Almost four weeks after the deadly earthquake-induced tsunami hit the shores of several countries on the Bay Of Bengal in southern Asia, young orphaned victims are still being claimed.
However, the tsunami itself is not totally responsible for this, instead, dangerous and child-trafficking gangs all over southeast Asia are now alleged kidnappers of many orphaned children from their displacement camps.
These gangs are suspected of selling the children that they abduct into forced labor, or even into sexual slavery. While many of these cases are not confirmed, they are suspected by many UNICEF officials. It is especially hard to keep track of these children, considering the overwhelming number of them in orphan camps throughout Asia.
“I’m sure it’s happening, it’s a perfect opportunity for these guys to move in,” said Birgithe Lund-Henriksen, child protection chief in UNICEF’s Indonesia office, CNN.com reports.
On Jan. 10, Sri Lankan police arrested 63-year-old A.H. Somadasa on charges of trying to sell his two granddaughters. This marks the first official arrest on charges of child trafficking in the aftermath of the tsunami.
Officials say that the rushed organization of displacement and orphan camps often leads to the vulnerability of children, allowing situations like this one to take place.
The Washington Post interviewed Peter Van Arsdale, a senior lecturer at the University of Denver currently writing a book on refugees and human rights.
“Camp administrators, and I am not criticizing them, throw people together,” said Van Arsdale. “Some populations are separated by curtains, some by ropes. Others not at all. I’m sure it is well intended, but camps are chaotic, whether they be refugee camps or long-standing camps.”
Evidence of the child slave trade lies in the many text messages that Indonesian citizens receive advertising the sale of orphans. The validity of these messages has not been confirmed, CNN.com reports, and the AP reports that no one answered when the sources of the text messages were called. However this is a sign that child-trafficking could be happening.
In Indonesia’s Ache province, there is such concern for the more than 35,000 orphans that officials have hired security to patrol the orphan camps. The Ache province is located near the port city of Medan, an area reported as a haven to child-trafficking gangs all over southeast Asia.
UNICEF officials are worrying that relatives who have been fortunate enough to keep their children may sell them anyway, due to financial burden.
“One fear is that foreigners will come in, and their motivations may be good, though misguided, and adopt orphans before people know whether it was a good idea,” said Eric Mortenson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford, who has spent extensive time traveling around Asia in the last decade.
“I worry about a subtler and smaller percentage of them being sold to well meaning people,” Mortenson went on to say, as many children could potentially be adopted even if their parents were still alive and looking for them.
With the situation as bad as it is, measures are being taken to stop things from getting worse. The Indonesian government has administered a policy blocking children under the ages of 16 from leaving the country, The New York Times reports.
“This policy is aimed at anticipating the issue of child trafficking as well as illegal adoption of orphans,” Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin said in an interview with The New York Times.