold like mere commodities. Their survival is threatened, their development is hampered and their fundamental human rights as children are such as the right to proper education, health care, family, protection from exploitation are denied.
This has been going on for decades and although concerned bodies like government agencies and NGOs have been combating the issue , a complete stop to this problem could still be considered out of sight.
For the issue to be permanently laid to rest, it involves an in depth knowledge and understanding of what it is, it's causes, the actors and both preventive and counter measure to bring it to an end.
Most child trafficking victims come from very poor neighbourhoods and have little or no education. Lured by the prospect of a job, these children are forced to work as domestic laborers, sex slaves, miners and so on. Their captors subject them to a violent environment and do not provide adequate food and water.
After being lured or sometimes kidnapped, they embark on a perilous journey to another country most times overseas. They are transported like farm produce from the farm to the market for sale. Even delicate farm products are treated better than the trafficked children. Many of the children unfortunately die in the course of the journey and the few that survive are subject to really poor living conditions and hard labour. The effects of this kind of treatment on these children are not only physical but also mental. Some are forever traumatized.
The root causes of child trafficking differ from country to country but considering Africa in general, is the local conditions that make people migrate in search of better lives.
Some of them are: poverty, oppression, lack of human rights, lack of social and economic opportunities, dangers of conflicts, instability and other similar conditions. Sometimes natural disasters could result to increase in child trafficking.
When people feel unsafe and displaced, they are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse through trafficking. War and civil strife lead to massive displacements of populations, orphans and street children extremely vulnerable to trafficking.
Another issue affiliated with Africa is the practice of entrusting poor children to more affluent friends and relatives. Some parents sell their children not just for the money, but also in the hope that they would escape a situation of chronic poverty and move to a place where they have a better life and more opportunities. Often they are completely wrong and sell the child into worse conditions than he or she was before. With these problems noted down, solid approaches could be taken to curb the issue. Government needs to show more concern for the welfare of its people, especially children which are the primary target of trafficking. A lot more needs to be done in the educational system.
High quality education should be provided for children, more scholarships should be provided, and more profiting jobs should be provided for their parents so that they are capable of taking care of their children and are less tempted to give them up to child trafficking.
Also border policies are to be strengthened to tackle the porousness of our borders through which these children are trafficked out of the country. Corrupt officials are to fish out and made to face the law and more committed people in stated to take their place.
The public need to be more sysethised about child traffickers, it's methods, effects and how they're combatted Government also needs to ensure that the society is stable and secure so that the people feel safe. The safer the happier and the less likely they are to fall prey of traffickers.
Strict laws should also be enforced against child traffickers, kidnappers, and all related form of abuse against minorities
Orphanages should be well monitored by the government to prevent corrupt workers sell the children to traffickers
Governments should develop more empowering programmes that offer livelihood options and encourage entrepreneurship.
With rigorous commitment by everyone involved, slowly, steadily, but surely this modern day slavery know as child trafficking would be reduced to its barest minimum and eventually end for good.
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