Three years ago, eight-year-old Kars-em was sold for £800 to a wealthy woman from Kabul who wanted a son. Alex Thomson has tracked him down. .
Page Description
Learn about the tragic reality of children for sale
The factors driving this exploitation,
its impact on young lives,
and global efforts to combat the issue
A mother puts up her children for sale in 1948.
Children for Sale: The Fight Against Child Trafficking in India | REWIND
29 sep 2019
India, once thought of as a country of more than a billion people living in poverty, has seen its economy boom, and has emerged as a new force in global manufacturing.
But that is not the full story. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 150 million children and teenagers are victims of child labour around the world, and India has long been among the worst offenders.
More than 10 million children and teenagers between the ages of five and 14 are forced to work in the country, often through trafficking and bondage.
But over the last few years, things have been changing, in no small part thanks to the work of one man: Kailash Satyarthi.
He has fought against child trafficking for decades, freeing more than 87,000 children and teenagers and contributing to global conventions on children’s rights. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his efforts, bringing the issue into the international spotlight.
More than a decade ago, Al Jazeera met Kailash Satyarthi as he led a march around the country to raise awareness for the cause.
At the time, Satyarthi was sure that the demonstration, which drew together thousands of people at each stop, was the largest of its kind.
Now, more than 10 years on, awareness has continued to grow. In a studio interview with Al Jazeera, Satyarthi says there has been progress, as mindsets have shifted and more legal protections have been put in place.
“Definitely there is significant improvement in consciousness of masses and behaviour policies and practices, laws and implementation,” he says. “India has ratified two most important ILO conventions, one of the worst forms of child labour and another one on the age of employment of children.”
He agrees that his winning the Nobel Peace Prize, however unexpected it was, helped give the cause momentum.
“It has brought a tremendous amount of awareness in the society, not only in India but globally,” he says.
“It was very much on the right time when the international community was working on framing or formulating the Sustainable Development Goals and I knew that there was no mention of child labour, slavery, trafficking, forced labour in the Millennium Development Goals. And we were raising this issue that you cannot achieve any of these goals without eradication of child labour and slavery-like practices.”
But despite progress, he explains that the fight against exploitation is ongoing, with some worrying trends emerging globally.
“A larger number of children are being involved in pornographic material production that has grown as $8bn industry. There was last year’s report and the online child sexual abuse and all other forms of abuses, child trafficking, use of children for substance abuses and radicalisation of children is growing. And there is no international law to check the data service providers which are solely responsible for that,” he says.
Desperate Afghan parents sell children for cash.
21 jul. 2015
(9 Feb 2002)
1. Wide of street scene
2. Donkeys with men walk past camera, gate of the house of couple who sold their baby
3. Wide of yard, child laying outside
4. Mid shot of woman, Bibikhal, 45, holding one of her children
5. Two boys in the family warming their hands by gas burner
6. Close-up baby sleeping
7. Bibikhal picks up baby
8. Tilt from baby’s head to Bibikhal’s hands
9. Clothes hanging out to dry
10. Wide of Bibikhal and Abdul Khaleq and their children by room entrance (seven people sleep in one room which belongs to the council)
11. SOUNDBITE: (Uzbek) Abdul-khaleq, Father
“Because of hunger and cold I was not able to feed them all. Our home doesn’t even look like a home and with my push cart I can’t earn enough money for us all.”
12. Close up Bibikhal and Abdul Khaleq’s baby girl crying
13. Various Abdul Khaleq pushing cart laden with big water barrel
14. Mid shot girls chatting in the street
15. Wide of inner yard of family that bought the child, mother removing children clothes from rope
16. Close up of baby Mujibullah (baby that has been sold), Hafiza gives him milk
17. Pan from exterior of house to inside the Hafiza’s house and two of her girl babies
18. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Hafiza Bashardost, Woman who bought baby
“When he grows up and if God gives him a long life it won’t matter to me if people know he is not our own child. All I want is to make him a man who will bring benefits to society.”
19. Close up of one of Hafiza’s daughter
20. Wide shot of family
STORYLINE:
In perhaps the ultimate act of desperation, some Afghan parents say they’ve sold their children for about the price of a restaurant meal in the West.
Ruthless poverty and starvation have forced a brutal recognition – their need for money is greater than their need for their children.
Bibikhal and her husband, Abdul-khaleq, live in Shebargam, 120 kilometres north of Mazar-e-Sharif in northwestern Afghanistan.
They had five children who they were struggling to feed.
Bibikhal works as a cook and cleaner for Hafiza Bashardost whose miscarriage left her unable to have any more children.
