The Nigerian-registered vessel made the news after authorities in Benin said they believed the MV Etireno was carrying 200 children to slavery. After 21 days at sea when it was refused entry to two West African ports it returned to Benin last week, with 23, not 200, unaccompanied children on board. This is the thing that's alarmed the general public more than anything else. The Etireno has helped draw attention to the existence of millions of children held in debt-bondage, forced prostitution and other forms of exploitative labor. Four years ago Gabonese authorities found 400 children waiting to be loaded on to a ship.
Thousands end up on cocoa plantations in Gabon or the Ivory Coast.
They might weave carpets, build roads or clear forests. Australians are reckoned to be the world's largest consumers of Easter eggs. The Etireno, which had left Cotonou on March 27, is said to have been a regular visitor to impoverished Benin in recent years ferrying children sold into slavery, many of them to prosperous Gabon or Ivory Coast cocoa plantations. World Vision research shows that while supermarkets take more than 34 per cent of the price of a chocolate bar, less than 4 per cent goes to the cocoa farmers. These children grow that cocoa.