Child trafficking from Mali revealed by car crash

The death of three girls in a road accident last month led to investigations which revealed the existence of a network the trafficks children into Guinea from neighbouring Mali for use as unpaid domestic servants. United Nations officials in the Guinean capital Conakry said the three who died were part of a group of eight Malian girls smuggled into the country for use as forced labour. The five surviving girls, two of whom were injured in the crash, were found living with a woman in Conakry and have since been returned home. Investigations by the Association of Malian Citizens in Guinea revealed that the girls were Malians but had no relatives in Guinea. Mohamed Sidebe, a spokesman for the association, told IRIN: "the circumstances of the girls' presence in this country, let alone their involvement in such a tragic road crash, was a bit of a puzzle". Subsequent investigations found they had been transported into the country by a child trafficking ring. Sidebe said: "Women come from Guinea, collect girls under the age of 17 from Bamako (the capital of Mali) without the consent of their parents and then bring them back to Conakry. They put them in domestic jobs in homes. It is then these women who collect the girls' salaries from their employers." Child trafficking is widespread in West Africa, but until now Guinea has not been in the limelight. However, Marianne Clark, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) child protection officer in Guinea, told IRIN that UNICEF had commissioned a special study, conducted between April and July, which showed that child trafficking was quite prevalent in the country. "Child trafficking is a common occurrence in Guinea that has been going on for a long time and is an organised practice," said Clark who chairs a working group on child trafficking set up after the November incident. She said the study showed that many children below the age of 15 were being recruited by third parties for use as forced labour in mines or in homes as domestic workers. Clark said UNICEF was waiting for the Guinean government to validate the report produced by the study before making it public. "After this, we hope to develop a strategy and national plan on how to deal with the problem," she said. The embassy of Mali in Conakry helped to identify the five children who survived last month's road accident and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) provided tickets for them to fly home. The Association of Malian Citizens in Guinea estimates that over 200 Malian girls under the age of 17 years are working as domestic servants for rich people in Guinea. They are paid a pittance at the end of every month.