Iraqis
Resort To Selling Children
By
Afif Sarhan
in Baghdad
05 January,
2008
AlJazeera
Abu
Muhammad, a Baghdad resident, found it difficult to let go of his daughter's
hand but he had already convinced himself that selling her to a family
outside Iraq would provide her with a better future.
"The
war disgraced my family. I lost relatives including my wife among thousands
of victims of sectarian violence and was forced to sell my daughter
to give my other children something to eat," he told Al Jazeera.
In 2006,
Abu Muhammad and his family were forced to leave their home in Adhamiya,
a district of Baghdad, after militia fighting claimed the streets in
his once tranquil neighbourhood.
They began
living in a makeshift refugee camp on the outskirts of Baghdad, but
he soon lost his job and the children, unable to make the daily trek,
quit school.
"There
wasn't enough money to spend on books, clothes and transport,"
he said. His daughter, Fatima, the youngest of four children, began
to show signs of malnourishment and a local medic said she had become
anaemic.
Desperation
By mid-2007,
conditions for his family had become desperate and his children, once
healthy and bubbling with life, had become gaunt and lethargic.
It was then
that a translator and a Swedish couple claiming to be part of an international
NGO arrived in the makeshift refugee camp.
"They
heard about my situation and the woman, who said she could not have
babies, offered some money to give her my youngest daughter of two years
old," he said.
"I refused
in the beginning but the Iraqi translator was constantly coming at the
camp and insisting with the same question. One day I found that my children
would die without food and a clean environment and the next time he
came to my tent, I told him that I agreed."
He gave the
translator all personal documents and after a week the couple came with
new documents for Abu Muhammad to sign, authorising the adoption and
to pick up his daughter.
Abu Muhammad,
who received $10,000, believes he is now damned by God, but he says
his inner turmoil is allayed somewhat by his belief that Fatima will
have a better life than many in Iraq.
"I could
see her love in the first time she looked at her," he said of the
adoptive mother.
Alarming
disappearances
Local officials
and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which
children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment.
Omar Khalif,
vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established
in 2004 to register cases of those missing and trafficked, said that
at least two children are sold by their parents every week.
Another four
are reported missing every week.
He said:
"[The] numbers are alarming. There is an increase of 20 per cent
in the reported cases of missing children compared to last year."
"In
previous years, children were reported missing on their way home from
schools or after playing with friends outside their homes. However,
police investigations have revealed that many have been sold by their
parents to foreign couples or specialised gangs."
According
to police investigations and an independent IFA study, Iraqi children
are being sold to families in many European countries - particularly
the Netherlands and Sweden - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
"Taking
advantage of the desperate situation of many families living under poverty
conditions in Iraq, foreigners offer a good amount of money in exchange
of children as young as one-month old and up to five years of age,"
Khalif said.
He said there
are fears children are being trafficked for the sex trade and the organ
transplant black market.
Children
drugged
Hassan Alaa,
a senior interior ministry official, said that while it has been difficult
to precisely trace where the missing children are taken, government
forces have captured 15 human trafficking gangs operating in Iraq in
the past nine months.
"Many
were carrying false documents prepared to take some children out from
the country."
"During
their confessions, they said many children are sold for as little as
$3,000 and for very young babies, the price could reach $30,000,"
Alaa said.
The interior
ministry has stepped up its security at checkpoints and border posts
throughout Iraq.
He says that
the child traffickers resort to drugging children with powerful sedatives
during the trip out of Iraq. When they drive up to a checkpoint, the
police are told the children are merely sleeping.
"All
children leaving Iraq now have to be woken up and interviewed by the
police and border patrols, except those who are infants and unable to
speak," Alaa said.
Extreme
poverty
Mahmoud Saeed,
a senior official at the ministry of labour and social affairs, says
extreme poverty and nationwide unemployment have pushed parents to the
edge, forcing them to make decisions once believed unthinkable.
"Desperate
seeing their families without food and hygiene, parents prefer to give
their children for adoption, to save their lives," he said.
Saeed said
the ministry was making employment a national crisis issue in 2008,
hoping to find immediate work for the poor.
He is hoping
international aid agencies and NGOs will increase their participation
and investments in projects geared towards helping children.
But for many
parents, help will inevitably come too late.
Anguish
Khalid Jabboury,
38, a father of seven and displaced on the outskirts of Baghdad, says
giving his daughter up for adoption to a Jordanian family has given
him nothing but torment.
He said:
"After one year I heard from some relatives that they had seen
my seven-year-old daughter working as a servant for the supposed new
family and she was being beaten as well."
He says he
was paid $20,000 but wants to give the money back if a local NGO can
assist in her repatriation.
The IFA's
Khalif says there is nothing the NGOs can do once children have been
taken out of Iraq.
Ruwaida Saleh,
31, a mother of three, is also praying for her eight-year-old daughter
Hala's safety.
Saleh says
her daughter disappeared in July 2007 and has not been heard from since.
"The
police told us to give up, but I cannot. I have nightmares she is being
raped," she said.
"I will
hold God's hands and beg Him to have Hala in my arms again one day.
It is a pain without explanation that I will carry to my coffin if I
never find her."
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