Child trafficking is not confined to the borders of any one country. Each year thousands of children who have become victims of traffickers reach Western Europe as well. The procedure always follows a similar pattern: A young girl or boy is brought from one place to another. Often there is an intermediary involved who sells the child to another person. The intermediary pays the family and promises to educate the child or find him a good job. Instead of this, years of exploitation usually await the young boys and girls: They have to work as slaves in plantations or in households, they are forced into prostitution or into becoming drug couriers and beggars. Babies and small children also reach the commercial adoption market.
The child traffickers target young girls and boys who live in poverty or have difficult family relationships. Defenceless and intimidated by the unfamiliar surroundings, they cannot fight against the persons exploiting them. Should they attempt to do so, they are forced into submission.

The international campaign concentrates on fighting child trafficking. Following the definition of the UN-Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), child trafficking is considered to be: «the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons for the purpose of exploiting them by intimidation or the use of violence or other forms of force, by abduction, deception, fraud, the misuse of power or a position of vulnerability or by giving or receiving money or favours to obtain the consent of a person who holds control over another person»
Also see the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children‘ of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).

last update 01. 06. 2005