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/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 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. ***
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article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]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 *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Haiti 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/haiti/
[accessed 8 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR While there were no
reports of forced or compulsory labor in the formal sector, other reports of
forced or compulsory labor were made, specifically instances of forced labor
among child domestics, or restaveks (see section
7.c.). Children were vulnerable to forced labor in private and NGO-sponsored
residential care centers, construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic
work, and street vending. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT While there were no
reports of forced or compulsory labor in the formal sector, other reports of
forced or compulsory labor were made, specifically instances of forced labor
among child domestics, or restaveks (see section
7.c.). Children were vulnerable to forced labor in private and NGO-sponsored
residential care centers, construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic
work, and street vending Restaveks were exploited by
being forced to work excessive hours at physically demanding tasks without
commensurate pay or adequate food, being denied access to education, and
being subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Girls were often
placed in domestic servitude in private urban homes by parents who were
unable to provide for them, while boys more frequently were exploited for
farm labor. Restaveks who did not run away from
families usually remained with them until age 14. Many families forced restaveks to leave before age 15 to avoid paying them
wages as required by law. Others ignored the law, often with impunity. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/haiti/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Socioeconomic
mobility is obstructed by entrenched poverty, with low national literacy
rates and over 50 percent of Haitians living on less than $2.40 a day. Legal protections
against exploitative working conditions in formal employment are weakly
enforced, and most workers are informally employed. As many as 300,000
children work as domestic servants, often without pay or access to education;
they are especially vulnerable to physical or sexual abuse. Other forms of
child labor are common. 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 18 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 28 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 496] A 2015 study found
that there were approximately 286,000 child domestic workers in Haiti,
207,000 of whom were lagging behind in school. (13;
14; 10; 5) Some parents who are unable to care for their children send them
to residential care centers or to relatives or strangers who are expected to
provide the children with food, shelter, and schooling in exchange for
household work. In practice, some of these children receive care and access
to education, while many others become victims of labor exploitation and
abuse. (2; 3; 4; 12; 14; 22; 15) Children are
trafficked both internally and externally, primarily to the Dominican
Republic, other Caribbean countries, South America, and the United States.
NGOs have reported that children illegally crossing the Haiti-Dominican
Republic border are often accompanied by adults who are paid to act as the
children’s parents or guardians until they reach the Dominican Republic. (18;
23; 24; 25; 10; 6; 5) Some of these children are reunited with relatives in
the Dominican Republic, while others engage in commercial sexual
exploitation, domestic work, agriculture, street vending, and begging. (25;
26; 10; 5; 6) During 2017, the
Government of the Dominican Republic continued with the involuntary
repatriations of individuals with irregular migration status to Haiti,
pursuant to Dominican law. (14; 27; 28) Many of these individuals, including
children, are Dominicanborn persons of Haitian
descent. (29) At the end of 2017, reports indicate that 132,995 individuals
migrated spontaneously to Haiti, including 4,167 unaccompanied minors. (28)
Some of these children were residing in Haiti in camps near the border with
the Dominican Republic, where schools and other basic services are not
available. In addition, these children may not speak French or Haitian
Creole, the languages of instruction in public Haitian schools. (4; 14; 17;
30; 31) These children, including those who have been deported to Haiti or
who left spontaneously, are vulnerable to the worst forms child labor. (30;
5; 31). Restavčk: The Persistence
of Child Labor and Slavery RestavčkFreedom, Submission to the
United NationsUniversal Periodic Review, 3-14
October 2011 lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/HT/RF-Restav%C3%A8kFreedom-eng.pdf [accessed 9 February
2019] APPENDIX A - STORIES
OF RESTAVČK CHILDREN COLLECTED BY RESTAVČK FREEDOM SYNTHIA’S STORY -- This is a
recent story of a child assisted by Restavčk
Freedom. The name was changed to
protect her privacy. Synthia celebrated her 15th
birthday recently. This was the
first time anyone had celebrated her birth.
