Africa’s children are getting a raw deal. We had heard of children being kidnapped by the armed groups fighting in Congo and used for carrying ammunition or for sex. Now it has come to light that children from many African countries, especially Nigeria, are being sold by their parents to unscrupulous agents, who assure them that their kids will see a great future in foreign lands. Helpless African parents living in poverty are taken in by this con-talk. But these children are brought to Britain and abused. They are used to get welfare benefits. They are used in hotels and restaurants and are sexually abused.
Britain seems to have become a haven for these traders in children. Some of these agents are procuring children from Romania from similarly poor parents and then use them in organized gangs.
It being difficult to erase the basic cause of child trafficking, which is poverty in Africa and the East European countries. The onus of stopping it lies with the British authorities. They have to increase police surveillance and be on the look-out for these criminals. Moreover, proper care must be taken of the children released through police action and efforts made that they have a good future.
A more comprehensive solution will be to reduce poverty in Africa. This will prevent parents selling off their children. This is easily said than done. As long as poverty will exist, it will keep spawning more evils.
