Child trafficking in Afghanistan

WRITTEN QUESTION

Submission: To the Commission

2 October 2003

Subject: Child trafficking in Afghanistan

Recently, based on a related report from UNICEF, the issue of child trafficking in Afghanistan has come to light, and it is growing at an alarming rate. Specifically, the Afghan police identified a group of about 50 children – some as young as four years old – from the northeastern province of Badakhshan, who were being transported by road toward an unknown destination through the neighboring province of Takhar. Authorities suspect that the boys were either intended to attend religious schools in Pakistan and Iran or were to be sold and transported abroad for forced labor or sexual exploitation. A UNICEF representative mentioned unconfirmed reports from the southern part of the country, indicating that children were also going missing there. Furthermore, according to a senior official of the Afghan police, there are testimonies of Pakistanis entering Afghanistan, traveling to remote areas, and offering money to poor villagers in exchange for their children. They promise that the children will receive good religious education and “divine enlightenment.” It is feared that these children are then sent to religious schools where they undergo brainwashing, with the intention of staffing the ranks of Pakistani intelligence services and religious groups. In some cases, they are sold as laborers or become victims of sexual exploitation.

The Commission is asked what actions it intends to take and which programs it will fund to strengthen the central government of Afghanistan and improve policing across the country, in order to combat the exploitation of the population, particularly child trafficking.