Human Trafficking in [Burundi Street Children in [Burundi] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Burundi] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic of Burundi [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Burundi is a
source country for children trafficked for the purposes of child soldiering, domestic
servitude, and commercial sexual exploitation. The rebel faction
PALIPEHUTU-FNL (Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People-National
Liberation Force – also known as the FNL) remains the only armed group not to
have signed a peace agreement with the government, and continues to
unlawfully recruit and use children as fighters, manual laborers, and
logistical support. A small number of Burundian children may be trafficked
internally for domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation, although
there is little evidence of organized child prostitution. In early 2008,
Burundian children were allegedly trafficked to Uganda via Rwanda for
agricultural labor and commercial sexual exploitation. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Burundi's courts are investigating
the alleged trafficking of young Burundian girls and women. Magistrate Arcade
Niyongabo has told the BBC many of them think they are seeking asylum in
Europe, but end up working as gardeners, maids or prostitutes in Lebanon. First of all they refused to pay
me the amount we had agreed before I left.
When we arrived home, my boss told me I would be paid $50 a month
whilst before I left we agreed I would be paid $100. After three months, I asked for my payments
so that I could send money to my brothers and sisters. My boss gave me only $150. I complained I
should be given $300. She said I was being paid $50 a month. We went through lots of
ordeals. The husband or son of the
lady I worked for would often rape me. And there was no way you could
complain: I felt they would not hesitate to kill me. You just kept quiet. We were often beaten
and tortured. They chose food for us, they would decide the clothes that we
would put on, but being beaten was the most common practice. There was little difference between prostitution
and working as a maid because even when you chose house work, you would often
be raped there. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Rebel forces continue to force or abduct children to serve as child
soldiers or perform related activities.
Child soldiers from Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
Ministry for National Solidarity, Human Rights, and Gender was responsible
for combating trafficking. During the year The government supported public
awareness campaigns and programs to prevent trafficking and continued to
demobilize and provide assistance to former child soldiers from the FDN, GP,
and six former rebel groups. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2000 [71] The Committee is concerned
about the participation of children in the State party's armed forces, either
as soldiers, or as helpers in camps or in the obtaining of information. The
Committee is also concerned about reports of widespread recruitment of
children by opposition armed forces. The Committee is further concerned at
reports of sexual exploitation of children by members of the armed forces.
The Committee is deeply concerned about violations of the provisions of
international humanitarian law relating to the treatment of civilians in
armed conflict. Migration body to monitor human trafficking impact1 "Many girls are taken from
Iringa and brought to major cities to work as housegirls but they end up
being subjected to prostitution and other works which they did not expect,
this is internal trafficking," she said. Many young boys, she said, are
taken to work in the mining companies, something which not only denies their
rights but also are psychosocially affected. The
Protection Project - Burundi FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Women and girls are trafficked
to European cities and to South Africa for prostitution. The number of
children trafficked from Burundi to the United Kingdom has increased in
recent years. Parents often pay significant sums to send their children to
the United Kingdom, believing that their children will have a better life
there. On arriving, however, girls from African countries are threatened with
voodoo curses to make them think that if they tell anyone about the
traffickers, they and their families will die. They are told that the only
way to remove the curse is to repay the money they owe to the traffickers,
which is usually about UK£25,000. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide GOVERNMENT FORCES - The government of Burundi
recognized the existence of child soldiers within its ranks and made
international commitments to stop recruitment and promote demobilization. Child
soldiers continued to be used by the Burundian armed forces in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS - Child recruitment by armed
opposition groups escalated during the year because of increased instability
brought about by the change in government. The main Hutu-dominated armed
political group, the CNDD-FDD (Nkurunziza faction), which has rear bases in
eastern DRC, reportedly continued to recruit and abduct children, including
from schools and from refugee camps in neighbouring Tanzania. Children as
young as eight were recruited, sometimes forcibly. Burundi's courts are investigating
the alleged trafficking of young Burundian girls and women. Magistrate Arcade
Niyongabo has told the BBC many of them think they are seeking asylum in
Europe, but end up working as gardeners, maids or prostitutes in Lebanon. First of all they refused to pay
me the amount we had agreed before I left.
When we arrived home, my boss told me I would be paid $50 a month
whilst before I left we agreed I would be paid $100. After three months, I asked for my payments
so that I could send money to my brothers and sisters. My boss gave me only $150. I complained I should
be given $300. She said I was being paid $50 a month. We went through lots of
ordeals. The husband or son of the
lady I worked for would often rape me. And there was no way you could
complain: I felt they would not hesitate to kill me. You just kept quiet. We were often beaten
and tortured. They chose food for us, they would decide the clothes that we
would put on, but being beaten was the most common practice. There was little difference between
prostitution and working as a maid because even when you chose house work,
you would often be raped there. UK
Foreign Office - Country Profiles: Burundi HUMAN RIGHTS - The human rights situation in
Burundi remains poor, with widespread abuses committed by all parties,
particularly in the rural areas surrounding the capital. Tens of thousands of
people remain internally displaced. Killing of civilians, reprisal killings,
torture, rape, theft, illegal and arbitrary detention, and forced labour have been reported.
Rape and gang rape against women, girls and boys is on the increase. The
judicial system has little capacity to act in timely and impartial manner,
and impunity is pervasive. The indigenous Twa (Pygmy) people remain
marginalised economically, socially, and politically. The immediate effect of the
attempted coup is the flight abroad of Mwambutsa, leaving his 18-year-old
younger son in Burundi. In July 1966 the prince deposes his absent father and
takes the crown. But before the end of the year he too has been deposed by
his prime minister, Michel Micombero. A republic is proclaimed, and it
is one in which the Tutsi are now unmistakably in power. The subsequent
decades reveal that it is a power which they wield with ruthless brutality. The
worst blot on Burundi's record is the ethnic slaughter unleashed upon the
Hutu community in April and May 1972, in response to an attempted uprising.
At least 100,000 people are killed, among them nearly all Hutus of the
professional or educated class. Burundi's
ex-premier denies slavery charge Burundi's former prime minister
sentenced to jail with his wife on charges of keeping two of their nieces in
slave-like conditions in France on Friday said he was innocent. Gabriel Mpozagara and his wife -- sentenced
on Monday by a French court to between a year and 15 months -- said their
nieces and the Committee against Modern Slavery (CEM) conjured up the case. 1. The linked
article has been taken down, moved or restricted All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Burundi Street Children in [Burundi] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Burundi] [other countries]