UNICEF, Governments, NGOs look out for slave ship

UN workers, government officials and members of non-governmental organisations in various West African cities were on the alert on Monday following reports that a ship carrying child slaves had been turned back from ports in Central Africa late last week. The ‘Etinero’ was expected on Sunday in Cotonou, the port from which it set out about two weeks ago. However, on Monday it still had not been sighted there, Adams Zachary, protection officer at UNICEF’s Benin office told IRIN. “Our biggest fear is that a sad fate might befall the children,” Adams said. “We know that child traffickers do not hesitate to throw children overboard when they know they are being pursued or when the children are ill.” AFP reported on Monday afternoon that the ship had been sighted somewhere off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Reports that the ship, said to be carrying some 250 children, had been refused permission to dock in Libreville surfaced at the end of last week. The ship suffered a similar fate in Douala, Cameroon. Adams said UNICEF was afraid that the traffickers might abandon the boat and the children somewhere in Nigeria since there are six Nigerian ports between Cameroon and Benin. “We’ve asked our office in Nigeria to check to see if the boat stops at a Nigerian port,” he said. Adams also said UNICEF had contacted ministries responsible for child protection in various West African countries “so that concrete steps can be taken”. They “will be accomodated in centres for vulnerable children wherever they land,” he said. “Measures have been taken to provide them with medical care.” Most of the children are thought to be from Benin and Togo which, along with Nigeria, are among the biggest suppliers of child labourers shipped to Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, where they work mainly as domestics and labourers. Other West African countries are also affected by the trade in children. Child traffickers provide young Malian labourers for commercial plantations in Cote d’Ivoire, while Ghanaian children are taken to work in fishing communities as far away as The Gambia. The case of the ‘Etinero’ has highlighted international attention to child trafficking and the related issue of exploitative child labour. Government officials from outside the West African region were among the first to react. “The plight of the children on board this ship serves as a timely reminder that slavery and bondage are still realities in the world and that labour secured on these terms is used to harvest primary products like cocoa,” British Foreign Office Minister Brian Wilson said on Sunday. “It is essential that those who are responsible for this vile trade are brought to justice.” Eliminating the worst forms of child labour is the aim of ILO Convention 182, adopted in 1999 and endorsed in the same year by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which, at its 1999 annual summit, called on all member states to ratify the convention by mid-2000. So far, just 20 have done so, among them Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Other African countries that have ratified the convention include Algeria, Botswana, Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.