Hafiza has two girls but wanted a boy to carry on the family trade.
So the two families came to an arrangement that would benefit both of them.
Bibikhal, who had just given birth to a baby boy, agreed to sell him to the Bashardost family.
This took place two weeks ago when the baby was two weeks old .
Bibikhal and Abdul-khaleq didn’t even name the boy before handing him over to his new family who named him Mujibullah.
The negotiated price they settled for was two million Afghanis ( around U-S 30 dollars).
For Bibikhal and Abdul-khaleq this will mean a better life for all their children – the average pay in afghanistan is U-S seven dollars and Abdul-khaleq, who is a water seller would not even earn that much.
Baby selling has been reported elsewhere in northern Afghanistan but it is impossible to independently verify all the claims of baby selling or estimate their numbers.
But relief coordinators and others acknowledge the reports and note that setting a price for family members in Afghanistan is not taboo.
Dowries of several thousands of dollars – huge sums for Afghans – are paid for brides.
Infants – especially boys for families with only girls – can also apparently command a good price.
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you…
The concept of “Children for Sale” refers to the heinous practice of trafficking or selling children for various purposes, including labor, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and illegal adoption. The key points about “Children for Sale” are:
Definition: “Children for Sale” involves the buying, selling, or trafficking of children for profit or exploitation, often involving coercion, deception, or force.
Forms of exploitation: Children may be sold into various forms of exploitation, including child labor, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced begging, or illegal adoption. They may be subjected to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and their basic rights and freedoms are often violated.
Global problem: “Children for Sale” is a global issue that affects millions of children around the world, often in vulnerable situations, including poverty, displacement, and lack of education or social protection.
Causes: The root causes of “Children for Sale” include poverty, lack of access to education and basic services, social inequality, armed conflict, displacement, and demand for cheap labor, sex, or adoption.
Consequences: The consequences of “Children for Sale” are severe and long-lasting, including physical and psychological harm, trauma, loss of education and future prospects, and perpetuation of cycles of poverty and exploitation.
Legal and ethical implications: “Children for Sale” is a violation of international human rights standards, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is illegal in most countries, and efforts to combat it involve law enforcement, prosecution of traffickers, and protection and support for victims.
Prevention and intervention: Addressing “Children for Sale” requires multi-sectoral efforts, including prevention through addressing root causes, strengthening child protection systems, raising awareness, and providing education and social services. Intervention measures include rescue and rehabilitation of victims, prosecution of traffickers, and support for survivors.
Importance: Protecting children from being bought, sold, or trafficked is crucial to safeguarding their rights, ensuring their well-being, and preventing exploitation. It requires concerted efforts from governments, civil society, communities, and individuals to combat this grave violation of human rights.
In conclusion, “Children for Sale” is a distressing reality that requires robust efforts to prevent, address, and combat this form of exploitation, and to ensure the protection and well-being of all children.
Child trafficking in Afghanistan | DW Documentary
15 aug 2022
Poverty is rampant in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So much so that ever more Afghan parents have little choice but to sell own children: be it to childless couples, as brides or even to radical Islamist groups, who indoctrinate them as fighters.
Most of the affected children come from internally displaced families: forced to flee from the Taliban or because they could no longer make a living in their home regions. For the affected children, such a situation is unimaginably cruel – But parents also struggle with giving up their sons and daughters. Oftentimes the money doesn’t last, and they stay trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. A report by Fariba Sahraei and Marc Erath.
Afghan father sold daughter to feed family
Newborn twins auctioned off online by their mother twice | 60 Minutes Australia
5 jan. 2022
Babies for Sale (2001) It is a tawdry business – the selling of babies over the Internet. The most sensational case yet is that of Tranda Wecker. Wecker is the American mother who went online to auction off her newborn twins. She sold them not once but twice, taking them back from one set of buyers after another offered double the money. In their short life, the six-month-old girls have been abandoned, sold, resold and taken from America to Britain. As sensational as this case is it is not an isolated one. Tara Brown investigates how baby traders are using the World Wide Web to cash in on America’s lax adoption laws and take advantage of desperate couples.
For forty years, 60 Minutes have been telling Australians the world’s greatest stories. Tales that changed history, our nation and our lives. Reporters Liz Hayes, Tom Steinfort, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett and Sarah Abo look past the headlines because there is always a bigger picture. Sundays are for 60 Minutes.
CAMBODIAN MOM ON SELLING DAUGHTER’S VIRGINITY
Actress Mira Sorvino travels to Cambodia with CNN Freedom Project to investigate human trafficking cases.
