Child Trafficking Prevalent in Northwest Region of Sierra Leone
Mohamed Foday Conteh Recent research carried out by the African Programming and Research Institute to End Slavery (APRIES) has found out that child trafficking is still prevalent in the Northwest region of Sierra Leone.
The result proved that the practice is still active in Kambia District with about 34 percent of children aged 5-17 have experienced child trafficking and 40 percent experienced child labour.
It said that most of the trafficked children were forced to work as domestic servants, in farms and street vendors for meagre or no sum of money.
The US-funded research these children were also forced to do inhumane activities like carrying heavy loads or at times exposed to extreme heat or cold.
Some of the victims said that they were lured into such after being taken into care by foster parents. They said their foster parents forced them into carrying out activities outside their homes like selling of sachet water disadvantaging them from education.
The research proves that some children are actually school pupils but at times forced to work in order to pay their school fees.
It also proves that children aged 12-17 who contributed to household expenses, those in Quranic schools and orphans are at a higher risk of being victims of trafficking and child labour.
This research by APRIES is nearly in tandem with an earlier one conducted in 2022 which showed that child trafficking and labour was also prevalent in the Eastern Province at the time.