Abstract
The offence of child trafficking appears to have a clear definition in the UN Trafficking Protocol and in laws based on it. In practice, this is an illusion. This article reviews the experiences of three countries (Benin, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam), in two of which anti-trafficking laws and policies regard a broad swath of children who migrate to earn a living, without being subjected to coercion, as victims of trafficking. It questions whether the definitions in international law and in the laws of many countries of what constitutes the crime of trafficking committed against a child are appropriate to distinguish between adolescent migrants in general and those who are victims of crime (at the hands of a trafficker) in particular. It suggests that this is in part because there is no international understanding about the ages at which children habitually leave home to find work and what should be done to protect them when they do. It concludes that a possible result of considering a very broad range of children to be ‘trafficked’ is that measures to protect and assist those who suffer acute harm are inadequate.
Highlights
In November 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted a convention and three protocols intended to facilitate action against transnational organised crime, including a protocol on human trafficking and another on helping migrants cross borders illicitly (‘migrant smuggling’)
The information presented here about child migrants and trafficked children focuses on the experiences of three countries (Benin,[1] the United Kingdom and Vietnam), in two of which anti-trafficking laws and policies have come to regard a broad swath of children who migrate to earn a living, without being coerced, as victims of trafficking
In 2006, Benin adopted a law to stop anyone under 18 from moving away from home without an official permit (Law 2006-04 concerning the Movement of Minors and the Suppression of Child Trafficking in Benin). This introduced a very broad definition of a child trafficking victim as ‘any child migrant who is not attending school and who is living in a household without his/her own parents or guardian and who has been brought there by someone who made a profit’, that is to say, including independent child migrants who were assisted in finding a job by a person who was remunerated for their services, regardless of whether the child and their parents found these services helpful
Summary
In November 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted a convention and three protocols intended to facilitate action against transnational organised crime, including a protocol on human trafficking and another on helping migrants cross borders illicitly (‘migrant smuggling’). A vast proportion of the world’s children start work before reaching adulthood, their rights at work are often poorly defined and the extra protection needed by those working away from home (by themselves) are scarcely recognised— mainly because of an assumption that children should be able to grow up with their parents and attend school until they reach adulthood This assumption is exacerbated by the negative attitude of politicians in wealthier countries towards undocumented migrants from poorer countries, which denies the legitimacy of their efforts to migrate and earn a living. Some of these, such as forced labour, are not defined clearly when it comes to children.[3]
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