There are parents, guardians, and relatives who sell or give away their children because they cannot provide for them. There are also people who target poor families and take their children away promising to feed, clothe and take them to school.
The African Union (AU) has recognised that child trafficking is a major tragedy threatening the welfare of many children in Africa and beyond. It is estimated that over one million children worldwide, including hundreds of thousands in Africa, are taken from their homes each year by people who want to exploit their labour.
In the week that the continent will commemorate Day of the African Child (on June 16), the theme under focus is: "Combat Child Trafficking". The UNICEF office in Botswana will, in collaboration with certain districts, hold children's forum discussions in Kasane, Gantsi and Serowe. Each panel will feature 25 children and 15 community leaders who will discuss the theme of child trafficking in the context of their own communities. Through these forums, children will be given an opportunity to voice their opinions on child trafficking as they see it in their communities.
According to Mercy Puso, UNICEF's Social Mobilisation Officer, the places were chosen because they are adjacent to farms where there is most likely to be occurrence of child labour, that is linked to child trafficking.
UNICEF says that in most cases, child trafficking can happen as a result of poverty and the death of one or both parents makes children highly vulnerable to false promises of education, vocational training and paid work.
In terms of international law, states have an obligation to protect children from abuse and such effort can be assisted through certain protocols that have been put in place. Notably, those are the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (Trafficking Protocol), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts.
At government level, UNICEF recommends formulating and enforcing laws that protect children from all forms of abuse, including child trafficking as well as setting penalties for parents, agents, officials and any other person who aids the trafficking, of children in any way. This would also include providing increased access to education to reduce the burden on parents who lose their children to traffickers who falsely promise to take the children to school, and facilitating public education on prevention of child trafficking and protection of its victims.
Communities can also do something to help in the fight against child trafficking. That could be by identifying vulnerable children and reporting to local authorities for help, creating child welfare committees that would support efforts towards the protection of children, providing community support to families of vulnerable children, reporting on incidents of child labour and supporting the reintegration of children who had been trafficked.
