Who are the children and how old are they?
Very sadly children (young boys) are sold by their relatives or abducted from nearby villages, although some go looking for work and are told that at the cocoa farms the pay is good.
Most of the children are aged 12-16 but children as young as the age of 7 have been filmed doing this work. Some only stay for a few months while others are trapped working there through adulthood. |
Children that are bought off their relatives are sold to traffickers or farm owners, their relative/s under the impression that the child will get paid and send the money to them to help support the family. From here they are either trafficked across borders to places such as Ivory Coast or taken to the cocoa farms by their relative. The children may not see their families for years, if ever. When a child is delivered to the farm by a family member, that relative collects a sum of money either up front or at the end of an agreed duration of labor. Unfortunately, the relatives do not realize that the children will be in a dangerous work environment and deprived of an education.
Young boys are often abducted from small villages in neighboring African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. Then they are trafficked across the border and into Cote d'Ivoire.