Traffickers Found Targeting More Children As COVID-19 School Closures Fuel Danger

LONDON, Feb 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Human traffickers worldwide are increasingly targeting children and will likely exploit school closures during the coronavirus pandemic to abuse the young, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Children make up a third of trafficking victims who are uncovered – a share that has tripled in the past 15 years, with girls mainly exploited for sex and boys forced into work, a report by the U.N. Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found.

About 49,000 victims were detected and reported in total in 2018 – up from 24,000 in 2016 – according to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which was based on research conducted before the start of the pandemic.

While worsening poverty and job losses spurred by COVID-19 have left millions of people globally at risk of trafficking, out-of-school children are especially vulnerable, UNODC said.

About 222 million schoolchildren – one in eight pupils – are affected by school closures, according to UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency. The figure hit 1.6 billion in April last year.

“It is particularly alarming that in recent years more and more children are being targeted by traffickers,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said during a virtual briefing.

“Already targeted and potentially at risk, youth who are denied their right to education will particularly find themselves easier prey for traffickers,” she added.

Trafficking of children is more prevalent in poorer countries where it is linked to child labour, according to UNODC, which said young people are “easier to exploit” when communities are used to sending them to work away from home.

Read the full story by Kieran Guilbert on Thomas Reuters Foundation News.

Category: Around the World, United Nations