August 23/2007

MODERN SLAVERY THRIVES IN ETHIOPIA

UNESCO is  observing today the Slave Trade and its Abolition and it affords a good occasion to SOCEPP to raise once again the issue of the thriving modern slavery in Ethiopia. Aside from the bonded labor that does exist in some parts, the main form of modern slavery that thrives in Ethiopia involves trafficking in young girls to the Middle East (two maids committed suicicde there only last week). More than a hundred thousand young Ethiopians have been sent to the Arab countries in this respect.

Internally, under age females are sent to the capital city and other towns to be subjected unto a life of prostitution.The traffick to the Middle East involves also underage girls, some as young as fourteen and fifteen years old. Officially sent to be maids, these defenselss girls are exploited brutally, beaten and tortured (especially in the Lebanon), raped and even murdered.They have received no legal recourse, their passports are often confiscated by their employers, their freedom of movement curtailed severely.Many corpses have been sent back to Ethiopia,no valid cause of death given, no culprit apprhended. The traffickers are often linked to the regime in power and thus act with impunity despite expressions of verbal concern by the regime about the situation. The girls are victims of ramapant racism too.

In Africa, close to a million children and adults are trafficked every year inside and outside the continent. In Ethiopia, the sale of young girls into modern slavery continues unabated as the condition of life in Ethiopia worsens and the search for an even slightly better life makes thousands easy victims of cruel traffickers. SOCEPP has time and again called on the government in Addis Ababa to take action against this sale unto modern slavery but to no avail.The trafficking is profitable and the government in place has shown more concern for money than for the right and dignity of Ethiopians.

SOCEPP