Benin and Nigeria: Child protection, beyond the law
26 Apr 2012 Trafficking, abuse and exploitationBenin and Nigeria
In Nigeria, thousands of children do exhausting work in gravel quarries. Children often come from far away to work in the quarries: from small, remote villages or even from abroad, including Benin. Beninese legislation, however, forbids any displacement of children for reasons of work, voluntary or forced. Unfortunately, the fact is that a number of these youngsters have no other choice than to go to work to help their impoverished families, or they are the victims of forced labour. In this framework, Terre des hommes fights for a halt to children under 14 working here, and also watches that the most elementary rights of the older children are respected: that they have access to healthcare, protection and guarantees of a better future.
The Tdh delegation in Benin invited members of the government to meet these children in their villages in Benin and in their workplace in the Nigerian quarries, so that they could comprehend that these youngsters need, above all, protection, contrary to what the law stipulates.
Terre des hommes and other social players are implementing an initiative called ‘protective accompanying’, this initiative offers all the services needed to guarantee the health, protection and a better future for the child victims of exploitation and trafficking between the Community of Zakpota in Benin and the gravel quarries of Abeokuta in Nigeria.
From 10th to 14th April 2012, at the request of the Ministry for Family Affairs, Tdh supported a mission undertaken by members of the government and took them to meet children at risk or already victims of exploitation, in their home villages in Benin and at their workplace in the Nigerian quarries. This mission was aimed at making the governmental people concerned understand that, in spite of the law forbidding minors to go away to work, they often have no other way out and so require measures of protection.
Representatives from the Department for Family, Child and Youth Affairs, the Department for Legal Protection of Children and Youths, the General Department of Labour, the Centre for Social Promotion, the Central Office for Protection of Minors, the Network for Structures of Children in a difficult situation, the Network of Journalists fighting against child trafficking and abuse, Plan Benin and Tdh, all went to see the places where these children work. The visitors, already engaged, are a part of the ‘National Unit for Monitoring and Coordination’ for child protection, which brings together various governmental structures and many organisations like Terre des hommes.
The visitors met children and families who live and work in the gravel quarries and listened to the stories of young victims of exploitation, defended by Tdh. They also discovered the activities organised there to guarantee the wellbeing and future of the youngsters: holiday camps, psychosocial activities, school support and monitoring, job training, listening to the kids and finding the best response to bring to each of them.
At the end of the trip, the National Unit confirmed its intention to keep on with the ‘protective accompanying’ of children as an example to be followed and perpetuate, despite the fact that the law on the conditions of displacement of minors and the repression of child trafficking in the Republic of Benin makes no provision for this.
