PARAKOU, BENIN, 24 May 2010, UNICEF: Sophie, 13, was promised into an arranged marriage by her older brother. When she refused, he physically abused her. – He beat me up and told me he was going to kill me, Sophie said. She escaped and hid on the outskirts of the village. A policeman found her three days later, tired and scared.
Sophie was taken to St. Joseph’s Home in Parakou – a safe haven for child victims of trafficking and forced early marriage who have nowhere else to go. The home, here in Benin’s second largest city, is designed to accommodate 30 children but usually has more.
– Most of the time, we have 40 children. Sometimes it can be as many as 70, explains Sister Ines Germaine Gomis, who helped set up the refuge in 2006.
Children unprotected
Impoverished conditions and traditional cultural practices often combine to force children into situations of abuse and exploitation in Benin.
Too often, children are particularly unprotected in their own families or extended families. Despite legal efforts to prevent marriage before the age of 18, for instance, it is difficult to enforce this prohibition in rural areas, where many families see the practice as a means of alleviating poverty.
Meanwhile, almost half of all Beninese children aged 5 to 14 are child labourers. – Some work in lime mines. Others are exploited in the markets and small workshops, says UNICEF’s Chief of Sub-office in Parakou, Bertin Danvide.
Many children go overland into Nigeria looking for work – or are trafficked there. Five teenage boys arrived at St. Joseph’s Home recently, looking shocked and confused. They had been intercepted as a trafficker tried to convince them to cross the border into Nigeria with promises of motorbikes and cash. In fact, he was attempting to entrap the boys into exploitive labour at Nigerian rock quarries.
Following a 2006 UNICEF study of child trafficking, the Government of Benin passed legislation making it illegal to “recruit, transport, transfer, place and host” children under the age of 18 years “for exploitation purposes.” Since then, with the support from UNICEF, awareness of trafficking has been increasing along with co-operation among the police and local and national governments. Still, traffickers are seldom prosecuted.
Rampant abuses
Against this backdrop, safe havens like St. Joseph’s Home are especially critical for Beninese children. Typically, says Sister Gomis, boys stay at St. Joseph’s for about three months. However, she adds, – The girls are often under threat of forced marriage and rape, so we can’t return them to their families.
