Human Trafficking in [Ethiopia Street Children in [Ethiopia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Ethiopia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the
first ten years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2009
Ethiopia is a source country for men,
women, and children trafficked primarily for the purposes of forced labor
and, to a lesser extent, for commercial sexual exploitation. Rural Ethiopian
children are trafficked for domestic servitude and, less frequently, for
commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor in agriculture, traditional
weaving, gold mining, street vending, and begging. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The bride was 7 - In the heart of www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0412120360dec12,1,2870744.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed At one time this article had been republished
and may possibly still be accessible [here] Tihun Nebiyu
the goat herder doesn't want to marry. She is adamant about this. But in her
village nobody heeds the opinions of headstrong little girls. That's why she's kneeling in the filigreed
shade of her favorite thorn tree, dropping beetles down her dress. Magic
beetles. "It doesn't work!" Tihun says, disgusted. She heaves an exaggerated sigh and
squints out across the yellow-grass hills surrounding her world: "I will
just have to run." But this is
childish bluster. Tihun's short legs can't carry
her away fast enough from the death of her childhood. Her wedding is five
days away. And she is 7 years old. But child marriage ruins lives in
other ways too. Often treated like indentured servants, young brides are
subject to beatings by their grown husbands and in-laws. And thousands of
girls end up trapped in the sex trade, whether through organized child bride
trafficking rings in countries such as China or, in Africa, by simply
drifting from abusive marriages into street prostitution, social workers say. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) reported in 2004that trafficking was "increasing at an
alarming rate." A 2003 study by a foreign government on the problem of
internal trafficking of women and children confirmed that the problem was
pervasive. The overwhelming majority of respondents confirmed that
traffickers, typically unorganized petty criminals, lured women and children
from rural areas to Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2006 [DOC] [8] The Committee notes that some progress has been
made by the State party in the effort to bring domestic laws into compliance
with the Convention, e.g. by criminalizing harmful traditional practices and
child trafficking in the revised Criminal Code of 2004. However, the Committee remains concerned at
the lack of a systematic legislative review and adoption of a comprehensive
Children’s Code. The Committee regrets
that the Convention has not yet been published in the Official Gazette as
previously recommended. [71] The Committee is deeply concerned at the
prevalence of child labour among young children
including as young as 5 and that the State party has not taken comprehensive
measures to prevent and combat this large-scale economic exploitation of
children. Hundreds of thousands of children forced to work in
Ethiopia www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/international-news/as-young-as-five--hundreds-of-thousands-of-children-forced-to-wor?itemId=B24_12587&cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&idioma=en Some of the trafficked children
are employed as domestic servants and kept within Ethiopia but others are
sent abroad, sometimes in harsh and dangerous conditions. Some lucky children
escape and find refuge in shelters. Fifteen-year-old 'Dina', whose
name has also been changed, says she was just eight when she was trafficked
from her home in northern Ethiopia. 'Dina' spent the next seven years in
forced labour in various homes. She says found
herself too afraid to escape because as time went by she couldn't remember
where she came from and since she never received a salary, she had no money
to go anywhere. 'Dina' says she worked seven days
a week cooking, cleaning and taking care of children, often for families who
had children her own age. Finally, after being kicked out by her employer,
she managed to contact police who sent her to OPRIFS in Addis Ababa. Babies are booming export in the land of 5m orphans Ethiopia, ravaged by Aids and
grinding poverty, has a population of 75 million, which is growing at a rate
of two million a year. More than half live on less than 50p a day. There are
now about five million orphans, and the number is increasing by the day. Organisations such as Unicef,
the United Nations’ children’s agency, are concerned that the Ethiopian Government
does not have the staff or resources to monitor orphanages to ensure that
children are cared for and safe from abuse.
They also suspect that many children are being trafficked to work in
weaving factories or as servants, and some are being smuggled out of the
country. One child protection
specialist says: “We have heard stories of children being taken by ‘brothers’
and ‘uncles’ to neighbouring countries. Once there,
they could be easily transferred. It is a huge problem.” - htsccp Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study The bride was 7 - In the heart of www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0412120360dec12,1,2870744.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed At one time this article had been republished
and may possibly still be accessible [here] Tihun Nebiyu
the goat herder doesn't want to marry. She is adamant about this. But in her
village nobody heeds the opinions of headstrong little girls. That's why she's kneeling in the filigreed
shade of her favorite thorn tree, dropping beetles down her dress. Magic
beetles. "It doesn't work!" Tihun says, disgusted. She heaves an exaggerated sigh and
squints out across the yellow-grass hills surrounding her world: "I will
just have to run." But this is
childish bluster. Tihun's short legs can't carry
her away fast enough from the death of her childhood. Her wedding is five
days away. And she is 7 years old. But child marriage ruins lives in
other ways too. Often treated like indentured servants, young brides are
subject to beatings by their grown husbands and in-laws. And thousands of
girls end up trapped in the sex trade, whether through organized child bride
trafficking rings in countries such as China or, in Africa, by simply
drifting from abusive marriages into street prostitution, social workers say. Take a look at article one of the
Supplementary Convention on Slavery and you will see as one definition: ‘Any
practice whereby a woman, without the right to refuse, is given in marriage
in payment of a consideration in money or in kind ...’ At the beginning of the 21st
century being a child wife, even if it’s illegal, puts you in a limbo. You
are invisible as either child or woman, because you have been married. What a
man does to you once, if you are underage and single, is statutory rape. What
he does to you night after night, if you are underage and married, is fine.
In rural Ethiopia, no-one goes to help a girl of 10 when they hear her
screaming out at night. It’s something she must learn to bear. After all, she
is a wife. ACLU
Defends Ethiopian Woman Kept in Forced Labor in New Jersey According to the ACLU lawsuit, Chere was kept under conditions of involuntary servitude
for almost one and a half years-working for as much as 100 hours per week for
no pay. Chere's responsibilities included serving
as the primary caretaker for the couple's toddler, cooking for the family,
cleaning and maintaining the home, doing the family's laundry and cleaning
the exterior of the house and driveway. She was not given any food other than
leftovers and bread and water and was forced to sleep on the floor of the
child's bedroom. Ethiopia:
Centre for Helping Victims of Trafficking Opens in Addis Ababa The first-ever centre to help
victims of trafficking opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on
Tuesday. It will offer support to the estimated 40,000 women and girls
believed to be victims of trafficking, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). "The victims have suffered
quite a lot of abuse," said Rakeb, the centre's programme coordinator.
"Often when they return they are traumatised,
depressed, and some have mental-health problems and need someplace to stay.
Some of those who are deported have not even had time to gather their
possessions and don't have anything, so they need some reintegration
assistance." IOM press briefing notes 23 Apr 2004: Haiti, Ethiopia,
Zambia www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/OCHA-64CJT3?OpenDocument At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Five hundred thousand exercise
books and ten thousand T-shirts containing simplified messages illustrated by
cartoons warning students of the risks of migrating for work using illegal
channels, unprotected sex and dropping out of school were distributed in the
185 schools since September 2003. ETHIOPIA: Education
key to fighting child trafficking, says UNICEF The IOM says that illegal
traffickers who prey on women could make up to 7,000 Ethiopian Birr (more
than US $800) for each victim they send overseas. The IOM say women aged
between 18 and 25 are targeted by traffickers at colleges and in poor districts
in towns and cities. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Ethiopia Street Children in [Ethiopia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Ethiopia] [other countries]