Her mother died when Synthia was an infant
and she was taken to live with her mother’s oldest sister for three years and
then sent to live with her godmother, who was her mother’s youngest sister.
She was never sent to school by her godmother and had to remain at home to do
all the work. She was
never shown any
love or affection
and would get
beatings for not
working fast enough or
if she took
too long to
fetch the water
and she would
get beatings if
anything was misplaced around
the house. She was in charge of all
household work including taking care of the younger children. During an
emotional recount of one incident she described the fear that she encountered
as she was sent on a late night errand.
The area where she lived is known for some of the worst gang members
and thieves of Haiti so naturally, as a young girl, she was afraid. Because it was late at night she had
difficulty finding the item she was sent to purchase. By the time she arrived at the merchant,
she was closed. Synthia
knew that she would be beaten but she also knew that she had no
control over the
situation. When she arrived
the beating was
severe and she
was made to sleep outside for the night. Synthia
wanted to end her life. She tells
Restavčk
Freedom that the
only thing that stopped her
was the fact
that she was
in school and
felt loved by
the child advocate
from our organization and that
she would miss her.Synthia has
been removed from
this situation and
is now in
a loving and
supportive environment. She
often comments that she feels as if she is in a dream. She is very intelligent and wants to study
computer engineering. FABIOLA’S STORY -- Fabiola is a 21
year old woman who has suffered most of her life as a restavek. She was 3
when she lost
her mother and
was then raised
by an aunt
until the age
of 10. Her
aunt had other people
living in the
home including Fabiols’s godmother. One night the godmother’s boyfriend tried
to rape Fabiola. A neighbor heard
her screaming and came to her rescue.
The neighbor then told the aunt of the incident. Once everyone was aware of this the man
lost face, was embarrassed and left the home.
No one actually kicked him out.Fabiola was
blamed for the man leaving the home and made her life more miserable than
before. The godmother had two children
with the man and he was no longer willing to help care for these children. She
was so badly
mistreated that a
neighbor offered to
take her. In the beginning the neighbor treated
her decently, as Fabiola describes, not beating her or cursing her. After time she began to slap Fabiola across
the face and beat her, blaming her for things she did not do. She ran away from this home and went to
live with someone she barely knew.
Fabiola had to do all the work in this home and take care of the
woman’s children. The woman had
a boyfriend that
lived nearby and
Fabiola was required
to take food
to him every afternoon. The
man was a
man of authority
and had a
gun, he knew
that he could
manipulate Fabiola. On one
occasion he asked
her to get
something for him
inside his room...he
then followed her and attacked her.
He threw her on his bed and raped her.
He threatened to kill her if she told anyone of the incident. She
did not tell
anyone because he
had showed her
the gun and she was also afraid
that no one would believe her story.
Fabiola would often try to get others to take the food to the man but
then he realized what she was doing and made things worse for her every time
she did not bring the food herself.
