page_title: Slavery in Haiti
section_title: Children
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in Haiti / Modern day / Children
caption_attribution_description: English: Two girls smile for the camera at a survivor camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 21, 2010. Military and civilian medical teams scoured the massive tent city today looking for injured who cannot make it to the forward operating base set up by the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment. A humanitarian relief organization has set up a critical care clinic on the base.
context_page_description: Slavery in Haiti started after the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the island in 1492 with the European colonists that followed from Portugal, Spain and France. The practice was devastating to the native population. Following the indigenous Tainos' near decimation from forced labor, disease and war, the Spanish, under advisement of the Catholic priest Bartolomeu de las Casas and with the blessing of the Catholic church, began engaging in earnest in the kidnapped and forced labor of enslaved Africans. During the French colonial period beginning in 1625, the economy of Haiti was based on slavery, and the practice there was regarded as the most brutal in the world. The Haitian Revolution of 1804, the only successful slave revolt in human history, precipitated the end of slavery not only in Saint-Domingue, but in all French colonies. However, this revolt has only merited a marginal role in the histories of Portuguese and Spanish America. This is a problem as it should hold a much more central place due to the fact that its contribution to independence in the Americas is indisputable.
context_section_description: Child trafficking is a substantial part of the human trafficking crisis in Haiti. One major form of child trafficking and child slavery, affecting an estimated 300,000 Haitian children, is called the restavek system, in which children are forced to work as domestic servants.  The restavek system accounts for the lion's share of human trafficking in Haiti.
  Families send the children into other households, exchanging their labor for upbringing. Impoverished rural parents hope for education and a better life for their children in the city, sending them to wealthier (or at least less poor) households. Increasingly, children enter domestic servitude when a parent dies.  Paid middlemen may act as recruiters, fetching the children for the host families.  Unlike slaves in the traditional sense, restaveks are not bought or sold or owned, could run away or return to their families, and are typically released from servitude when they become adults; however, the restavek system is commonly understood to be a form of slavery.
  Some restaveks do receive proper nutrition and education, but they are in the minority. Restaveks' labor includes hauling water and wood, grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning, and childcare.  Restaveks work long hours (commonly 10 to 14 a day) under harsh conditions, are frequently denied schooling, and are at severe risk of malnutrition and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.  Beatings are a daily occurrence for most restaveks, and most of the girls are sexually abused,  which puts them at an elevated risk for HIV infection. Those who are thrown out or run away from their host homes become street children, vulnerable to exploitation including forced prostitution.  Those who return to their families may be unwelcome as an added economic burden or shamed and stigmatized for having been a restavek.  The trauma of abuse and the deprivation of free time and normal childhood experiences can stunt a child's development and have long-lasting effects.
  The term restavek comes from the French "to live with", rester avec.  The practice has been around since the end of the revolution but became common in the 20th century as a way for rural people to cope with poverty. The number of restaveks increased after the 2010 earthquake, when many children became orphans or were separated from their families. The U.S. Department of State estimated in 2013 that between 150,000 and 500,000 children were in domestic servitude, accounting for most of Haiti's human trafficking.  About 19% of Haitian children ages 5 to 17 live away from their parents, and about 8.2% are considered domestic workers.  In one survey, restaveks were present in 5.3% of households by their heads' own admission.  In one study, 16% of Haitian children surveyed admitted to being restaveks.  It is estimated that an additional 3,000 Haitian children are domestic servants in the Dominican Republic.
  Children are also trafficked out of Haiti by organizations claiming to be adoption agencies, into countries including the U.S. – but some are actually kidnapped from their families. This practice was particularly widespread in the chaos following the 2010 earthquake. While women migrants were vulnerable during this time, the situation of children was underscored because of the phenomenon of irregular adoptions (one facet of human trafficking) of supposed "orphans" through the Dominican Republic. International outcry arose when on January 29, 2010, ten members of the American New Life Children's Refuge were arrested trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country to an orphanage—but the children were not orphans. Traffickers pretending to be workers from legitimate charitable organizations have been known to trick refugee families, convincing them that their children would be taken to safety and cared for.  In some cases, traffickers run "orphanages" or "care facilities" for children that are difficult to distinguish from legitimate organizations.  Children may be smuggled across the border by paid traffickers claiming to be their parents and subsequently forced i
caption: Internally displaced women and girls living in refugee camps after the 2010 earthquake are at particularly high risk for enslavement.
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