Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Ethiopia.htm
Ethiopia is a source
country for men, women, and children trafficked primarily for the purposes of
forced labor and, to a lesser extent, for commercial sexual exploitation.
Rural Ethiopian children are trafficked for domestic servitude and, less
frequently, for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor in
agriculture, traditional weaving, gold mining, street vending, and begging. -
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report,
June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims International Organization for
Migration ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The bride was 7 -
In the heart of Paul Salopek, Tribune foreign correspondent, Chicago Tribune, December
12, 2004 articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-12-12/news/0412120360_1_child-marriage-beetles-wishful [accessed 17 April
2012] Tihun Nebiyu the goat herder doesn't want to marry. She is
adamant about this. But in her village nobody heeds the opinions of
headstrong little girls. That's why
she's kneeling in the filigreed shade of her favorite thorn tree, dropping
beetles down her dress. Magic beetles. "It doesn't
work!" Tihun says, disgusted. She heaves an
exaggerated sigh and squints out across the yellow-grass hills surrounding
her world: "I will just have to run." But this is childish bluster. Tihun's short legs can't carry her away fast enough from
the death of her childhood. Her wedding is five days away. And she is 7 years
old. But child marriage
ruins lives in other ways too. Often treated like indentured servants, young
brides are subject to beatings by their grown husbands and in-laws. And
thousands of girls end up trapped in the sex trade, whether through organized
child bride trafficking rings in countries such as China or, in Africa, by
simply drifting from abusive marriages into street prostitution, social
workers say. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human Trafficking
In Ethiopia Thomas Williams, The
Borgen Project borgenproject.org/human-trafficking-in-ethiopia/ [accessed 2 February
2021] Those Targeted -- For
years, migrants have been the main victims of human trafficking in Ethiopia.
Another potential, vulnerable percentage of victims of human trafficking in
Ethiopia are children of poor, pastoral backgrounds. This type of background
ensures that the child would be susceptible to the promises of a better life;
as a result, traffickers frequently lure these children to sell them into
harsher, more cruel conditions. According to the Trafficking
in Person’s report, government officials investigated and convicted
transnational traffickers and, for the first time in 20 years, reported
holding accountable traffickers by strict penalties for victims they
exploited in forced labor or sex trafficking within the country. Penalties
for traffickers caught involve prosecution and conviction by authorities. Ethiopia Nabs
Ringleader of Horn and North Africa Human Trafficking Gang National
Intelligence & Security Service NISS Ethiopia, 15 March 2020 menafn.com/1099857769/Ethiopia-Nabs-Ringleader-of-Horn-and-North-Africa-Human-Trafficking-Gang [accessed 16 March
2020] Tempted by job
prospects abroad, many Ethiopian migrants use smugglers for a trip where too
many end up falling prey to trafficking. They face unimaginable hardships -
from abductions, attacks, hunger, and dehydration, to physical, sexual and
psychological abused restriction of movements and denial of salaries at the
destination. Trafficking in
Ethiopia mostly takes the form of transporting migrants by deception,
coercion, and then making them susceptible to different forms of
exploitation. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ethiopia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ethiopia/
[accessed 6 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Adults and
children, often under coercion, engaged in street vending, begging,
traditional weaving of handwoven textiles, or agricultural work. Children
also worked in forced domestic labor. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT In both rural and
urban areas, children often worked. Child labor was particularly pervasive in
subsistence agricultural production, traditional weaving, fishing, and
domestic work. Thousands of children ages 8-17 reportedly worked in the
production of khat. A growing number of children
worked in construction. Children in rural areas, especially boys, engaged in
activities such as cattle herding, petty trading, plowing, harvesting, and
weeding, while girls collected firewood and fetched water. Children worked in
the gold mining industry. In small-scale gold mining, they dug mining pits
and carried heavy loads of water. Children in urban areas, including orphans,
worked in domestic service, often working long hours, which prevented many
from attending school regularly. Children also worked in manufacturing,
shining shoes, making clothes, parking, public transport, petty trading, as
porters, and directing customers to taxis. Some children worked long hours in
dangerous environments for little or no wages and without occupational safety
protection. Child laborers often faced abuse at the hands of their employers,
such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Traffickers
exploited girls from impoverished rural areas, primarily in domestic
servitude and commercial sex within the country. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 27 April
