Author: Althea, Content writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine
Editors: LUDCI.eu editorial team

Child trafficking is a type of modern-day slavery. Children are trafficked for purposes of domestic labor, sexual exploitation, organ harvesting and selling, criminal activity, armed groups, begging, and even adoption. Human trafficking is the second-largest criminal industry in the world, after drug trafficking – an industry that sadly generates over $150 billion a year.

As the human trafficking business continues to grow worldwide, more awareness and ways to curb this vice should be heightened to stop it. Surprisingly, and according to newly released data analysis resulting from various organisations, almost half of the identified cases of child trafficking start with some form of family involvement.

A Polaris 2018 Fact Sheet, indicates that 27% of sex trafficking cases reported to the USA’s National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2018 were incidences of familial trafficking. In 2018 and 2019, familial trafficking was the second highest reported method of commercial sexual exploitation.

The Journal of Family Violence in 2018 published an analysis of familial sex trafficking, whereby it is indicated that when trafficking was initiated by family members, children were most often exchanged for illegal drugs. What’s more, an already abusive parent or adult family member will be more likely to continue their abuse by subjecting their children to commercial sexual acts.

According to data from the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative, the extent of family involvement in the trafficking of children is four times higher than in cases of adult trafficking, where family members are involved in 9% of adult cases.

According to IOM, Familial trafficking usually targets the trafficking of boys by 61%, compared to girls of 46%. Additionally, the majority of children trafficked for sexual exploitation (67%) are aged between 15 and 17. It is also crucial to note that child trafficking cases that involve a family member are less likely to be cases of sexual exploitation trafficking (36%), compared to other cases of child trafficking where the initial stages of trafficking do not involve a family member (84%).

Anticipated data, which will be contributed by counter-trafficking partner organisations around the globe are expected to have a huge counter-trafficking impact. This is why the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in partnership with non-governmental organisation (NGO) Polaris put together the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC) – the world’s first human trafficking data portal to feature such data.

The CTDC continues to create partnerships with other counter-trafficking players and currently hosts around 80,000 human trafficking victim cases with up to 180 nationalities exploited in 117 countries.

These statistics connected to child trafficking cases with family involvement are based on around 12,000 trafficking survivors for which the recruitment process information is known.

William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General, said, “Our Organisation is taking a leading role in increasing the access to this critical information in order to strengthen counter-trafficking interventions.”

“Modern slavery is a clandestine crime operating in shadows as efforts to fight it are often based on only partial information. That’s why comprehensive data is essential, so we can put more targeted pressure on trafficking and reach more survivors so they can leave their exploitive solutions. The CTDC is a leap forward to better illuminate the reality of modern slavery and facilitate coordinated efforts to combat it across borders,” said Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris.

In light of these concerning statistics, IOM is calling for governments and other development and humanitarian partners to accelerate counter-trafficking interventions targeted at children, through:

Assisting heads of households to make the best long-term plans for themselves and their family, which respect the agency and desires of their kids. Whether this includes the decision to migrate, it is crucial to address the main causes of unsafe migration as a survival plan. Families should not feel pressured to send their children out into the world unsafe and unprepared. Children and their families should be educated to identify and defend themselves from abusers and would-be exploiters.
Allowing children to tackle their own vulnerabilities by assisting them to pinpoint potentially dangerous or exploitive situations, identify unhealthy relationships that are not based on mutual respect, know where and how they can get help, and comprehend options present to them to attain their goals.
Making sure that protection systems are available to all children, no matter their migration status. Child protection systems should also act in the best interests of the child in all situations, including in the provision of solutions to bring sustainable resolutions to their cases.

Conclusion

When looking into child trafficking cases, families and close friends and neighbors of the families should be the first suspect.

All families should talk and listen to their children, while seek to be educated to understand the vulnerabilities of their children in order to protect them.

In parallel, children should not stay in the dark either. They should also be educated both by their parents, their schools, and special programs to understand what child trafficking entails and form an understanding that child trafficking does not only happen in underdeveloped countries. It can happen at any given time in any country.

All children can be a target at any given time. So, they would need to understand ways to protect themselves. Governmental funding should equally be enhanced to improve protection systems for kids.

Such protection systems should hear the voices of children in the design, implementation, and evaluation of services, policies, and interventions.

Featured photo by Norma Mortenson, Pexels