Some humanitarian organisations really ‘fronts’ for child traffickers

January 6, 2010 / gulf-times.com

An expert has warned against a “suspicious role being played by some humanitarian organisations”, saying that children taken for adoption by these organisations might end up as victims of trafficking.

Hussein Mohamed, an adviser at the Qatar Foundation For Combating Human Trafficking, who was delivering a lecture at Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre on Human trafficking: Causes and Impact, explained that children, during times of conflict, risk falling into the hands of traffickers through the adoption centres.
“We have the Darfur conflict as an example of such abuse. Authorities managed to stop children from being taken by some humanitarian organisations under the guise of adoption,” he added.     

Mohamed also blamed what he called an “expected global growth in trafficking in persons” on governments around the world, which he said did not take decisive action to tackle the menace.

“In the absence of many countries taking decisive action on this subject, the business of a new form of slavery is expected to grow significantly,” Mohamed added.

He admitted that the trafficking in persons is widespread in the Arab countries, saying that the presence of the problem could be explained in view of “various circumstances” in these states.

The expert cited poverty, lack of education, natural disasters and wars as among the causes of the issue.

“Victims are usually lured by false promises of traffickers who exploit their need of money and employment,” he explained. “Poverty can lead to cases of child abandonment, when parents are told they will be adopted into richer families in the hope of giving them a better life, when in fact they are abused and recruited to work for little food and money.”
Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre director Mohamed al-Ghamdi stressed that trafficking in persons is “prohibited from Islamic perspective”.
The lecture comes as part of the Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking programme to raise awareness on the issue.