This went on for 2 years before she ran away. Fabiola has
recently begun school
for the first
time in her
life and is
struggling, as one would expect. She wants desperately to learn and is
working extremely hard studying for hours each day. ROSALINE’S STORY -- Rosaline was living
with a biological aunt until the aunt moved her due to the abuse she was
receiving from the children of the man she married. She is now living with
another woman who already had a restavek. Rosaline reported that the woman did not
beat her but it was the way she cursed at her and talked to her that was the
hardest. Rosaline’s mother lives in the countryside but Rosaline does not
want to go back to her mother because she believes that her mother sent her
in the hope that she can go to school and have a better life. She believes
that her mother would not accept her back home. Rosaline is one of Restavčk Freedom’s children that comes
to school looking nice. Her hair is done and her clothes are pressed. To
observe her from the outside one might believe that she has a good life but
you cannot see the suffering inside her soul from someone who needs
love. She does not dream nor does she
have any idea of what she would like to become someday. She doesn’t dare to
hope. LENA’S STORY -- Lena was sent
to Port-au-Prince when she was 8 years old. She lives with a host family that
has 3 children, all attending school. Lena is 15 years old and had never
attended school until Restavčk Freedom supported
her schooling. After 2 weeks in school she can now write her name for the
first time in her life. She is in charge of all the household chores and also
takes care of the children and all of their needs as the host aunt died,
leaving her with the woman’s husband. Her body is young but her face is older
than 15 years. She became very emotional as she told Restavčk
Freedom of her misery and the burdens she carries. She is never treated with respect and often
misses school due to responsibilities in the home. GUERDA’S STORY -- Guerda was sent to live with a man and his family in a
rural community. Guerda’s father was not poor but
he had remarried and the woman he married would not allow the child from
another woman to live in the house. Guerda was
given to the father’s brother. Guerda was not
allowed to use her family name as it was the same last name as the man she
was now living with and he did not want anyone in the community to know that
she was his niece. Guerda
was treated like the restavek in the family. She
had to do all the household chores and take care of the other children. The man owned a school so he did allow her
to attend school but our foundation was paying for her to attend. When Restavčk Freedom interviewed Guerda
she recounted how painful it was for her that he did not want to recognize
her as his niece and the humiliation she suffered in the fact that he would
not recognize her as a relative. She said that he always told her that she
would never be more than a “little thief” and she would never succeed and
that her mother was of bad blood. He was constantly putting her down and
making her feel inferior to the rest of the family. She was never given much time to study or
prepare her lessons and would then be punished for not being prepared. Guerda is one of the brightest children in the Restavčk Freedom home. She has already skipped two grades
and works extremely hard. She has no interest in contacting her father even
though we had him sign that we had the right to have her. He also has no
interest in having her return home. Guerda is
thriving in the program but there is much damage that she needs healing from.
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] en.people.cn/200511/08/eng20051108_219788.html [accessed 9 February
2019] Around 30,000 Haitian
children are illegally smuggled into the Dominican Republic every year to
work as child prostitutes or be forced into other degrading occupations, UN
and Organization of American States (OAS) officials said on Sunday. In 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 Ł54.22. 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 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" 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,
Journalist for the International Confederation Of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU),
January 2004 www.restavekfreedom.org/document.doc?id=27 [accessed 14 July
2013] restavekfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Haiti_Tarnished-children.pdf [accessed 28 April
2020 ] [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 [access date
unavailable] www.wsj.com/articles/SB107797841170441917 [accessed 28 April
2020] Haiti also has a
long record of human rights and security violations. The government of that
country has not fully complied with international regulations regarding the
trafficking of children for both labor and sexual exploitation. As one major
example, a 2003 report issued by the Organization of American States stated
that between 90,000 and 300,000 children between the ages of four and 14 in
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are used as unpaid domestic labor.
Additionally, following a 2001 announcement of "zero tolerance"
policy towards suspected criminals, the Haitian police and organized mobs
committed numerous executions and lynchings. The
national media was forced to self-censor itself, and many reporters either
fled the country as the result of death threats or were captured and
executed. 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] faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti-archive/msg11671.html [accessed 29 January
2018] "Estimates
reveal that as many as one out of every ten children in Haiti is a child
domestic servant, known in Creole as a restavčk,"
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] www.scribd.com/document/367525279/Child-Labour-Persists-Around-the-World-docx [accessed 29 January
2018] "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. 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 ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61731.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] 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 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] 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 - A common form of exploitive child labor in Haiti is
the traditional practice of trafficking children from poor, rural areas to
cities to work as domestic servants for more affluent urban families. A 2002
survey by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social
Sciences estimated that 173,000, or 8.2 percent of children ages 5 to 17
years, were child domestic workers. Many domestic workers, known as restaveks, work without compensation, reach the age of 15
to 17 years without ever having attended school, are forced to work long
hours under harsh conditions, and are subject to mistreatment, including
sexual abuse. 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 - |
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