Sudan Hands Over 80 Children Victims of Human Trafficking to Their Families

 A checkpoint in Metema in north-western Ethiopia, next to the border with Sudan. The town is a centre of a booming trade in migrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea. (AP Photo)

July 28, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT) Friday said 80 children, victims of human trafficking, have been returned to their families.

Deputy Chairman of the NCCHT, Ismail Tirab, said the children have been handed over to their families at refugee camps and their places of residence, pointing out that large numbers of them were integrated into their host communities.

He added the NCCHT continues to search for families of the rest of victims, pointing to coordination with National Council for Child Welfare to observe the best interest of the children.

“We provide health care and food to those children in cooperation with local and international aid groups” he added

Tirab pointed out that human traffickers have been brought to justice and their trial is underway.

Last week, NCCHT said it would develop a national anti-trafficking strategy as well as activating existing laws to counter the phenomenon in accordance with the established international standards.

Earlier this month, the government of Sudan’s eastern state of Kassala said police has freed 139 victims of human trafficking.

The Sudanese army last May arrested human traffickers holding 231 people in Gaili Forest, on the eastern plains of Butana, Gedaref State.

Last March, the Sudanese police arrested human traffickers holding 177 victims including 27 women in the capital Khartoum.

Also, a joint police force in Kassala last December managed to free 95 victims of human trafficking following an exchange of fire with the perpetrators.

Between 1 and 31 January 2018, 1,184 persons arrived in Italy by sea, representing 28% of the illegal migrants who arrived during the first month of this year. They all crossed the Mediterranean from Libya.

During the same period, 126 Sudanese crossed to Italy, according to the UNHCR.

Sudan is considered as a country of origin and transit for the illegal migration and human trafficking. Thousands of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia are monthly crossing the border into the Sudanese territories on their way to Europe through Libya or Egypt.

In January 2014, the Sudanese parliament approved an anti-human trafficking law which punishes those involved with human trafficking with up to 20 years imprisonment.

Also, in 2014, Khartoum hosted a conference on human trafficking in the Horn of Africa, organised by the African Union (AU), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Sudanese government.

The East African nation has also forged a strategic partnership with several European countries and the EU to combat illegal migration and human trafficking.

(ST)