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WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Labor Elaine
L. Chao announced today that the Department of Labor is providing $4.3 million
through the International Labor Organization (ILO) for a program combating the
trafficking of children for labor exploitation in West and Central Africa.
"The United States is committed to combating the
trafficking of children for exploitative work," Chao said. "The project we are
funding today will provide hope and relief to children who have fallen victim
to traffickers and offer them real opportunities for the future through
schooling. But our larger goal must be to prevent children from being placed in
harm's way in the first place. We are committed to working with the countries
of this region to put an end to this intolerable practice."
Over the past week, the phenomenon of child trafficking
has come to the attention of the world community as allegations of a slave ship
carrying as many as 250 children off the coast of West Africa appeared in the
international media. 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. Countries covered by the project are:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and
Togo.
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.
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