HAITIAN CHILDREN SOLD FOR PENNIES
(Calgary Herald) - By Caroline Gammell
Children in Haiti are being sold for as little as $1.20 by traffickers taking advantage of chaos following last year's earthquake, United Nations figures show.
Some youngsters are ending up in the care of European families unaware of their background, while others are being forced into prostitution.
People posing as officials from aid organizations or relatives and unscrupulous Haitians from abroad are targeting tens of thousands of children in temporary refugee camps there.
The Telegraph gained exclusive access to the work being carried out by UNICEF to try to tackle the problem. The charity is funding the Brigade de Protection des Mineurs (BPM), which works with police to monitor the camps and borders to pinpoint vulnerable children.
More than a million people were displaced by last January's devastating quake and 76 per cent of the population lives on less than $2.40 a day.
Parents desperate for money are tricked into believing their children will lead better lives elsewhere.
Melissa Nau, a 38-year-old mother of five who suffers from learning and physical disabilities, sold four children for 50 Haitian gourdes ($1.20 Cdn) each. Unable to work, she was living in the Tabarissa camp in Port au Prince when a man she knew only as Jacques offered to buy the children, aged between four and eight. The money lasted just a few months.
Melissa and her remaining son Roland, 10 months, came to the attention of UNICEF and are now in a safe house.
The BPM discovered that her children were given false records and illegally adopted by European families via an international agency.
A UNICEF spokesman said: "Wellmeaning parents in the U.S. and Europe have no idea that children are being kidnapped, stolen and bought from the displacement camps of Port au Prince."
No comments:
Post a Comment