There are an estimated 150 million child slaves today(1). Human trafficking is the third most lucrative business, after drug trafficking and arms dealing(3). Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly West Africa, has the highest incidence of child trafficking in the world (2).
The trafficking of children is one of the gravest violations of human rights in the world today. Children and their families are ensnared by the empty promises of the trafficking networks – promises of a better life, of an escape route from poverty – and every year, hundreds of thousands of children are smuggled across borders and sold as mere commodities. Their survival and development are threatened, and their rights to education, to health, to grow up within a family, to protection from exploitation and abuse, are denied.
This photo essay shows slave girls with their "owners" on the background at her work place in Togo, one of the countries spotted as being one of most affected by the phenomenon of child exploitation in the world.
