This page is background information, last updated in May 2002 and still available for reference. For the latest on the Special Session on Children, please go to the Special Session index.

Experts share strategies to stop child trafficking

NEW YORK, 10 May 2002 -An estimated 1.2 million children are victims of trafficking, and the key cause is poverty, United Nations officials and child protection experts said at the UN today.

They discussed ways to combat the problem at a panel held during the UN Special Session on Children. It included representatives from UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the All-China Women's Federation, the International Labour Organization, and a child representative from the Nepal-based non-governmental organization Hatemalo.

The experts agreed that child traffickers typically promise families that their children will receive jobs or education in another country. Once the children are outside their own countries and out of contact with their families, most are sold into brothels, exploited in factories or given other harsh work.

Children in impoverished countries are most vulnerable to trafficking because they have few opportunities for work or education and their families are desperate enough to allow them to leave. Other risk factors listed by the panelists include unemployment, lack of education and vocational training, poorly monitored country borders, restrictions on legal immigration, lack of effective laws against trafficking, poor law enforcement, war, and parents and children lacking knowledge of the dangers of trafficking.

They also noted the measures that can help prevent child trafficking: raising awareness of the dangers in communities; providing education for all children, particularly girls; working with the private sector to provide jobs in regions prone to trafficking; and creating a legal framework against trafficking and ensuring that it is enforced.

Young Ling Chen, of the All-China Women's Federation, related how China was able to reduce child trafficking by educating heads of school and teachers. "They then talked about the problem with their students, and the students told their parents," she said. "As a result, children were less likely to be handed over to intermediaries."

All the panelists agreed that it was important to assist victims of trafficking by creating rehabilitation centers where children can get housing, medical attention, counselling and job training. They stressed that child traffickers must be punished.

In summing up, Karin Landgren, the head of UNICEF's Child Protection Section, said she was heartened that she did not hear any denial of the problem. "We can't say we didn't know, and we can't say we have no clue about what to do," she said. "So let's move on from here."

Read the report from the panel, 'Beyond Yokohama: Combating Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children'.

Read more about how UNICEF is working to curb the sexual exploitation of children.