World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, “Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking”
Commemorated on the theme “Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking”, this year’s global campaign to end trafficking is person is crucial. It highlights what children are going through as majority of trafficked persons are children. In line with the theme for this year’s commemoration, the global community is urged to embraced actions and behavior that addresses and end child trafficking with girls being affected most.
According to the United Nations, 1 in 3 victims of human trafficking globally is a child. This is a sad reality as children are twice as likely to face violence during trafficking than adults, according to the UNODC’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (GLOTIP). Regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean bear a disproportionate burden, with children making up for 60 per cent of detected trafficking victims.
In Cameroonian context, the ongoing armed conflict in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, the Boko Haram Insurgency and economic hardship have led to an increase in child trafficking. The lack of parental care and the digital world with its peer pressure influence and fake promises by traffickers have equally contributed to an increase in child trafficking as they are vulnerable. Children are subjected to various forms of trafficking, including exploitation in forced labour, criminality or begging, trafficked for illegal adoption, recruitment into armed forces, and online and sexual abuse and exploitation.
To combat child trafficking, there is need to identified and report cases and civil society organizations both at the national and international levels have to put in more efforts and different strategies to create awareness and provide support to services to survivors.
