Congo : a new cry against child trafficking
Google Translation:
Congo : a new cry against child trafficking
"To not intervene would be a humiliation: the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission of Kikwit , just saved ten children, challenges the authorities in Kinshasa.
Isabelle Cousturié
24/01/2014 /
On January 9 , Father Henri From Kethule , a member of the Society of Jesus , denounced a " gigantic " child trafficking organized for nine months between Kikwit, Bandundu and Kinshasa, Congo and urged the authorities to intervene urgently.
Today the whole Diocesan Commission "Justice and Peace" of the Catholic Church in Kikwit sounds the alarm: the phenomenon is of considerable magnitude.
The Chairman of the Committee , Arsène Ngondo , stated on Radio Okapi, to have recovered a few weeks ago a dozen of children at Kinshasa, to bring them back to their parents in Kikwit .
"We denounce this phenomenon since last year because we had parents who were looking for their children. We have conducted them to the NRA and the prosecutor. Both services have helped us to find these children in Kinshasa. We managed to find them and returned a dozen of children to their parents, at our expense, and with the contribution of certain structures. There are still some left in Kinshasa” , said Arsène Ngondo . (Kongo Times)
Clandestine networks specializing in child trafficking are growing increasingly in Kinshasa as well as inside the country. The authors of this illegal activity generally enjoy the naivety of some parents, they promise wonders to convince them to let their children travel to the West.
"To not intervene would be a humiliation for the entire DRC! " opinioned Arsène Ngondo on Radio Okapi.
This case reopens the debate on the implementation of the ban on intercountry adoption of Congolese children . Directorate General of Migration (DGM) has suspended international adoption Congolese children by foreigners for a period of twelve months. The measurement was taken Wednesday, September 25 last year and notified the same day to fifteen embassies installed in the DRC.
It was the embassy of the DRC in Canada who alerted the DGM on the conditions of Congolese children after adoption abroad. After investigation, the Congolese migration service found that some children were abandoned by their adoptive parents or "re-sold" to other people , mostly homosexuals . (Radio Okapi )
For the well- being of children, CMD thinks we should seriously investigate before any new operation of adoption and desires the collaboration of embassies.
On January 22, in Madrid, at the initiative of the Spanish Caritas and the International Caritas, sixty international experts of the Network of Christian against trafficking in human beings (COATNET ) met in Madrid to discuss the line to follow in their local action .