Torture in [Haiti] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Haiti Street Children in [Haiti] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Haiti] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Haiti.htm
Scope and Magnitude: Several NGOs noted
a sharp increase in the number of Haitian children trafficked for sex and
labor to the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas during 2008. The majority of
trafficking cases are found among the estimated 90,000 to 300,000 restaveks in |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA, 19 Jul
2004 reliefweb.int/report/haiti/haiti-socio-political-crisis-ocha-situation-report-no-14 [accessed 13 June 2013] CHILDREN AT RISK 9. Child domestic
workers are perhaps amongst the most exploited sectors in Haiti. A child who
stays with and works for another family is called a "restavec"
(rester avec), in Creole. According to the Restavec Children Foundation, these children are often
given away or sold by poor families in order to survive. Frequently the
children's most basic rights to health and education are denied. They are not
paid for their work and often abused. For instance, the restavecs
have to return to their duties in the house, after having escorted the house
owner's children to school. The restavec boys and
the girls often flee at the age of 12-13, joining one of the many street
gangs or ending up as prostitutes. Slavery: Worldwide Evil Charles Jacobs, President, American
Anti-Slavery Group At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011] Though many
Haitians work willingly in the Dominican sugar plantations (Haiti is one of
the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere), there is a perennial
shortfall at harvest time. The State Sugar Council, known as the CEA, fills
the gap with a system that violates nearly every internationally recognized
labor code against forced labor. Although political turmoil in Haiti has put
an end to cross-border recruiting, the enslavement of blacks continues. ***
ARCHIVES *** Assistance for children victims of human
trafficking in Haiti International Organization for Migration
IOM, 04 Dec 2006 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
www.iom.int/migrant-stories/assistance-children-victims-human-trafficking-haiti [accessed 25 January 2016] After the death of
his father, Daniel was torn from his sobbing mother to work in Daniel says he felt
"not human" when preparing the children's uniforms and lunches
while being denied an education himself. Despite being regularly humiliated,
abused and under-fed, Daniel did not attempt to return home alone lest he be
forced to join the street children. Survival is Greatest Challenge for Haiti's
Children UNICEF Press Centre, www.unicef.org/media/media_31793.html [accessed 8 February 2011] Violence and Abuse.
There are thousands of street children throughout Haiti. Many children are
forced to fight in gangs or become part of the restavek
subculture of bonded servitude, where 300,000 children work as unpaid
domestic servants. Girls account for three-quarters of these workers. - htsc 30,000 Haitian
children smuggled annually english.peopledaily.com.cn/200511/08/eng20051108_219788.html [accessed 8 February 2011] Around 30,000
Haitian children are illegally smuggled into the Psst! Buy Yourself A
Haitian Slave-Child For A Hundred Bucks Gary Younge, the
Guardian, reporting from the Dominican Republic, 2005-09-28 www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/22/garyyounge.mainsection [accessed 25 January 2016] On market day in Dajabón, a bustling Dominican town on the Haitian border,
you can pick up many bargains if you know where to look. You can haggle the
price of a live chicken down to 40 pesos (72p); wrestle 10lb of macaroni from
60 to 50 pesos; and, with some discreet inquiries, buy a Haitian child for
the equivalent of £54.22. There is a thriving
trade in Haitian children in the Servitude's chains steal childhoods Gary Marx, www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=662 [accessed 8 February 2011] Each day,
13-year-old Claudia Lundi wakes at 4 a.m. and
begins cooking, sweeping, fetching water and doing other household chores
that last until well after sunset. She
sleeps on the concrete floor cushioned by a pile of clothing and eats
sparingly, alone, in the kitchen. "If I don't finish my work they will
beat me up," said Claudia, picking nervously at her fingernails.
"They beat me with a whip all over my body." - htsc Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/haiti [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 8 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number F1934 .D64
2001 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html [accessed 8 February 2011] Restavec: From Haitian
Slave Child to Middle-Class American Recollections by a former restavek, Jean-Robert Cadet 1998 in his autobiography,
"Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to
Middle-Class American" www.jeanrcadet.org/page25205348.aspx [accessed 2 September 2014] www.carfweb.net/haiti_appeal.html [accessed 18 September 2016] On average, restaveks work eighteen hours a day, seven days a week,
have extremely poor health, nutrition, low educational attainment and their
living conditions are appalling. They sleep on the bare floor or on a mat on
the floor next to their master's bed or under the kitchen table. They use an
old rolled up dress as a billow or a blanket. Restaveks
wear dirty, old clothing and shoes with holes in them, sometimes too big for
their small bodies. Also, they are permitted to bathe only once a week. While
these children prepare meals for their masters, they are not allowed to eat
with the family and must wait until everyone finishes and leaves the table in
order to eat the leftovers from the meal that he or she cooked. The master
requires that the child domestic use a specific plate, cup, and fork, made
out of tin and bent out of shape. The restavek must
wash and store these utensils separately, perhaps for a fear that he or she
will contaminate the rest of the family's "good" dining equipment.
