SLAVERY IN HAITI

Slavery in Haiti takes the form of trafficking in persons. In fact Haiti is filed as a special case to the US government for a third consecutive year due to its transitional status (since President Aristide’s resignation) and the massive magnitude of human trafficking. People that are trafficked are usually used for labor, domestic or otherwise, and sexual exploitation. The dominant form of human trafficking in modern Haiti is the practice of using children for domestic service. These children are known as restaveks which is derived from 'rester avec' which means to stay with. While most people trafficked are put in urban households, some are sent to the Dominican republic where they are forced into agricultural servitude.

The practice of trafficking children is amongst the most exploited sectors in Haiti. Restavecs are given away or sold to others in order for their poor families to survive. Often the family is approached by a stranger who promises their child a better life with him rather than the family. The children are not paid and are usually abused. Usually when the child reaches the age of 12-13 they would run away from the home at which they serve, only to end up in a street gang or prostitution.
The police unit that is specified to protect children in Haiti does not address the situation of restaveks as there is no statutory penalty for those who commit the crime. The code being broken when committing said crime is The Labor Code of 1984.

The Labor Code of 1984 sets the minimum age for employment at 15 years for work in industrial, agricultural, or commercial enterprises, and establishes 14 years as the minimum age for apprenticeships. The Labor Code also bans hazardous work for minors and night work in industrial jobs for children under 18 years. Additional provisions regulate the employment of children ages 15 to 18 years and prohibit forced labor.
- United States Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor affairs

In 2003, under the presidency of Aristide, the government of Haiti passed a legislation prohibiting trafficking and revoking parts of the Labor Code. Another code being broken in the form of trafficking in persons is The Criminal Code. The Criminal Code prohibits the obtaining of minors for sake of prostitution. The institute of the government that should enforce the Labor Code is the Social Welfare and Research Institute which belongs to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, however, the collapse of the Aristide Regime in 2004 left Haiti with a government that lacked the recourses to address the massive magnitude of human trafficking and to enforce existing mechanisms. Even though the Haitian Government designated the IBESR (Social Welfare and Research Institute) to enforce labor laws and to eradicate child domestic labor, the budget is not large enough to carry out needed operations. Other ministries dedicated to implementing labor laws are those of justice, education, and foreign affairs. When Aristide was the president, MOLSA, or the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, had a hotline for child abuse victims. The hotline received over 700 calls and 83% of the victims were slaves at urban households. The abuses were beatings, rape and malnutrition. Following Aristide’s resignation and departure, the hotline was destroyed.
The IOM is a project funded by the US Government solely dedicated to ‘return and reintegrate victims of child trafficking’. So far 71 victims of trafficking have been assisted by the IOM.

The following is a link to a video which I was unable to embed.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5311464
- An undercover reporter, named Dan Harris, went to Haiti and set up a meeting with a human trafficker. He succesfully bought a young girl from Haiti within just ten hours. He captured the meeting through two small cameras. The video is, at first, commercials, but after that it will automatically play the Haiti video and when that finishes the player will shift directly into another video which is not a part of my report.



About 30,000 children are illegally taken into the Dominican Republic annually to work at plantations, as prostitutes, or other such occupations. Those working at plantations are usually boys.

Even though the US Government is attempting to aid Haiti’s problem of trafficking in persons it is still very much at large and is a delicate subject to touch upon as it is deeply rooted in the system and culture of Haiti.






BIBLIOGRAPHY

United States Department of Labor and Bereau of International Labor Affairs.
Haiti [Data file].
Retrieved from
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/haiti.htm

Bureau of Democracy, HumanRights and Labor. Haiti [Data file]
Retrieved from
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41764.htm

Reliefweb. Assistance for children victims of human trafficking in Haiti [Data file]
Retrieved from
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/HMYT-6W6NSM?OpenDocument

Reliefweb. Haiti: Socio-Political Crisis OCHA Situation Report No. 14 [Data File].
Retrieved from
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/e495dc5b203af05585256ed6005e7d00

U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report. Haiti [Data File].
Retrieved from
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Haiti.htm