Child Trafficking on the Rise
September 4, 2003 ·
The United Nations Children Fund estimates that approximately $1.2 million children are trafficked year for $10 (USD) billion. In a recently published report “End Child Exploitation: Stop the Traffic” UNICEF noted that there had been a 20% increase in child prostitutes in Thailand in the last three years and 15% of the girls trafficked from South Vietnam were under 15 years old. The report also found that while Europe was a major market for the child sex trade in children with West Africa and Eastern Europe being the major suppliers there was also a thriving business within the supplier regions across Asia. It said that in Europe 500,000 women and young girls were trafficked each year from all over the world but mostly Eastern Europe. The price for a woman at the start of the trail in one Romanian town was put as low as $49. According to the report 200,000 children were also trafficked each year in Western Africa either to enter the export trade to Europe or to be sold into slavery as domestic workers. Southeast Asia accounts for one-third of the domestic and international trade in woman and children.
CHILD WISE
ECPAT in Australia
September 2003
