Despite a 2005 law criminalising child trafficking from Togo, a former smuggler told IRIN child-smuggling continues, circumventing the increasingly vigilant public and border authorities. Children are taken overland, mostly from Togo’s central and northern rural villages, to neighbouring West African countries where they work on farms and cocoa plantations, and in homes, markets and stone quarries. Inoussa Bouberi said for 17 years, he smuggled children out of Togo to work mostly in Nigeria, stopping in 2004.
“Sometimes I was the one who reached out to families, other times they looked for me to ask me to take their children overland. Sometimes I was paid a fee by the families to help. I left once a year before harvest time [starting October], taking up to 15 kids at a time. In the past it was not difficult to leave. No one ever saw anything wrong with it.
“But gradually, I started hiding kids at the bottom of my car to cross the border. Or I would let them out at the border and they would hike through unguarded areas. I never had any problems nor did border police ever turn me back.
“I agreed with the child and his family beforehand what the payment would be. Sometimes they wanted a radio, a bicycle or cash. If the kids worked, I would pay them what we agreed upon. If the child did not, I would send him or her back. Some children could not handle the [agriculture] work.
“I was paid more than US$4,000 per harvest. But sometimes I was never paid. People blame us and say we stole from the children, but we were swindled [by employers in Nigeria].
“I saw how much the children suffered. I saw them threatened. But children stayed with me and an employer because it is better to stay with someone you know than take a risk and move to another job that also might not pay.
“Children are still leaving [Togo]. Now, if I were to go back to taking children to work in Nigeria, it would be harder with the 2005 law. But people still do it. They [smugglers] hire a van, buy football uniforms for all the kids and tell border officials they are on their way to a match in Nigeria. Or they drop the kids off at a point along the border and the children march through the bush, undetected.
“I regret what I did because I see the children who stayed and learned a skill and are in proper professions. They are now big bosses capable of hiring even the children I had taken with me all those years.
“I now drive a motorbike-taxi and do some farming. I live in a shack. All those years and I have nothing to show for it.”
Read about challenges of enforcing Togo's 2005 law here.
pt/np
“Sometimes I was the one who reached out to families, other times they looked for me to ask me to take their children overland. Sometimes I was paid a fee by the families to help. I left once a year before harvest time [starting October], taking up to 15 kids at a time. In the past it was not difficult to leave. No one ever saw anything wrong with it.
“But gradually, I started hiding kids at the bottom of my car to cross the border. Or I would let them out at the border and they would hike through unguarded areas. I never had any problems nor did border police ever turn me back.
“I agreed with the child and his family beforehand what the payment would be. Sometimes they wanted a radio, a bicycle or cash. If the kids worked, I would pay them what we agreed upon. If the child did not, I would send him or her back. Some children could not handle the [agriculture] work.
“I was paid more than US$4,000 per harvest. But sometimes I was never paid. People blame us and say we stole from the children, but we were swindled [by employers in Nigeria].
“I saw how much the children suffered. I saw them threatened. But children stayed with me and an employer because it is better to stay with someone you know than take a risk and move to another job that also might not pay.
“Children are still leaving [Togo]. Now, if I were to go back to taking children to work in Nigeria, it would be harder with the 2005 law. But people still do it. They [smugglers] hire a van, buy football uniforms for all the kids and tell border officials they are on their way to a match in Nigeria. Or they drop the kids off at a point along the border and the children march through the bush, undetected.
“I regret what I did because I see the children who stayed and learned a skill and are in proper professions. They are now big bosses capable of hiring even the children I had taken with me all those years.
“I now drive a motorbike-taxi and do some farming. I live in a shack. All those years and I have nothing to show for it.”
Read about challenges of enforcing Togo's 2005 law here.
pt/np
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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