It was believed that the smugglers had been planning to sell the children as unpaid domestic or plantation workers in Gabon, a relatively prosperous country southeast of Benin. Benin initially issued arrest warrants for the Etireno's Nigerian owner, captain and crew, as well as for three Benin businessmen. U.N. officials in Cotonou earlier speculated that the captain could have thrown his human cargo overboard. Benin, a small country of 6 million people, has a history of slave trading. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was known as the Slave Coast for its role as a center of the trans-Atlantic trade.
Girls often end up as domestic workers or prostitutes.
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