UN: Children in Haiti at Risk of Being Trafficked

UNICEF says there is documented evidence showing many children have been taken out of the country illegally.

22 January 2010

Haitian children line up to receive food at a food distribution site run by the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division a week after the massive earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 21 Jan 2010

The United Nations Children's Fund warns children in earthquake stricken Haiti are at risk of being trafficked by unscrupulous adults. UNICEF says it is setting up so-called welcome centers where children, particularly unaccompanied children, can go and be safe.

The UN Children's Fund says even before the catastrophic earthquake struck, children in Haiti were at great risk of being trafficked. It says there is documented evidence showing many children have been taken out of the country illegally.

UNICEF Senior Regional Adviser for Child Protection, Jean-Claude Legrand, says there are reports of similar practices happening now.

"We have documented let us say around 15 cases of children disappearing from hospitals and not with their own family at the time being," he said. "We have anecdotal evidence of people crossing into San Domingo with children. And, there have been also observation at the airport of planes loading children."

Legrand says UNICEF and its partners have set up a surveillance system to register disappearances and, more importantly, to try to prevent them from occurring.