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Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery Lecture
Resources
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[Lecture Resources | Resources for Teachers |
Country-by-Country Reports ]
Commodification of
Children
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Afghanistan Out Of Money? Sell Your Daughter Haytullah Gaheez,
Jewish World Review, February 16, 2005 www.jewishworldreview.com/0205/selling_daughters.php3?printer_friendly [accessed 18 January 2011] Zeva's eyes filled with
tears as the 10-year-old's father took her by the arm and handed her over to
the man from whom he had borrowed 50,000 afghanis,
or about $1,000. "I cannot pay
you in any other way. Take my daughter," said Gul Miran,
42, a farmer in Nangarhar province. Like many other
farmers in "I accepted
the girl in return for my loan," said Haji Naqibullah,
who had advanced Gul Miran the money. "We had
an agreement. He would (pay me back) regardless of whether his crops were
wiped out by the weather or by the government. "In a year or
18 months I will marry her off to my youngest son," he said. "He is
19 years old and has been married to his first wife for two years but has not
had a child yet." For Albanians, It's Come to This: A
Son for a TV Nicholas Wood, The New York Times, www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000159.html [accessed 18 January 2011] Fatmira Bonjaku's husband is in jail, accused by the police of selling
their 3-year-old son to an Italian man in return for the television set that
six other children watch in the family's dimly lighted room. The police also
say her husband had plans to sell their newest born, whom she is breast
feeding. Over the past 12
years, since the collapse of Stalinism here, a substantial trade in children
has established itself in Cambodia Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept
of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61604.htm [accessed 7 February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Traffickers used a variety of methods to acquire victims. In many cases
victims were lured by promises of legitimate employment. In other cases
acquaintances, friends, and family members sold the victims or received
payment for helping deceive them. Young children, the majority of them girls,
were often "pledged" as collateral for loans by desperately poor
parents; the children were responsible for repaying the loan and the
accumulating interest. Local traffickers covered specific small geographic
areas and acted as middlemen for larger trafficking networks. Organized crime
groups, employment agencies, and marriage brokers were believed to have some
degree of involvement Child Trafficking Network Arrested
in Costa Rica Claire [accessed 9 September 2014] The judge was said
to be facilitating the sale of the minors who were obtained either illegally
or purchased from poor and indigenous families who did not want the children for
around $50 each, for a portion of the profits. They then sold the children
for an estimated $10,000. The group would contact pregnant women in free
clinics who could not afford the children and then have them put up for
adoption. Child smuggling is good business -
official South African Press Association SAPA & Agence France-Presse AFP, www.iol.co.za/news/world/child-smuggling-is-good-business-official-1.113611 [accessed 30 January 2011] Ringleaders charged
US couples up to $80 000 (about R568 000) for a child, and Japanese couples
around $40 000 (about R284 000), say the government prosecutors who are
looking into 85 cases from the past two years. Easy prey for traffickers Yampier Aguiar
Durañona, Journalism student, Granma International,
February 2, 2005 Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 10 June 2013] "NO ONE CAN OR
SHOULD SELL OUR CHILDREN" ON July 23, 2004, Aguas Ocaña, Honduras’ first
lady, announced that the government was preparing a lawsuit against the US
organization Orphans Overseas for offering an Internet network selling
Honduran children for $11,500 each. "No one can or should sell our
children," she added. In an interview
with the national HRN radio station, Ocaña affirmed
that in 2003 the government had rejected a request from the "The company
is now publicizing itself on the Internet as an adoption agency operating in Mexico Selling Brides: Native Mexican Custom or
Crime? Ioan Grillo,
Time/CNN, www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1876102,00.html [accessed 20 February 2011] content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1876102,00.html [accessed 13 January 2020] The case centers on
an alleged marriage arrangement that went sour involving Marcelino de Jesus In the neighboring
market town of Juxtlahuaca, Maria Bautista sees the
practice as coercive and barbaric. "It's like a form of slavery. They
buy their women and then treat them like their property," says Bautista,
a single mother with her own business. Bautista has a Triqui
father and Mixtec Indian mother, but she speaks only Spanish and follows few
of the old traditions. She cites the cases of many older men who came back
minted from working in the U.S. and who bought themselves several young
