Child Trafficking: on the Wane, but Far from Solved

Yemen

Child Trafficking: on the Wane, but far from Solved

Yemen Observer

HARADH - “I want nothing, but to see my mother… I miss her so much,” said Aref, a four year-old boy, who summed up the whole story we went to Haradh to cover for a few scorching days in Ramadan.Aref is one of 215 children, including three girls, who have been taken into the Temporary Protection Center (TPC) since its foundation last May by the Ministry of Social Affairs and UNICEF.

http://www.yobserver.com/news_8461.php

http://www.childtrafficking.org/cgi-bin/ct/main.sql?ID=2082&file=view_document.sql

Child Trafficking: on the Wane, but far from Solved

By Abdul-Aziz Oudah

Oct 22, 2005 - Vol. VIII - Issue No. 42

Aref is one of 215 children, including three girls, who have been taken into the Temporary Protection Center (TPC) since its foundation last May by the Ministry of Social Affairs and UNICEF.

According to Haitham Al-Jabri, director of Hajja Social Affairs Office, the Center receives 5 to 6 children a day, with 30 cases arriving during the first half of Ramadan.

Aref did not understand the term “trafficking”, or the media storm it was causing. All he wanted was to be taken back to his mother.

Aref set off on his adventure into foreign lands accompanied by his brother, Dhao’a Al-Yaman, two years Aref’s senior.

The two boys said they had not been traveling to seek work or beg, but that they only wanted to visit relatives living in Saudi Arabia. They did not reach their destination because police spotted them during the night, arresting them and taking them back to the TPC to receive care before being returned to their family.

However, no sign of that care or attention was visible when we met them. They were still in their worn-out and dirty clothes. Their bodies were also filthy, and their hair disheveled. Carers at the TPC said the two boys had been in the center for only 30 hours.

Despite this Ahmed Sarri, the center director, said the center offered children educational and health services as well as reintegration of children into their families.

Deputy Governor of Hajja, Jamal Al-Aqel, said that the center attempted to reintegrate children into society through its social and psychological care. “Nevertheless,” he went on, “we haven’t reached a unanimous agreement on defining the center’s mission.” He called for juvenile police to be employed in the center.

Another six year-old child went to the district of Samida in Saudi Arabia to visit his sister. He said that he walked with his brother for two days, relying on his brother’s knowledge of the route. It was not his brother’s first trip, he said.
He and his brother were caught by Saudi police while returning from their sister’s house, and were put in prison with persons of all ages, but he said they received no ill-treatment over the two days they spent in jail. They were then deported in a large bus and left in a deserted area on the borders where they were met by Yemeni soldiers, who turned them over to the TPC, where the boy was desperately waiting for his father to, as he claimed, be released from prison and then be able to collect him.

Like Aref and Dhao’a, the boy said his parents had known about their trip and had no objections. This was confirmed by Mr. Al-Aqel who said that most cases like these were voluntary and with full knowledge of the parents. He added that not a single case had been found whereby any child had been forced to cross the border illegally. Both children and parents confessed to seeking financial benefits and escape from their current poverty and living conditions.

Al-Aqel admitted that limited resources and the lack of support from childcare international organizations made the situation worse.

The Deputy Governor, the Haradh Security Chief and the TPC director agree that the trafficking processes are conducted haphazardly and on an individual basis, rather than being systematically carried out by people entering Saudi border areas for financial gains. All three agree, however, that the children left vulnerable to grave dangers on their journeys, often subjected to psychological and physical harm, and occasionally sexual harassment from bandits, other prison inmates should they be arrested, or strangers in Saudi markets when they seek shelter in unsafe places. They are also left at the mercy of thieves and pickpockets.

Should they find their way into Saudi Arabia safely, most children find work selling light goods on the streets, like tissues or car accessories, while others work as porters, shepherds, or even beggars.

The Deputy Governor says that the main incentive for people to take the risk of illegally entering another country is financial. The Haradh security chief agrees, and adds a cultural proviso: the general conviction among much of the public that there is no wrong in crossing borders to another country. The reason, he says, is poor education, lack of family support, and family strife.

“Why are you making all this out to be more than it is?” asked Ghaleb, 42, from Hajja. “So what if I went to Samid or Jizan to work? Isn’t this better than remaining jobless? My children go to work in Sana’a, but if they did not have luck there, they would go to Jizan.”

Ziad, 25, feels the same. He says that as soon as a child is over 10 years old, he is ‘man enough’ to start looking for work.

Many people think that the family relations that exist on both sides of the Saudi-Yemeni border are the reason for repeated attempts to cross the territories.

Steps to address the problem, such as awareness-raising, agreements signed by tribes forbidding child trafficking, and penalties for violators, have played a key role in stemming the problem.

Another solution was to include families of children like Aflah Al-Sham and Bakil Al-Mir in the worst affected areas such as Hajja, in the lists of Social Security Services, which would then provide them with basic financial support. UNICEF’s selection of Aflah Al-Sham as a model district in which to begin its work is a further move to solve the problem.

Nasim Al-Rahman, the UNICEF press officer, said that in Aflah the organization had formed a ‘protection group’, with women among their members, to warn people to look after their offspring, and track children to ensure they are with their families. A recreational and cultural center was also established to provide guidance and education for children. Small loans will also be offered to targeted families to start up their own businesses.

Haradh Security Chief, Col. Abdullah Ziad, said that strict sentences for child traffickers and stringent security measures were constituting an effective deterrent.

Nevertheless, he added, there is no written law that prohibits the crime or prescribes punishment. “We try offenders for child abuse in accordance with the childhood law, as there is no law that explicitly forbids actual child trafficking, so deterring penalties need to be imposed.”

He added that security forces had arrested 13 child traffickers and that they were tried and sentenced to between 1 and 5 years’ imprisonment.

Major Mohammed Sharaf Addin, a security officer in Haradh, said that trafficking had decreased dramatically following the implementation of strict security measures, including intensive patrolling.

Further details on child trafficking will appear in future issues.