Trafficking of Children - Proposed Solutions

Proposed Solutions

Solutions to child trafficking, or "anti-trafficking actions", can be roughly classified into four categories:

• Broad protection: "To prevent children and former victims from being (re)trafficked"
• Prevention: "Of the crime of child trafficking and the exploitation that is its end result"
• Law enforcement: "In particular within a labour context and relating to labour laws and regulations"
• Victim assistance: "Covering the kinds of responses necessary to help trafficked children and to reduce their vulnerability to being re-trafficked"

Broad protection actions are geared towards children who could potentially be trafficked, and include raising awareness about child trafficking, particularly in vulnerable communities. This type of outreach also includes policies geared towards improving the economic statuses of vulnerable families, so that reasonable alternatives are available to them, other than sending their children to work. Examples of this include increasing employment opportunities for adults and conditional cash transfer programs. Another major broad protection program that has been readily endorsed by UN.GIFT, the I.L.O, and UNICEF involves facilitating gender equality, specifically by enhancing both boys' and girls' access to affordable, quality education.

Preventative actions are more focused on addressing the actual practice of child trafficking, specifically by implementing legal frameworks that are aimed to both deter and prosecute traffickers. This involves the adoption and implementation of the International Labour Organization's international labour standards, as well as the development of safe and legal migration practices.

Law enforcement refers to the actual prosecution of traffickers; UNICEF maintains that successful prosecution of child traffickers is the surest way to send a message that child trafficking will not be tolerated. Traffickers can be "caught" at any one of the three steps of trafficking: recruitment, movement, and/or exploitation; anti-trafficking laws as well as child labour laws must then be appropriately enforced. The development of grassroots "surveillance" systems has also been suggested by UNICEF which would enable communities to immediately report signs of child trafficking to legal authorities.

Victim assistance begins first with victim identification; child trafficking laws must specifically and appropriately define what constitutes a "trafficking victim." Legal processes must then be in place for removing children from trafficking situations, and returning them either to their families or other appropriate settings. Victims should also be provided with individualized and supportive physical and psychological rehabilitation. Finally, steps should be taken to avoid "double victimization" - in other words, to ensure that formerly trafficked children are treated as victims, and not as criminals. An example of "double victimization" would be a child who was illegally trafficked into sexual exploitation in the United States, and then, once free from trafficking, is prosecuted for being an illegal migrant.