Quelling Child Trafficking in Haiti
Quelling Child Trafficking in Haiti
Child trafficking is prevalent around the world, but it is more so in Haiti. As of 2021, the U.S. Department of State ranked Haiti in the Tier 2 Watch List for human trafficking. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Haitian government has struggled with combating the exploitation of children in domestic servitude or restavek. However, several organizations have been advocating and doing what they can to prevent child trafficking.
The Haitian-Dominican Border
The Haitian-Dominican border is a major factor of child trafficking. Because of Haiti’s extreme poverty, parents want to give their children the best lives they can. So, they send their children across the Haitian-Dominican border in an attempt to give them a better life.
Parents entrust their children to strangers to get them across the border safely. However, these strangers exploit the children’s vulnerabilities and traffic them.
In August of 2020, a man was arrested for trafficking five children across the Haitian-Dominican border. Likewise, 15-year-old Prospélanda was rescued from a woman who attempted to traffic her across the Haitian-Dominican border.
The woman, whom Prospélanda thought was her aunt, was not related to Prospélanda and promised her work in the Dominican Republic.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Haitian-Dominican border has always been a struggle with the exploitation of children. However, trafficking rings have been exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic for their use. Haiti is already ranked as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made poverty even worse.
Traffickers target children because of their vulnerabilities. They promise a better life in the Dominican Republic. As a result, about 50,000 children cross the Haitian-Dominican border only to be sold into the child trafficking system.
Anti-Trafficking Laws in Haiti
Although Haiti is ranked Tier 2 in the U.S. Department of State on human trafficking, the Haitian government is making efforts to combat against human trafficking. In 2014, the government implemented the Anti-Trafficking Law (TIP), which criminalizes human trafficking.
A trafficker can be prosecuted to serve between seven to 15 years in prison and pay a fine up to an equivalent of almost $21,000. As of 2021, the Haitian government began investigating three trafficking cases in hopes of prosecuting traffickers.
Advocating Against Child Trafficking
Many organizations advocate against child trafficking in Haiti. Restavek Freedom is a nonprofit organization that fights against child trafficking and protects children from being trafficked.
Their strategy is to fight for restavek children and raise awareness to child trafficking in Haiti. Restavek Freedom also educates Haitian families on the dangers of child trafficking and teaches them on how to protect their children.
Lovely lived as a restavek for years. Her host family made her work hard with no pay. She was not allowed to go to school, but with Restavek Freedom’s help free Loverly from her situation. Now, Lovely is reunited with her family and goes to school. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up so she can help others as she was helped.
Over 300,000 children live in restavek, but children like Prospélanda and Lovely can be saved from the horrors of child trafficking when people in power speak up.