wives. Down in the state
capital of Oaxaca, state human rights commissioner Heriberto Garcia also
chastised the custom. "Buying and selling a woman is a clear violation
of her rights," he says in his office decorated with leather-bound law
books. "And a young teenage girl does not have the experience to make
these decisions." Oaxaca state law permits marriage of women at 14 and
men at 16. Mexican officials
have long tolerated arranged marriages, Garcia concedes, adding that he
doesn't know of any cases of prosecutions. But he says he will also propose
to amend a "Treatment of People" law to include an article that
makes bride-selling a criminal act. Such action is opposed by many who see
indigenous traditions as a virtue of Mexico's cultural diversity. Morocco Street Life BBC World Service, 1st July 2000 www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/streetlife.shtml [accessed 21 February 2011] SLAVE TRADE - The neglect of Thai families partners in child sex
trade - Border area's products are drugs and daughters Andrew Perrin, San Francisco Chronicle, Mae
Sai, www.sfgate.com/news/article/Thai-families-partners-in-child-sex-trade-2877185.php [accessed 16 August 2012] When Burmese
migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old daughter
into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one regret
-- they didn't get a good price for her. "I should have
asked for 10,000 baht ($228)," La Chai said. "He robbed us." She was angry that
the agent who bought her eldest child, Saikun, in
1999 took her to With prices varying
from $114 to $913 -- the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for
most families -- parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken.
In fact, child prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live
in the village, and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom
they buy the children. Babies bred for sale in Agence France-Presse AFP, www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-09-babies-bred-for-sale-in-nigeria [accessed 13 December 2010] www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/uncategorized/nigerian-babies-bred-for-sale/3501/ [accessed 13 January 2020] Neighbours were suspicious of
the daytime silence at the maternity clinic that came to life only after
nightfall, though never suspected its disquieting secret -- it was breeding
babies for sale. But recent police
raids have revealed an alleged network of such clinics, dubbed baby
"farms" or "factories" in the local press, forcing a new
look at the scope of people trafficking in The doctor in charge,
who is now on trial, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies by
offering to help with abortion. They
would be locked up there until they gave birth, whereupon they would be
forced to give up their babies for a token fee of around 20 000 naira
($170). The babies would then be sold
to buyers for anything between 300 000 and 450 000 naira ($2 500 and $3 800)
each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (Naptip). James Karuhanga,
Senior Researcher, www.bloggernews.net/12015 [accessed 2 January 2011] The harsh weather
and climatic limitations make livestock maintenance difficult both to the
Karamojong and the neighboring tribes. They have to walk long distances,
disregarding national boundaries, with their animals in search of pasture for
grazing and water. This search for water and pasture has resulted in tribal
fights and a culture of cattle rustling coupled with the Karimojong’s
natural belief that all livestock around them belongs to them, which
heightens the inter-tribal clashes. This is enforced by
the fact that cattle are used as a
“bride price” and the raids are a symbol of strength and manhood in the
tradition of the community. In addition, there are continual reports of Karimojong children sold at weekly cattle markets in Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts. The alarming report
reveals that child abuse is on the increase in the sub-region as desperate Karimojong
parents sell their children, especially girls, to raise money to maintain the
remaining members of their families. Human rights activists shed light on
trafficking practices [Categories – Forced Marriage, Slavery in
the Home, Commodification of Children] Alejandra Martinez/The University of
Texas-Pan American, October 31, 2010 trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com/2010/11/human-rights-activists-shed-light-on.html [accessed 17 April 2012] Like Adefolahan, Temba, an activist from She added that the
main types of trafficking women fall victim to include forced marriages,
domestic work, and child laundering. This last one is when women, especially
young girls, are impregnated repeatedly and forced to give up their children
for adoption. "We're also
seeing cases of trafficking in families… fathers and uncles selling
children," she said. "A father attempted to sell his 10-year-old
son for $200. Also an uncle attempted to sell his nephew for $6,000." All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery – Lecture Resources - Commodification of
Children", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/111-commodificationOfChildren.htm [accessed <date>] |