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West Africa's Fine Line Between Cultural Norms and Child Trafficking

da Silva, Issa Sikiti
http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/05/west-africas-fine-line-cultural-norms-child-trafficking/

Publisher:  Inter Press Service
Date Written:  03/05/2019
Year Published:  2019  
Resource Type:  Article

Human traficking in West Africa is difficult to deal with as it has become entrenched in the culture of people living in extreme poverty.

Abstract: 

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Excerpt:

When asked if the girls' parents are aware they have to travel to Mali, Wiseman says: "I negotiated with them and gave them something as a down payment for their dowries, which will surely help them [the parents] start a small business or buy seeds for farming. These kids should count themselves lucky because they will work and perform wives’ duties, so their lives should improve big time."

But nobody knows the real intentions of the men who "commissioned" these girls. Or if they exist....

"The only thing you cannot do is to report these cases to the police. We are all brothers and sisters of this country and we believe in solving our problems in harmony and peace through dialogue. Besides, it's not our culture to report everything to the police. I blame West African governments for allowing this thing to go on and on to the extent of becoming a cultural norm institutionalised deep in the fabric of society. It’s now hard to break it," he says....

"In the face of this deeply-entrenched culture of "helping each other" by "handing over" your girls to someone well established who is living in the cities, even the United Nations and children's organisations sometimes have no choice but to turn a blind eye. I'm not saying they are not doing anything about it, but you can’t break up someone's culture, especially in a region such as this where grinding poverty rules," he says.
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