Authorities attempt to tackle child trafficking

The problem of child trafficking in Yemen appears to be receiving more attention from the authorities with the first ever conference on the topic held in the capital Sana on 8-9 January. Officials told the conference that the government had set up a joint committee with the Saudi authorities to look into the issue and called for closer work between the two governments to deal with the problem. Saudi Arabia is the main destination country for children trafficked from Yemen, one of the Middle East's poorest states. Government ministers attending the conference acknowledged that poverty was a root cause of the problem and said more needed to be done to tackle issues such as lack of education and unemployment. They are also in the process of attempting to criminalise child trafficking, allowing prosecution of those involved. “There is absolutely a child traffic problem in Yemen. What we are doing now is trying to survey those districts [affected] and see whatever we can do there,” Abdulkarim Al-Arhabi, Minister of Social Affairs, told the conference. The conference was set up to discuss the findings of a social affairs and labour ministry study entitled "Rapid Assessment of Child Trafficking in Yemen", carried out in conjunction with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the first of its kind in Yemen. Investigaters carried out research in the western Hajja and Al-Mahweet governorates, the two areas of the country where trafficking is most prevalent, but found that gathering accurate figures was difficult. Estimates have ranged from between 1,000 to 50,000. “It is not clear how many children are trafficked at this time, so the study is based on samples in order to know more about the phenomenon itself,” the social affairs minister said. “We cannot know the numbers because there is no information system on the border [with Saudi Arabia] that we can rely on to acquire the number of children trafficked," he added. However, despite the difficulties, the recent study is the first step towards addressing the sensitive and critical issue which is a concern to all levels of the government,” Amat Al-Aleem Al-Soswa, Minister of Human Rights, said in her speech at the opening of the workshop. “Although we don’t agree on the numbers of children being trafficked - we should distinguish between illegal immigrants and trafficked children - child trafficking is an important issue. Even if only one child is trafficked, it is an issue that needs our attention.” In a separate UNICEF study released last spring, the figure for children trafficked across the Saudi border was put at around 50,000. This number sent shock waves through the country and was instrumental in getting the government to focus on the issue. “The most important feature of the report was to raise the issue of child trafficking, to show people that there is a problem,” said Ramesh Shrestha, a UNICEF representative based in Yemen. Many acknowledge that poverty is the most important factor behind the problem. “Child trafficking is one of the bad consequences of people suffering from poverty,” said human rights minister Al-Soswa. “If the families happened to be well off, the parents would not have let their children go to another place and be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. It is poverty, and we should fight it if we want a radical solution for this problem," she added. It is estimated that around 42 percent of Yemenis live below the poverty line. According to the World Bank’s most recent report, the country’s GDP growth slowed from 4.1 percent in 2001 to an estimated 2.5 percent last year. The study found that the areas where the problem originate suffer from a lack of basic services. It also showed that 49.1 percent of the families who send their children abroad are living well due to the money sent back. Lack of potential for work, unemployment and low pay push parents to send their children to work or sometimes beg abroad.“We need more than economic growth that matches population growth to reduce poverty,” Al-Arhabi emphasised. “We need much stronger economic growth to be able to reduce poverty, such as 6, 7 or 8 percent oeconomic growth [per year], or else economic growth will just maintain poverty.” "Tackling this problem needs government attention and care in the remote countryside, encouraging families to enroll their kids in schools," Nor Ba'abad, assistant deputy minister of social affairs told IRIN. The minister of human rights said that her ministry was working with ministries of justice and legal affairs to set up a legislation criminalising child trafficking and its perpetrators. "The question of child trafficking should be defined clearly in the Yemeni law including trafficking as a criminal act, deterring traffickers from carrying out these activities," Dr Amin Dahmash, professor of Penal Law at Sana University, told IRIN. According to the UNICEF study, over 25 percent of deported children said they faced threats, such as hunger and getting lost, and it is reported that a large number of children were beaten and robbed while being trafficked. It was also found that nearly 65.5 percent of children trafficked had no place to stay and ended up living on the streets.