Human traffickers find easy prey amid the rubble of Haiti

[dkf]

by Nicolette Grams
Island of Lost Children


In Haiti’s unstable post-quake atmosphere, at least one industry is poised to flourish. For those who buy and sell children for sex and cheap labor, Haiti is ripe with opportunity.

When the earthquake struck the impoverished island country last Tuesday afternoon, human traffickers suddenly gained access to a new population of displaced children. With parents dead, government offices demolished, and international aid organizations struggling to meet life-or-death demands, these kidnappers are in a unique position to snatch children with very little interference.

In today’s world, the twin causes of human slavery—poverty and vulnerability—increase exponentially after natural disasters. When the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004, trafficking gangs moved quickly, seizing children and selling them as prostitutes in nearby Malaysia and Jakarta. In 2008, after floods devastated the Indian state of Bihar, groups of children were lured out of relief camps and sold to brothels across the nation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001u/haiti-trafficking

[dmr]

1. This just breaks my heart

leaves me speechless

:cry:

[proteus_lives]

2. Sadly, this type of activity always follows major disasters.

I heard similar things about Katrina and the Tsunami.

[dkf]

3. Katrina? Here?

That doesn't seem possible. Wow.

[Jamastiene]

4. Everywhere.

It's truly depraved and sad.