2020] G3. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY PERSONAL SOCIAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER AND SIZE
OF FAMILY, PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND CONTROL OVER APPEARANCE? Forced child
marriage is illegal but common in Ethiopia, and prosecutions for the crime
are rare. According to UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
statistics for 2018, 40 percent of women are married before the age of 18.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is also illegal, but the law is
inconsistently enforced, and the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey
found that 65 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 had undergone
the practice. However, reports suggest that FGM rates have reduced in recent
years due to efforts by both NGOs and the government to combat the practice. G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Despite
near-universal primary school enrollment, access to quality education and
other social services varies widely across regions and is particularly weak
in the “emerging” lowland states. Child labor is prevalent in many
agricultural households. Trafficking convictions have increased in recent
years, though the US government continues to urge its Ethiopian counterparts
to more aggressively pursue trafficking cases. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 17 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 27 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 410] Children are
trafficked from rural areas to Addis Ababa and to other regions of the
country for forced labor in the weaving industry and in domestic work. (6;
17; 16) Children also reportedly harvest and sell khat,
a stimulant to which they may become addicted due to bodily contact with the
plants’ excretions during harvest. (3) Families continue to play a role in
financing and coercing their children to go abroad or to urban areas to look
for work. (18; 17) Children who begin as voluntary migrants may be forced
into prostitution or become victims of forced labor. (3) Hundreds of
thousands of children forced to work in Ethiopia EITB 24 News – Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 7
September 2014] Some of the
trafficked children are employed as domestic servants and kept within Fifteen-year-old
'Dina', whose name has also been changed, says she was just eight when she
was trafficked from her home in northern 'Dina' says she
worked seven days a week cooking, cleaning and taking care of children, often
for families who had children her own age. Finally, after being kicked out by
her employer, she managed to contact police who sent her to OPRIFS in The reversal of a
boy's HIV status is the road to new life. He's one of lucky ones Jonathan Clayton in
Addis Ababa, The Times, May 19, 2006 www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/article1970072.ece [accessed 7
September 2014] Organisations such as Unicef, the United Nations’ children’s agency, are
concerned that the Ethiopian Government does not have the staff or resources
to monitor orphanages to ensure that children are cared for and safe from
abuse. They also suspect that many
children are being trafficked to work in weaving factories or as servants,
and some are being smuggled out of the country. One child protection specialist says: “We
have heard stories of children being taken by ‘brothers’ and ‘uncles’ to neighbouring countries. Once there, they could be easily
transferred. It is a huge problem.” - htsccp WANTED: the right
to refuse Maggie Black, Issue
337, New Internationalist, August 2001 www.newint.org/features/2001/08/05/wanted/ [accessed 4 February
2011] Take a look at
article one of the Supplementary Convention on Slavery and you will see as
one definition: ‘Any practice whereby a woman, without the right to refuse,
is given in marriage in payment of a consideration in money or in kind ...’ At the beginning of
the 21st century being a child wife, even if it’s illegal, puts you in a
limbo. You are invisible as either child or woman, because you have been
married. What a man does to you once, if you are underage and single, is
statutory rape. What he does to you night after night, if you are underage
and married, is fine. In rural ACLU Defends
Ethiopian Woman Kept in Forced Labor in The American Civil
Liberties Union ACLU, December 21, 2004 www.aclu.org/womens-rights/aclu-defends-ethiopian-woman-kept-forced-labor-new-jersey [accessed 7
September 2014] According to the
ACLU lawsuit, Chere was kept under conditions of
involuntary servitude for almost one and a half years-working for as much as
100 hours per week for no pay. Chere's
responsibilities included serving as the primary caretaker for the couple's
toddler, cooking for the family, cleaning and maintaining the home, doing the
family's laundry and cleaning the exterior of the house and driveway. She was
not given any food other than leftovers and bread and water and was forced to
sleep on the floor of the child's bedroom. UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5
September 2011] The first-ever centre to help victims of trafficking opened in the
Ethiopian capital, "The victims
have suffered quite a lot of abuse," said Rakeb,
the centre's programme
coordinator. "Often when they return they are traumatised,
depressed, and some have mental-health problems and need someplace to stay.
