While the facts surrounding these reports remain unclear, the story has highlighted the need for increased regional cooperation to address the problem. In 1999, the Department of Labor provided funding to support efforts by the ILO's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor to collect information on the nature and scope of child trafficking in nine countries in West and Central Africa and to develop national and regional plans of action. The second phase of the project, funded today by the Department, will implement these action plans and ensure that concrete measures are taken to protect children victimized by the crime of trafficking. The project will benefit an estimated 27,000 child victims of trafficking and children at risk of being trafficked through rehabilitation and reintegration services and prevention activities. In recent years, the number of reports of children being trafficked across borders for labor exploitation in West and Central Africa has steadily increased.
Traffickers use the false promise of economic opportunity to lure children away from their homes.
Most children end up working as virtual slaves, as domestic servants, on plantations, or in the commercial sex industry. They work long hours with little or no pay under conditions that place at risk their healthy physical, moral, and emotional development. Please specify which news release when placing a request.