The Relationship Between Child Labour and Human Trafficking

If this issue is left to spread, it can extinguish the future generations of our world. Children are the future and if they are being mentally, emotionally and physically destroyed then what persons are in fact doing, is destroying the future of our nations. ...
     —Nolana E. Lynch

From the crack of dawn, observers may notice the dirty, bedraggled kids climbing, then clinging onto garbage trucks that enter huge landfill sites on the outskirts of our cities. The children's small hands rip through bags of garbage on the tray of trucks, as the drivers maneuver their vehicles to avoid protruding pieces of metal and wire along the dirt's course. They grab everything they can get—including discarded glass bottles as well as factory-rejected diapers, and consider themselves lucky if they find valuable scraps of metal which they sell to the highest bidder. They are just part of the growing army of child labourers, sent out by parents and guardians to scavenge garbage dumps across the world.

A human rights abuse is the abuse of people in a way that violates any fundamental human rights. For example, in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Article 4, when a person is sold as or used as a slave. Article 5, when cruel or unusual punishment is used on a person (such as torture or execution) and Article 26 when education is denied. All of these examples are entailed in the overall issue of Human Trafficking and Child Labour.

One can thus define human trafficking as the transportation of persons for forced labour, sexual exploitation or other illicit activities. It is estimated that over one million people are trafficked annually around the world, whilst child labour is any type of work that is damaging to the mental, physical and emotional development of the child. Today, in 2006, there are over 246 million child labourers in the world. 186 million are under the age of fifteen whilst 8 million have been trapped by forced labour, slavery, serfdom, prostitution and armed conflict. Many of these children are victims of human trafficking. Though some child labourers voluntarily work to provide a larger income for their family, a growing percentage have been deceived into this way of life under promises of a better future by the trafficking.

In my very own island of Trinidad and Tobago, child labour is on the rise. Children are hustling sales on the street corners and in the market place, taking up whatever jobs are offered them and they are being exploited. The national inter-ministerial committee that has been established for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour, has pointed its finger at poverty underlining the fate of young children and describes child labour as a hidden industry and a breeding ground for criminals. If this issue is left to spread, it can extinguish the future generations of our world. Children are the future and if they are being mentally, emotionally and physically destroyed then what persons are in fact doing, is destroying the future of our nations.

Child labour and trafficking are overtaking developing nations throughout the world at a very rapid rate. This is extremely depressing especially when one considers the brutal conditions under which the victims are forced to work in and the outright abuse practiced by the traffickers, who I have deemed evil people. It is hence about that time that we, as the youth of this world, unite, take interest in the cause and develop a more active role in resolving this problem.

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