Some of those who are deported have not even had time to gather their
possessions and don't have anything, so they need some reintegration
assistance." IOM press briefing
notes 23 Apr 2004: Haiti, Ethiopia, Zambia Spokesperson:
Jean-Philippe Chauzy, International Organization
for Migration IOM, 23 Apr 2004 reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/iom-press-briefing-notes-23-apr-2004-haiti-ethiopia-zambia [accessed 13 June
2013] The overall objective
of this US-funded project is to support the Ethiopian Government's efforts in
the fight against HIV/AIDS, and the prevention of human trafficking within
and/or from Ethiopia. It has the aim of sensitizing students in grades 7-10
on pertinent issues regarding trafficking and HIV/AIDS while encouraging them
to pursue their education, both in schools and within the informal sector. Five hundred
thousand exercise books and ten thousand T-shirts containing simplified
messages illustrated by cartoons warning students of the risks of migrating
for work using illegal channels, unprotected sex and dropping out of school
were distributed in the 185 schools since September 2003. UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/44305/ethiopia-education-key-to-fighting-child-trafficking-says-unicef [accessed 9 March
2015] The IOM says that
illegal traffickers who prey on women could make up to 7,000 Ethiopian Birr
(more than US $800) for each victim they send overseas. The IOM say women
aged between 18 and 25 are targeted by traffickers at colleges and in poor
districts in towns and cities. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)[DOC] UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 1 November 2006 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/426c8f0ecdb895f1c125724300541453/$FILE/G0645009.doc [accessed 4 February
2011] [8] The Committee
notes that some progress has been made by the State party in the effort to
bring domestic laws into compliance with the Convention, e.g. by
criminalizing harmful traditional practices and child trafficking in the
revised Criminal Code of 2004.
However, the Committee remains concerned at the lack of a systematic
legislative review and adoption of a comprehensive Children’s Code. The Committee regrets that the Convention
has not yet been published in the Official Gazette as previously recommended. [71] The Committee is
deeply concerned at the prevalence of child labour
among young children including as young as 5 and that the State party has not
taken comprehensive measures to prevent and combat this large-scale economic
exploitation of children. Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 4 February
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 27 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Trafficking
convictions have increased in recent years, though the U.S. government continues
to urge its Ethiopian counterparts to more aggressively pursue trafficking
cases. Many children continue to work in dangerous sectors and lack access to
basic education and services. 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/af/276999.htm
accessed 22 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ethiopia/ accessed 26 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Although a ban on
labor migration to the Gulf States remained in effect, in February 2016 the
government enacted the Revised Overseas Employment Proclamation (Proclamation
No. 923/20 16), a major precondition for lifting the existing labor migration
ban. Women who migrated for work were vulnerable to forced labor overseas.
Men and boys migrated to the Gulf States and other African nations, sometimes
resulting in forced labor. Adults and children, often under coercion, engaged
in street vending, begging, traditional weaving of hand-woven textiles, or
agricultural work. Children also worked in forced domestic labor. Situations
of debt bondage also occurred in traditional weaving, pottery making, cattle
herding, and other agricultural activities, mostly in rural areas. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor remained
a serious problem and significant numbers of children worked in prohibited,
dangerous work sectors, particularly construction. School enrollment
was low, particularly in rural areas. To reinforce the importance of
attending school, joint NGO, government, and community-based awareness
efforts targeted communities where children were heavily engaged in
agricultural work. The government invested in modernizing agricultural
practices and constructing schools to combat the problem of child labor in agricultural
sectors. In both rural and
urban areas, children often began working at young ages. Child labor was
particularly pervasive in subsistence agricultural production, traditional
weaving, fishing, and domestic work. A growing number of children worked in
construction. Children in rural areas, especially boys, engaged in activities
such as cattle herding, petty trading, plowing, harvesting, and weeding,
while girls collected firewood and fetched water. Children worked in the
production of gold. In small-scale gold mining, they dug mining pits and
carried heavy loads of water. Children in urban areas, including orphans,
worked in domestic service, often working long hours, which prevented many
from attending school regularly. Children also worked in manufacturing,
shining shoes, making clothes, parking, public transport, petty trading, as
porters, and directing customers to taxis. Some children worked long hours in
dangerous environments for little or no wages and without occupational safety
protection. Child laborers often faced abuse at the hands of their employers,
such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Girls from
impoverished rural areas were exploited in domestic servitude and commercial
sex within the country. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61569.htm [accessed 8 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in 2004that trafficking was
"increasing at an alarming rate." A 2003 study by a foreign
government on the problem of internal trafficking of women and children
confirmed that the problem was pervasive. The overwhelming majority of
respondents confirmed that traffickers, typically
unorganized petty criminals, lured women and children from rural areas to The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/ethiopia.htm [accessed 4 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Ethiopia is a source country for children trafficked
for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced domestic and commercial
labor. Children are also trafficked internally from rural to urban
areas for domestic service, prostitution, and forced labor. Although there were no reports of
international trafficking of Ethiopian children in 2004, there have been
reports in the past that networks of persons working in tourism and trade
have recruited young Ethiopian girls for overseas work and provided them with
counterfeit work permits, birth certificates, and travel documents. 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 - |