15 okt. 2018
Nepal: Children for sale | 101 East
4 The Dark Secret Behind Nepal’s Orphan Industry
19 aug. 2013
Paper Orphans (2013): As Western families scramble to adopt, Nepalese orphanages have created a dark human industry. Plundering children from vulnerable parents, they are selling them abroad as ‘orphans’ for large sums of money. Subscribe to journeyman for daily uploads:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c…
“She knew very well that I was his mother. When they came for him, she knew it!” Khanchi, a distraught Nepali mother shouts. Her son was adopted into a Western family who had no idea of her existence. Like many of Nepal’s poor, Khanchi had put her child into an orphanage so that he would receive an education and proper care. They promised she could regularly visit. Instead, the owner of the orphanage, Sabitra, faked the child’s papers and sold him to America.
When confronted about what she did Sabitra shows no remorse and an examination of her records shows that she’s done the same with hundreds of children. “There are details for the adoptive parents here. And frequently the name of the biological mother or father and contact details too.”
Prospective Western parents visiting orphanages like this are usually confronted with sob stories about the struggles involved in running the institution, asked to donate and then offered a child to adopt for a large fee. Jurgen runs a charity helping re-connect these adopted children with their families. “These people have done this for many years, ruining many lives”, he explains.
Filip Huygens – Ref. 5904
Journeyman Pictures is your independent source for the world’s most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today. We represent stories from the world’s top producers, with brand new content coming in all the time. On our channel you’ll find outstanding and controversial journalism covering any global subject you can imagine wanting to know about.
5 Exposing India’s Illegal Baby Trade
16 jun. 2016
For similar stories, see:
The Innocent Casualties Of India’s Surrogacy Industry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUN2_…
Wombs For Rent – Just Business? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmXZ…
Modernisation Is Killing India’s Ancient Trades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKg3l…
At minute 14.30: It is paper perfect
UNSPEAKEBLE SAD
6 Maids for Sale: Silicon Valley’s Online Slave Market – BBC News
7 Silicon Valley’s Online Slave Market – full documentary – BBC News Arabic | BBC Africa Eye
4 nov. 2019
9 I was sex trafficked for years. Brothels are hidden in plain sight. | Casandra Diamond | TEDxToronto
12 feb. 2020
11 Hidden America: Chilling New Look at Sex Trafficking in the US
12 The Colony: Chile’s dark past uncovered | Al Jazeera Correspondent
9 nov. 2013
How did a secret German sect in Chile become a haven for Nazi fugitives and a torture centre for the Pinochet regime?
Forty years after the US-backed military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile, the truth about the sordid abuses and crimes that took place during his dictatorship are still emerging.
The mountains of Patagonia in southern Chile witnessed a particularly bizarre chapter of the Pinochet era; one that is still claiming victims today.
In 1961, a former Nazi corporal called Paul Schaefer fled Germany, along with hundreds of others, to found a sect in southern Chile. In an idyllic rural enclave framed by the Andes Mountains he created a virtual state within a state – one where horrifying events unfolded.
Initially with the ignorance of the government, and then with the complicity of the Pinochet regime, children were separated from their parents at birth and raised in a Kinder House. Men and women were kept apart and often drugged, while Schaefer systematically sexually abused boys and, occasionally, girls.
It also served as a haven for Nazi fugitives – such as Walter Rauff, the inventor of the portable gas chamber, and Joseph Mengele, the so-called ‘Angel of Death’ – who were permitted to hide out there in exchange for overseeing sophisticated forms of torture.
All of this took place with the full knowledge of the Pinochet regime, whose notorious intelligence chief, General Manuel Contreras, would often visit the site.
In The Colony: Chile’s dark past uncovered, the truth about what took place inside the Colony is revealed through the story of Winfried Hempel. Now 35, Hempel was born into the Colony and raised there without any knowledge of who his parents were. When he first left its grounds, he was 20 years old, spoke no Spanish, had no notion of the country in which he lived and had never seen a television, computer or mobile phone.
Although he initially struggled to adapt to the world beyond Colonia Dignidad, he gradually learned to speak Spanish, received his high school certificate and eventually qualified as a lawyer.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman has followed the story of the Colonia Dignidad since 1996 – at one point even being turned away from the site at gunpoint. As a Chilean, she wants to expose the crimes that took place there – crimes that her country was not only complicit in, but an active participant to.
