Authorities in the Somali state of Puntland say they have seized 324 trafficked children since the start of the year in various towns and cities, Local Officials told Radio Ergo that the children included some who had been abducted from their families, and others who had been given up by their families believing they would get rewarding jobs….
The children were mostly under the age of 15. Around 150 of them were picked up in the port city of Bossaso, “The main reasons for child trafficking is to subject them to forced labour, to harvest their body organs to sell to people in critical health conditions, or for sexual exploitation. Most of these children leave by their own will, or are accompanied by their parents in order to migrate to Arab countries bordering us. Sometimes, parents who reach Arab countries via illegal migration request their children at home to be smuggled over to join them there,” the director general said.
The children are normally taken by the police to one of the 11 rescue centres supported by UNICEF in Bossaso, Galkayo, Garowe, Baran, Boame, Galdogob and Burtinle, until they can be reunited with their parents, Fatuma Ahmed, a resident of Mogadishu, was reunited with her daughter Amal in September after a five year separation.
A number of convictions have been brought against people arrested for trafficking children or found with ‘stolen children’ in various cities. Most of those convicted were women, according to the police, Most of the children involved originate from Mogadishu, Jowhar, Beletweyn, and Afgoye.
