Child Trafficking

What is Child Trafficking?

Child trafficking is when children are recruited through force, deception or kidnapping, and transported within their country or across borders in order for them to be exploited. Most countries in the world are involved – they may be a source of trafficked children, a place where they pass through, or a destination for these children.

Children who are desperately poor are especially at risk of child trafficking. Trafficked children may be exploited by being used in prostitution or pornography. They may be used as child labor, for domestic, factory or agricultural work, or begging. In some countries, they are forced to risk their lives as child soldiers.

Child trafficking happens because there is a demand for children’s bodies and labor in a range of industries. Children are more vulnerable than adults; they often do not know their rights and can be more easily tricked or coerced. Factors like war, family breakdown or lack of employment opportunities also make trafficking more likely. The situation is worst in countries where the rights of children are not adequately protected by authorities. They are forced to work in dangerous conditions with little or no pay, are often subjected to beatings or rape, and suffer serious physical and psychological damage. [Child Trafficking FAQ from Love 146]

Child Soldiers

“I still dream about the boy from my village who I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me, saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying." — Mary, a 16 year-old demobilized child soldier forced to join an armed rebel group in Central Africa

Child soldiering is a unique and severe manifestation of trafficking in persons that involves the recruitment of children through force, fraud, or coercion to be exploited for their labor or to be abused as sex slaves in conflict areas. Government forces, paramilitary organizations, and rebel groups all recruit and utilize child soldiers. UNICEF estimates that more than 300,000 children under 18 are currently being exploited in over 30 armed conflicts worldwide. While the majority of child soldiers are between the ages of 15 and 18, some are as young as 7 or 8 years of age.*

Many children are abducted to be used as combatants. Others are made to serve as porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Many young girls are forced to marry or perform sexual services for male combatants. Male and female child soldiers are often sexually abused, and are at high risk of unwanted pregnancies and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Some children have been forced to commit atrocities against their families and communities. Child soldiers are often killed or wounded, with survivors often suffering multiple traumas and psychological scarring. Their personal development is often irreparably damaged. Returning child soldiers are often rejected by their home communities.

Child soldiers are a global phenomenon. The problem is most critical in Africa and Asia, but armed groups in the Americas, Eurasia, and the Middle East also use children. (Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons)

* UNICEF, "Fact Sheet: Child Soldiers," http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/childsoldiers.pdf

See www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org for lists of countries where child soldiers were recruited and used during the four years 2004-2007.