16 Sex trafficking isn’t what you think it is | Meghan Sobel | TEDxMileHighWomen
17 Domestic Sex Trafficking – A Survivor’s Perspective | Karly Church | TEDxOshawaED
12 feb. 2020
As she defines what domestic sex trafficking is, Karly talks about the stages of exploitation while drawing upon her personal experiences. Karly helps educators understand how they can help elicit change. Karly Church is a Crisis Intervention Counselor, Social Service Worker, and advocate for survivors of domestic sex trafficking. She has worked the front line with youth in sex work and trafficking for over four years. Church works at Victim Services of Durham Region, where she provides specialized services and support to survivors of human trafficking. Church is a Canadore College graduate from two separate programs: Mental Health and Addictions, and Social Service. As a survivor of domestic human trafficking, she harnesses her lived experience, extensive knowledge, and her passion to work with her fellow survivors. She meets individuals at their need while providing support with a trauma informed perspective. Church has delivered keynote speeches throughout Canada and has trained and presented to thousands of social service providers. She is dedicated to providing preventative education through youth symposiums, presentations, consultations, interviews and panels on human trafficking. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
IMPORTANT CONTENT
30 nov. 2017
A rare and vivid insight into the shadowy, brutal world of human trafficking. Through candid interviews a Mexican family of former sex traffickers reveal secrets of their dark past.
At the Thomson Reuters Foundation we act to promote socio-economic progress and the rule of law worldwide. We play a leading role in the fight against human trafficking. We use the skills, values, and expertise of Thomson Reuters to run programmes that trigger real change and empower people around the world. We tackle global issues. We achieve lasting impact.
Read our news: http://news.trust.org/
We welcome all comments that contribute constructively to the debate. We have the right to remove any posting if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in the Acceptable Use Policy on http://news.trust.org/.
21 Children for Sale – 04 Jun 07 – Part 1
14 jun. 2007
Every year thousands of Indian children are sold into labour by their parents.
At Al Jazeera English, we focus on people and events that affect people’s lives. We bring topics to light that often go under-reported, listening to all sides of the story and giving a ‘voice to the voiceless.’
Reaching more than 270 million households in over 140 countries across the globe, our viewers trust Al Jazeera English to keep them informed, inspired, and entertained.
Our impartial, fact-based reporting wins worldwide praise and respect. It is our unique brand of journalism that the world has come to rely on.
We are reshaping global media and constantly working to strengthen our reputation as one of the world’s most respected news and current affairs channels.
IMPORTANT CONTENT
MUST BE SEEN
PAINFUL TO LISTEN TO
SHOCKING
22 Children for Sale – 04 Jun 07 – Part 2
14 jun. 2007
Every year thousands of Indian children are sold into labour by their parents.
At Al Jazeera English, we focus on people and events that affect people’s lives. We bring topics to light that often go under-reported, listening to all sides of the story and giving a ‘voice to the voiceless.’
Reaching more than 270 million households in over 140 countries across the globe, our viewers trust Al Jazeera English to keep them informed, inspired, and entertained.
Our impartial, fact-based reporting wins worldwide praise and respect. It is our unique brand of journalism that the world has come to rely on.
We are reshaping global media and constantly working to strengthen our reputation as one of the world’s most respected news and current affairs channels.
VERY EMOTIONAL CONTENT
e.g. at minute 4:45
VIDEO MUST BE SEEN
25 Children for Sale: The Trafficking Ring Selling Babies from the Slums to Rich Couples
27 Nigeria’s Baby Farmers – Africa Investigates
3 dec. 2015
Africa Investigates – Nigeria’s Baby Farmers
It is understandable why a desperate childless couple might do anything to have a baby, but those who exploit their unhappiness for profit are not so easy to forgive.
In this deeply disturbing episode of Africa Investigates, Ghana’s undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and investigative reporter Rosemary Nwaebuni team up to identify and expose some of those those behind Nigeria’s heart-breaking baby trade.
It is a scam that exploits couples desperate for a baby and young pregnant single mothers – often stigmatised in a country where abortion is illegal except in the most dire medical emergency. It is also a trade that international NGOs have identified as sinister and out of control.
Filming undercover, the team find bogus doctors and clinics offering spurious fertility treatments in return for large amounts of money. In their guise as a childless couple, Anas and Rosemary are falsely diagnosed by one dodgy clinician as being unable to conceive children.
When the footage is reviewed by an official from Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, he is appalled at the way vulnerable people are being conned. “You should not allow these people access to the public,” he says.
But worse is to come. The team go on to uncover orphanages and clinics that act as brokers for illegal baby sales, by which naive, greedy or simply desperate young mothers are “persuaded” to hand over their newborn children for cash.
28 Venezuela: Mothers giving away babies – BBC News
2 nov. 2018
Oil-rich Venezuela is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations.
Extreme poverty has jumped 40%, deaths related to child malnutrition are on the rise, and millions have fled the country in the past two years.
