Selling Children

FACT: two children are sold every minute.

Despite being outlawed by more than a dozen international conventions over the past 150 years, slavery still exists. Over 27 million people are enslaved today, meaning there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. TIME magazine defines slaves as “those forced to perform services for no pay beyond subsistence and for the profit of others who hold them through fraud and violence.” Slavery manifests in many forms in today’s world. One of the most prominent is human trafficking, which frequently leads to forced labor or sexual exploitation.

FACT: over 1.2 million children are trafficked annually.

The majority of females are trafficked into the commercial sex industry. Children in both the developed and developing world are used and exploited for sex, a lucrative business in some parts of the world. In some instances children are sold by family members, sometimes for as little as $10. Other children find themselves forced into prostitution due to destitute conditions, either trying to feed themselves or their families. Many are lured away from their homes by the promise of a job and a better life, only to find they have been sold to a brothel.

FACT: children as young as 5 are sold for sexual exploitation.

Gang rape, drug provision, sleep deprivation, and torture are used by traffickers to “break” new children into the sex trade in Bloemfontein, South Africa, according to a recent TIME magazine article. Forced abortions and unprotected sex are often part of the equation. In brothels in southeast Asia, “menus” are sometimes offered to clients, describing the children: “#145, age 7; this will be her first [x]; it will cost $100 to [x]”; “#144, age 11; [x] and [x] are OK. $200 for entire night, add $100 for extra [x].”

FACT: over 100,000 U.S. children are forcefully engaged in prostitution or pornography each year.

Trafficking in children is not limited to the developing world, where clients are sometimes attracted for “sex tourism.” The sexual exploitation of children also occurs in developed nations, such as the United States. In South Africa, the continent's wealthiest country and host of this year’s World Cup, as many as 38,000 children are trapped in the sex trade. Children in South Africa can earn more than $600 per night, and a recent TIME article revealed that many traffickers are “looking forward to doing more business” during the World Cup.

FACT: the United States spends more money in a single day fighting drug trafficking than it does in an entire year fighting human trafficking.

The Obama administration has pledged to make the issue a top priority. Thus far? No change. The South African president, as well, has pledged to fight human trafficking and the unexpected opportunities for trafficking created by hosting the World Cup. In many places of the world those fighting human trafficking, slavery, and the sex trade find themselves standing alone.

Over the past few days, the child sex trade has been brought to my attention in various – somewhat unusual – ways. This past weekend I attended a concert of eight local bands, both bands I saw play back in high school and bands who are just forming. The show was a benefit concert for Love146 (read more below). This week’s TIME magazine contained an article about the child sex trade in South Africa. Finally, I discovered that today is National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Please, take the time to acquaint yourself with the issues. There IS something you can do to help. 

Earlier blog on trafficking of human body parts: Trading in Humans

TIME magazine article: The New Slave Trade

Resources/ how you can help:

• Love146: The vision of Love146 is the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation. Begun in 2004, Love146 works for the prevention of child sex exploitation, to rehabilitate children rescued from exploitation, and to promote awareness. The organization is named for a little girl with a spark of life in her eyes, who was seen by the organization’s founders during an undercover investigation of child sex exploitation in southeast Asia. By the time the brothel was raided and shut down, child number 146 was no longer there.
• ECPAT: End child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes (ECPAT); a global network of groups and individuals fighting child exploitation.
• Somaly Mam Foundation: Their mission is to give victims and survivors a voice in their lives, liberate victims, end slavery, and empower survivors as they create and sustain lives of dignity. They also sell items hand-made by survivors.
• Molo Songololo: a children's rights group based near Cape Town
• COFS: combating the sale of human organs

Trading in Humans

In many areas of the world today, human body parts are bought and sold illegally. Sometimes without the consent of the donor. This is not a new issue but it has come to my attention in various ways recently. I can remember reading a news article three or four years ago about a woman somewhere in the developing world who woke up from a routine surgery to discover that while she was under anesthesia her husband had authorized the doctor to remove part of her kidney, which he (her husband) sold.

The incidents I wish to bring to your attention today are no less distressing. On the contrary, in some ways they are much worse.

Selling body parts in Egypt: An American friend who is currently attending grad school in Egypt recently wrote about an experience in a poor neighborhood on the fringe of Cairo. He is currently working with COFS, the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions. COFS is an NGO in Egypt which combats organ trafficking and the exploitation of the poor and refugees as a source of organ and tissue supplies. COFS has recently begun work on a documentary about the issue, and my friend's visit to the poor neighborhood was to conduct interviews for the documentary. Here is an excerpt from his blog:

Both interviews went as planned, first the husband, and then his wife. The husband at one point during the interview pulled up his shirt to reveal his scar from where they had cut to remove his kidney. The wife’s interview was a lot more distressing than her husband’s for Amr, as at one point he had to stop the interview because he started to breakdown. All I can say is that it was in this situation that I was fortunate enough not to know Arabic fluently to understand the procedures and horrific details of their experience.

Read the rest here.

Hunting Albinos: The second issue I wish to address here is one I have read about in the news recently, and that is the hunting of Albinos in Burundi. Witch doctors in Tanzania provide their customers with potions made from the body parts of albinos, which reputedly bring fortune in life, love, and business. Arms, Legs, and genitals are considered the most valuable, and reportedly fetch a lot of cash - as a result, albinos are being hunted for their parts. This is part of an account told to Al-Jazeera journalists at a safe house in Burundi:

Jeremiah began to tell us how one night his brother, Daniel, also an albino, was visited by their older non-albino brother, accompanied by a group of unfamiliar men.

That night Daniel was slaughtered by the older brother who sold his body parts for $240, Jeremiah later discovered.

"I saw my brother's dead body. All his limbs, arms and legs, were chopped off and gone. Afterwards my brother and my sister-in-law were overheard fighting over the money they had received selling his body parts.

"Furthermore, we have evidence that the murderers came through my older brother's compound and spent some time in his house discussing how they were going to kill him. I was lucky not be home at the time," Jeremiah said.

Jeremiah's story is not unique. To read more about the situation of albinos in Burundi and Tanzania, go here and here.


Human trafficking is not an issue which is new on the international scene. Quite the contrary - human trafficking is frequently the subject of political activism, government programs, and NGO attention. There are many organizations which strive to end the international child sex trade or try to prevent cross-border trade which lands illegal immigrants in sweat shops - or worse - in foreign countries. Even illegal organ trading is not a new subject - but it is one which seems to receive far too little attention.

There are many issues here, most of which are not simple or easy to solve. Not only are humans being hunted for body parts to be used in magic potions, some people are even driven to selling their own body parts. Poverty-stricken people in places such as Egypt are being exploited for their organs and tissue. How is one forced to make such a choice, to sell one's own kidney, for example? If you are reading this blog, chances are you are lucky enough not to be one of those people. What if you weren't so lucky?