The child is further separated from social life as the restavek
spends virtually the entire day indoors unless he or she is fetching water,
cleaning chamber pots, or visiting the market. And while indoors, he or she
sits in isolation when not doing chores. These children are not allowed to
speak unless their owners speak to them or permit them to speak. In addition
to the daily schedule and tasks and the living conditions, these children
suffer great physical and emotional danger, are beaten, tortured, raped,
falsely accused and verbally assaulted. — Recollections by a former restavek, Jean-Robert Cadet 1998 in his autobiography,
"Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to
Middle-Class American" Haiti: Socio-Political Crisis OCHA
Situation Report No. 14 United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA, 19 Jul
2004 reliefweb.int/report/haiti/haiti-socio-political-crisis-ocha-situation-report-no-14 [accessed 13 June 2013] CHILDREN AT RISK 9. Child domestic
workers are perhaps amongst the most exploited sectors in Haiti. A child who
stays with and works for another family is called a "restavec"
(rester avec), in Creole. According to the Restavec Children Foundation, these children are often
given away or sold by poor families in order to survive. Frequently the
children's most basic rights to health and education are denied. They are not
paid for their work and often abused. For instance, the restavecs
have to return to their duties in the house, after having escorted the house
owner's children to school. The restavec boys and
the girls often flee at the age of 12-13, joining one of the many street
gangs or ending up as prostitutes. Prosecutors to seek reduction of sentence
for Pines woman in slavery case Ann W. O'Neill, Sun-Sentinel, 8 June 2004 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5 September 2011] A 12-year-old girl,
referred to in the indictment as "W.K.," was nicknamed "Little
Hope" in According to the
indictment, the girl was smuggled from Haiti after her mother, who once
worked there for the Pompees, died in 1996. Haiti - Tarnished Children [DOC] Jacky Delorme, International Confederation
Of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), January 2004 www.restavekfreedom.org/document.doc?id=27 [accessed 14 July 2013] info.restavekfreedom.org/document.doc?id=27 [accessed 5 June 5, 2017 ] [page 7] LESLIE - I am eleven
years old. I don’t remember how long ago my mum placed me in the care of my aunt.
I’m the only one to sleep on the floor in her house. Every day, I get up at 4
o’clock. I do everything. I prepare breakfast for the children, I sweep the
floor, I go to collect water. And when my aunt goes to work in the market, I
carry on: I go for more water, I do the washing, and I wash the dishes… One
day I had a quarrel with one of my aunt’s daughters, and she whipped me for
that. On another occasion I was watching television and the food that was on
the cooker got burnt. I also got
whipped for that. My mum lives in the province. She came to see me last
Sunday, but it’s very rare. I have given up asking her to take me back with
her. I know she doesn’t have enough money to feed me. National Public Radio NPR, March 27, 2004 www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1779562 [accessed 8 February 2011] Among her other
duties, Josiméne cares for two younger children,
cleans the house, washes dishes, scrubs laundry by hand, runs errands and
sells small items from the family's informal store. She has lived this way
for over two years, since she was seven. It has been over six months since
she has seen her family. Aristide leaves Haiti This Week in bonner.house.gov/HoR/AL01/News/Columns/2004/03-04-04+Aristide+leaves+Haiti.htm [Last access date unavailable] Slavery: Worldwide Evil Charles Jacobs, President, American
Anti-Slavery Group At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5 September 2011] Though many
Haitians work willingly in the Dominican sugar plantations (Haiti is one of
the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere), there is a perennial
shortfall at harvest time. The State Sugar Council, known as the CEA, fills
the gap with a system that violates nearly every internationally recognized
labor code against forced labor. Although political turmoil in Haiti has put
an end to cross-border recruiting, the enslavement of blacks continues. Haitian Coalition Unveils Report on Slavery
and Trafficking of Haitian Children Merrie Archer, The National Coalition for
Haitian Rights NCHR, www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti-archive/msg11671.html [accessed 8 February 2011] "Estimates
reveal that as many as one out of every ten children in Haiti is a child
domestic servant, known in Creole as a restavèk,"
said Merrie Archer, co-author of the report and Senior Policy Associate at
NCHR, "and there is evidence that this practice has been carried over to
the US and other places where Haitians have migrated." Child Labour Persists Around The World:
More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO)
News, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 6 September 2011] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious circle",
says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24; Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7;
Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/haiti.htm [accessed 8 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - A common form of exploitive child labor in Human Rights Reports
» 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61731.htm [accessed 8 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Rural families continued to send young children, particularly girls, to
more affluent city dwellers to serve as restaveks
in exchange for that child's room and board. While some restaveks
received adequate care, including an education, the Ministry of Social
Affairs believed that many employers compelled the children to work long
hours, provided them little nourishment, and frequently abused them. The
majority of restaveks worked in low-income homes
where conditions, food, and education for non-biological children were not
priorities. The results of the
most recent study of trafficking across the border conducted by UNICEF in
2002 reported that between two thousand and three thousand children were
trafficked to the Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/haiti2003.html [accessed 8 February 2011] [60] The Committee
is deeply concerned at the high incidence of trafficking of children from All
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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Torture in [Haiti] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Haiti Street Children in [Haiti] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Haiti] [other countries]