Reply #16: Children being trafficked into Ireland [View All]

[seemslikeadream]

01/08/03

Children being trafficked into Ireland, report claims
By John Breslin
CHILDREN are being imported against their will via Britain into Ireland, a leading global advocacy group warned yesterday. Children’s charity UNICEF, which carried out a major investigation into child trafficking in to Britain, said it is believed minors are passing through the country on the way to the Dublin.

The charity has identified hundreds of known cases where children are trafficked in to Britain, some of whom are used as prostitutes. Unicef describes this as the tip of the iceberg.

“People do go through Britain and end up in Dublin,” a UNICEF spokeswoman said.

The charity’s hard-hitting report, Stop The Traffic, claimed that thousands may be trafficked to Britain every year, mainly from West Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia.

The scale of the problem is hidden by the nature of the crime and by a lack of police statistics, the report claims.

Gardaí last year identified no more than six suspected cases of children being trafficked in to the State against their will. These children were taken in to the care of the East Coast Area Health Board.

Nearly 900 children were, however, referred to the board after arriving here unaccompanied. The majority, around 500, are Nigerian and range in age from four months to 17 years. Just over 500 were placed with family members while the others were taken in to care.

Refugee groups have anecdotal evidence that some children have entered the State and have simply disappeared from the asylum process.

UNICEF in Britain said it has identified a failure to differentiate between unaccompanied minors and those children who are being trafficked for exploitation.

David Bull, executive director of Unicef UK, said: “Trafficking is a serious abuse of child rights and is seen as less risky than trafficking drugs.”

Child trafficking was a “global crisis” and one of the fastest growing criminal activities, with about 1.2 million being trafficked worldwide each year, he said. Traffickers use rape, beatings, voodoo and threats of violence against family members to control and intimidate the children.

Trafficking should not be confused with people smuggling, which takes place with the consent of the travellers, the report advises. Child trafficking involves the transportation and exploitation of unwilling or unknowing victims, often for sex work.

Children are also forced to work as domestic servants, drug mules, in sweatshops and restaurants, or as beggars or pickpockets.

The case of ‘Adam’, the Nigerian boy’s torso found in the River Thames, raised concerns that trafficked children are being used for ritual killing.

The West African cultural practice of sending children to live with extended family or friends to be educated or work is being used to mask trafficking, according to the report. Parents are duped into believing that their child will have a better future
http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgJXNj2lDcDCUsglO-LCk0lQvU.asp