Child Slavery Thriving 6:00, 2004 (Ref: AF04103)

Description

Children as young as seven are being sold into organised slavery in the former French colonies of West Africa. In many cases by their own parents.

The trafficking of child slaves from impoverished Benin and Togo to oil-rich Gabon is highly organised, lucrative and on the increase.

As we found out in this film, most of the slaves are young girls, the children of impoverished parents. Girls are in great demand for work as domestics and market traders, but frequently end up in prostitution or sexual slavery, often with the co-operation of their families.