How Natural Disasters Make Children Slaves

Natural disasters can destroy homes, raze farmlands, and devastate families.  They can wipe out whole communities in moments and cause damage that costs millions of dollars to repair.  But can natural disasters turn children into slaves?  According to a recent report from ECPAT International, they sure can.

ECPAT International found increases in trafficking of children after severe droughts in Swaziland in 2007 and flooding in India in 2008.  In Swaziland, an increased number of children were pulled out of school; their families traded their bodies for food and water.  In India, children were sent to work as bricklayers and seamstresses to make up for destroyed business.  Other girls left vulnerable by the floods were sold as brides into forced marriages.

But natural disasters aren't the only tragedies that push children into slavery; man-made conflicts can be just as devastating.  Children in the Congo, Guinea, and other West African nations living in refugee camps are trading sex for basic supplies and food.  In some cases, the adults who exploit them include camp leaders, teachers, and humanitarian aid workers. 

So how do natural disasters and conflicts turn children into slaves?  For the most part, these children were already vulnerable to human trafficking before the disaster struck.  They were living at some level of poverty with little education and few resources.  The disaster pushes children and their families over the edge into destitution and desperation.  Sometimes the disaster causes a family to send a child away to work, a risk that ends in slavery.  Sometimes the family must marry off daughters they cannot feed.  Sometimes criminal businessmen will traffic children to regain profits lost to a natural disaster.  The possibilities are as endless as the supply of children whose lives the disaster has destroyed.    

Human trafficking is deeply connected to and propelled by hurricanes, floods, fires, tsunamis, and other natural disasters.  And it's also deeply connected to civil wars and other armed conflicts.  So the next time you hear about a natural disaster, remember that once the emergency aid organizations leave, the nightmare isn't over.  And for some children, the nightmare is just beginning. 

Image from ens-newswire.com