How You Rescue a Child From Slavery

The issue of how to best remove children from human trafficking situations, and more importantly what to do with them when they are removed, is as complex as it is important.  And it's not a process in which there can be many mistakes.

Unabridged has a great article this week about the steps one man named George takes to free children from slavery in the fishing industry in Ghana.  It's a process, which in this case, can take up to six months.  After identifying a child in slavery, he must then find the parents, convince them of the reality of their child's situation, and secure a legal means for their release into his care.  By this time, the traffickers and the child have sometimes moved to a different place.

While this article is an interesting example of how to find and help child slaves, it's important to remember that removing children from different industries and in different countries will look very different.  Sometimes, removal is accomplished by a raid by local law enforcement, a tool often used on illegal brothels or work sites with a high immigrant populations.  Other times, children can be removed by the intervention of families, NGOs or community based groups.  Occasionally, a child may escape his or her trafficker and seek help at a service agency.  In short, there is no one universal way to rescue a child from slavery.

While the process of getting a child out of an exploitative situation is important, what happens next is arguable even more crucial.  Children who are removed from slavery and not given proper services and resources are incredibly vulnerable to be re-trafficked.  Since in all parts of the world, NGOs and shelters are underfunded and often at capacity, children are often rescued only to have no place to go.  It's these situations which are often most dangerous for the children. This one of the many reasons that collaboration and coordination between law enforcement, NGOs, shelters, and other groups working with trafficked persons is so crucial.

Image from abandoned-orphan.typepad.com