Child Trafficking Disguised as Adoption
Chuck Norris
The government of Denmark is putting into action a four-year plan to combat trafficking into its country, with children as a focus.
The minister for justice in Ireland announced that he would close the loopholes in children sexual exploitation and trafficking laws.
UNICEF and Naif Arab University for Security Sciences hosted a seminar addressing issues regarding child exploitation, near a major trafficking intersection – the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
In India, thousands of people started marching to Delhi, calling upon the Indian government to create laws prohibiting child trafficking.
What many people don't know is that it is relatively easy for traffickers to abduct children, as they are often allured from poverty, troubled families or the lack of parental care. Even in cases where parents are present, traffickers often sway them by promising a better life, education and future for their child(ren). Some parents are economically pressured to sell one child just to feed the rest of their family.
Once in a foreign environment, the boys and girls are easily intimidated into an endless cycle of forced labor, begging, servitude, pornography, prostitution, etc.
The progress and pangs of child labor
The good news is, according to the latest report (May 2006) of the International Labor Organization, "the number of child laborers globally fell by 11 percent" between 2000 and 2004. Moreover, the number of children in hazardous work conditions decreased by 26 percent. (If that pace of decline were to continue, the worst forms of child labor could be virtually eliminated by 2016!) The difficult news, however, is that, of the more than 300 million economically active children between the ages 5-17, roughly 50 million of them (ages 5-14) are still working in harmful environments.
Human Rights Watch notes these unsafe labor conditions include dangerous agriculture workplaces, bonded child labor (in which a family receives as little as $15 to hand over a child for forced labor), compulsory recruitment for armed conflict, forced prostitution or pornography, the illegal drug trade or other unlawful activities.
Children not commodities of international trade
Of all the ways children are trafficked, however, one of the most undetected remains through international adoption, which has been on the rise for years, from 6,472 in 1992 to 22,728 in 2005 in the U.S. alone.
While parents around the globe are presented with opportunities to rescue orphans from impoverished backgrounds, many adoptions are inadvertently masking and perpetuating the dark world of child trafficking. Prospective parents must beware that just because visas are issued doesn't mean the child is not a victim of the adoptive market. Child trafficking is not just a sexual and labor trade – it's pro-adoption, too!
Understanding the challenges and corruption here, the Hague Conference on Private International Law back in 1995 initiated the "Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption," which has been ratified now by over 70 countries, but still has far to go for global acceptance.
Search, rescue and restore
You can help to continue to decrease the numbers of victims of child trafficking. Here are a couple ways you can do something today.
Raise awareness of child trafficking by e-mailing or encouraging at least one other person to read the information in this article. If it can help save one child, why not send a link to all your e-mail addresses? (Tell them "Chuck told me to!")
Contact your governmental representatives and encourage them to advocate complete global ratification for international conventions and laws prohibiting child trafficking.
Be wise about international adoption, using reputable agencies.
Do not buy goods produced by child labor or from those who violate such labor laws.
For immediate resources, confidential help or to report a possible victim of child trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, which connects victims of trafficking to local non-government organizations who can help, by calling 1-888-3737-888 or e-mailing them.
C. Herbert Woolston (1856-1927) wrote some timeless truths in a classic hymn, which should also be a universal edict and example for us all:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
And so should we.
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Note:Throughout the month of March, Chuck will be addressing different aspects of the modern slave trade in his weekly column, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. Stay tuned next week for Part 4!
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Chuck Norris is the star of more than 20 films and the long-running TV series "Walker, Texas Ranger." His book, "Against All Odds," tells the inspirational story of how he overcame abject poverty from childhood, the effects of his father's alcoholism and desertion of the family, and his own shyness and lack of strength and ability early in his life. Learn more about his life and ministry at his official website, ChuckNorris.com.