Human Trafficking in [Ethiopia Street Children in [Ethiopia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Ethiopia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia [map], located in NE Africa, is bordered by Eritrea (N), Djibouti (NE),
Somalia (E & SE), Kenya (S), and Sudan (W). Ethiopia is a source country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Rural
children and adults are trafficked internally to urban areas for domestic
servitude and, to a lesser extent, for commercial sexual exploitation and
forced labor, such as in street vending, traditional weaving, or agriculture.
Ethiopian women are trafficked primarily to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia for
domestic servitude; other destinations include Bahrain, Djibouti, Kenya,
Sudan, Tanzania, the U.A.E., and Yemen. Small percentages of these women are
trafficked into the sex trade after arriving at their destinations. Small
numbers of men are trafficked to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States for
low-skilled forced labor. Some Ethiopian women have been trafficked onward
from Lebanon to Turkey and Greece. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2007 [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 Ethiopia, child marriage takes a brutal toll 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 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 Ethiopia, child marriage takes a brutal toll 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. 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 ETHIOPIA - SCHOOL CONTEST ON
TRAFFICKING, HIV/ AIDS AND GIRLS' EDUCATION - The overall objective of this US-funded project
is to support the Ethiopian Government's efforts in the fight against
HIV/AIDS, and the prevention of human trafficking within and/or from
Ethiopia. It has the aim of sensitizing students in grades 7-10 on pertinent issues
regarding trafficking and HIV/AIDS while encouraging them to pursue their
education, both in schools and within the informal sector. 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]