From a past BBC report in 2001,
can we infer that the British are even more barbaric in their
apetite to tolerate slavery even in this Twenty-First Century
?
There was a figure of 10,000 children being enslaved as household
servants - are we correct that there were 10,000 UK residents
willing to enslave these innocent children ?
African children 'enslaved in UK'
dated Thursday, 8 November 2001 10.36GMT BBC.
Hundreds of West African children have been brought illegally into
Britain and other European countries in a modern-day form of
slavery.
An investigation by BBC Radio 4's Today programme, triggered by the
case of Victoria Climbié, revealed that young children are promised
a life of unparalleled luxury and a good education by distant
relatives or family friends.
Their penniless parents readily agree they should leave West
Africa.
But the dream ends seconds after they get off the plane in Europe:
they are put to work around the home as domestic slaves and never
set foot in a classroom.
Some are beaten and abused, others end up as the sexual playthings
of paedophiles.
Police fear many are being trafficked to Europe so their relatives
can claim a host of welfare benefits.
Beaten and burned
Today journalists travelled to the Ivory Coast to investigate the
death of Victoria Climbié, who was taken from the country's
capital, Abidjan, to Britain by her aunt, Marie Therese Kouao in
the spring of 1999.
Victoria, who was eight, was tied up and made to lie naked in a
freezing cold bath in winter and was beaten and burned.
When she died, after seven months of torture, she had 128 injuries
on her body.
An inquiry is currently underway to find out how Victoria ended up
being the victim of her cruel aunt and her lover, Clinton Manning,
who were both jailed for life.
There are thought to be 10,000 West African children living with
strangers in the UK, many of whom may not be living the lives they
had been promised.
Mary was brought to Britain from Benin by a stranger at the age of
ten and worked 17 hours a day for ten years.
She was regularly beaten and starved, sometimes for days on
end.
When she asked why she had been brought to Britain, she was told it
was "business" - meaning the woman could claim child
benefits.
She said: "I always feel angry about why this has happened to me.
It hurts. I just pray to God to give me strength."
Forced to eat cat food
Mary is still in Britain, but many others flee back to their native
countries as soon as they get the chance.
Debe was taken, aged 13, to Italy by a white friend of his
father.
For three years he was a sex slave to the man and his paedophile
friends.
He was beaten daily and forced to eat cat food. He finally ran away
to the Ivorian Embassy in Rome and was returned home.
Debe told the Today investigators: "I am a victim, I am in pain. I
can't even look at myself in the mirror."
Organised gangs
Karin Astrom, the head of Save the Children in the Ivory Coast,
said organised gangs across West Africa were trafficking children,
with the collusion of government officials.
She said: "Children are being brought to Europe to be exploited,
either for work or sexually.
"It is poverty which is creating this phenomenon. Certainly it is
organised, with involvement at high levels - even government in
some countries. But, like all mafia or cartels, it's difficult to
know."
Our West Africa correspodnent Mark Doyle says that while there is
some political will among governemtn's to tackle the issue,
resources for agencies like the police who should stamp out the
trade are cruelly lacking.
'Maid Market'
Among fruit sellers and scrap metal dealers in the bustling Adjame
market district of Abidjan, Today investigators discovered a "maid
market" - a ramshackle, corrugated iron and wood shack where human
beings were bought and sold.
Teenage girls, posing serenely on long benches, can be bought for
as little as £5.
The necessary documents needed to transport a child to Europe could
also be quickly acquired through corruption.
After a few minutes outside the Ministry of the Child, Welfare and
the Family, a tout approached an African producer posing as a
hopeful parent - $500 and less than 12 hours was all he needed for
the paperwork to be in order, and for the stranger to become,
officially, his daughter.
The British Ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Francois Gordon, accepts
not all of the 200-300 visa issued annually to children are for the
genuine offspring of the applicant.
He said: "We are aware of the risk of impersonation. People
pretending that young people are their own children when in fact
they are more distant family members or not related at all."
Charity officials said the trafficking of children from
English-speaking West African states, such as Nigeria, was on an
even greater scale than from French-speaking Ivory
Coast.
Are the maids that were supposedly
abused by the 'MAJORITY of Singaporeans' enslaved like those
African children ?
Is your self-inflated superiority misplaced in deriding
Singaporeans with a c-o-c-k-eyed view and exaggerating the issue in
the same manner as you inflate your own capability ?
