Reuters, 8 January 2005

Unicef confirms case of child trafficking

JAKARTA: The United Nations Children's Fund said yesterday it had confirmed a case in Indonesia of trafficking in children orphaned or separated from their parents by the tsunami.
Reports of children being taken away surfaced soon after the killer waves struck, but the Unicef report is the first confirmed case.

Birgithe Lund-Henriksen, chief of the child protection unit at Unicef Indonesia, said it and the Indonesian police had confirmed a case of a four-year-old boy brought out of Banda Aceh by a couple claiming to be his parents.

Police were alerted after non-governmental organisations grew suspicious when the child was brought into a hospital in Medan, accompanied by the couple, she said.
“The couple were not consistent in their story,” she said, adding they then said they were the boy's neighbours.

Lund-Henriksen said there were other reports of possible child-trafficking cases, including a sighting by an NGO worker of about 100 infants being carried in a speedboat in the middle of the night in Aceh.

“This is something that existed prior to the tsunami. And with syndicates in place, it's clear they will take advantage of the chaos.”