Many inside and outside Venezuela blame the policies of socialist President Nicolas Maduro. But his supporters point to the opposition, and also “imperialist forces” outside the country – including the US, which has imposed sanctions.
Mothers and children have been among those hit hardest, as the BBC’s Vladimir Hernandez found when he spent time in the capital, Caracas.
Produced by Herminia Fernandez, filmed by Omar Garcia.
Edited by Kelvin Brown.
29 Nigeria’s Fake Doctors | The World Investigates
22 apr 2016
Produced by Insight TWI: The World Investigates for Al Jazeera English.
Director: Nonuk Walter
Cinematographer: Lekan Oyekanmi
Reporters: Anas Aremeyaw Anas & Rosemary Nwaebuni
Commissioning Editor: Diarmuid Jeffreys
Executive Producers: Ron McCullagh & Jonathan Ossoff
27 nov. 2014
30 Teens for Sale – Sex Trafficking in Suburban America
5 okt. 2018
Human Sex Trafficking is traumatizing and destroying hundreds of thousands of American children. Middle school and high school girls and boys especially are seduced, tricked, and threatened into this enslavement and sold out on “dates” to middle-aged men with kids of their own. However, there are survivors who are turning lives around and people with Hope seeking to make a difference.
If you are a victim of a sex crime or see suspicious activity, report it! There are people who are dedicating their lives to helping!
Local police Department – 911
CoNEHT (Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking) – 1-866-455-5075
National Human Trafficking Resource Center (Polaris Project) – 1-888-373-7888
FBI Denver Main Line – 303-629-7171
The Hope Academy is a campus of the Denver Street School: https://hope.denverstreetschool.org, https://www.youtube.com/user/DenStree…
A film by https://michaelmatucci.com, https://youtube.com/onpurposelife
Sound & Music by https://vincejproject.com, https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSquar…
31 Children for Sale: The Fight Against Child Trafficking in India | REWIND
29 sep. 2019
India, once thought of as a country of more than a billion people living in poverty, has seen its economy boom, and has emerged as a new force in global manufacturing.
But that is not the full story. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 150 million children and teenagers are victims of child labour around the world, and India has long been among the worst offenders.
More than 10 million children and teenagers between the ages of five and 14 are forced to work in the country, often through trafficking and bondage.
But over the last few years, things have been changing, in no small part thanks to the work of one man: Kailash Satyarthi.
He has fought against child trafficking for decades, freeing more than 87,000 children and teenagers and contributing to global conventions on children’s rights. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his efforts, bringing the issue into the international spotlight.
More than a decade ago, Al Jazeera met Kailash Satyarthi as he led a march around the country to raise awareness for the cause.
At the time, Satyarthi was sure that the demonstration, which drew together thousands of people at each stop, was the largest of its kind.
Now, more than 10 years on, awareness has continued to grow. In a studio interview with Al Jazeera, Satyarthi says there has been progress, as mindsets have shifted and more legal protections have been put in place.
“Definitely there is significant improvement in consciousness of masses and behaviour policies and practices, laws and implementation,” he says. “India has ratified two most important ILO conventions, one of the worst forms of child labour and another one on the age of employment of children.”
He agrees that his winning the Nobel Peace Prize, however unexpected it was, helped give the cause momentum.
“It has brought a tremendous amount of awareness in the society, not only in India but globally,” he says.
“It was very much on the right time when the international community was working on framing or formulating the Sustainable Development Goals and I knew that there was no mention of child labour, slavery, trafficking, forced labour in the Millennium Development Goals. And we were raising this issue that you cannot achieve any of these goals without eradication of child labour and slavery-like practices.”
But despite progress, he explains that the fight against exploitation is ongoing, with some worrying trends emerging globally.
“A larger number of children are being involved in pornographic material production that has grown as $8bn industry. There was last year’s report and the online child sexual abuse and all other forms of abuses, child trafficking, use of children for substance abuses and radicalisation of children is growing. And there is no international law to check the data service providers which are solely responsible for that,” he says.
IMPORTANT CONTENT
UNBELIEVEBLE SHOCKING AND PAINFUL
Abject unscrupulous
33 From Child Sex Slavery to Victory – My Healing Journey | Anneke Lucas | TEDxKlagenfurt
26 jun. 2017
34 One woman’s story of the horrors of human trafficking
21 sep. 2009
35 Basketball Head Boy Prank
18 feb. 2012
A presentation of the Just For Laughs Gags. The funny hidden camera pranks show for the whole family. Juste pour rire les gags, l’émission de caméra cachée la plus comique de la télé!
Harris S
5 jaar geleden