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HAITI / BORDER PROTECTION
STORY: HAITI / BORDER PROTECTION
TRT: 2.09
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 SEPTEMBER 2010, MALPASSE BORDER, HAITI
1. Med shot, people walking by cars at border
2. Med shot, people walking by cars at border
3. Wide shot, Dominican Republican border guard
4. Med shot, crowd shot from within crowd
5. Med shot, little boy carrying something on his head
6. Wide shot, Dominican Republic flag on border
7. Close up, boy at market stall
8. Wide shot, boy at market stall
9. Med shot, women with goods on head
10. Wide shot, Francoise Gruloons-Ackerman with Communications Director Jean-Jacques Simon
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Francoise Gruloons-Ackerman, Haiti Country Director, UNICEF:
“You may a lot of movement of children walking with adults going from one side to another. That doesn’t mean they are all being trafficked, but this could happen in this environment.”
12. Wide shot, boy and mother held by Brigade for the Protection of Minors at inspection point
13. Med shot, same boy
14. Med shot, mother
15. Med shot, mother goes to speak further with police
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Dieudonne Barnave, Inspector, Brigade for the Protection of Minors:
“We don’t know if that’s his mother, because the lady hasn’t got any papers and nor does the child.”
17. Cutaway, mother at police checkpoint
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Dieudonne Barnave, Inspector, Brigade for the Protection of Minors:
“She has to go look for the papers, or the child stays with us. If she comes back with the papers, we have to let him go.”
19. Wide shot, Heartland Alliance staffer talks with boy
20. Close up, Heartland Alliance staffer
21. Med shot, Heartland Alliance staffer talks with boy
22. Close up, passports
23. Close up, Civilian members of Border Protection Brigade (in white t-shirts) and Heartland Alliance staff checks people’s papers
24. Med shot, people standing in line for their paperwork to be checked.
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Marie-Elie Alexis, Border Project Manger, Heartland Alliance:
“There are people out there, these bandits, traffickers, they’re pretty smart to about it a different way, and promise something, education, a better life, meals for their kids, so it’s now them directly pressuring these individuals, but it’s the economic pressure of the country- they aren’t able to sustain themselves within a community.”
26. Pan left, border Protection officer waving truck through checkpoint
It’s market day at Malpasse, on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
This is a virtual “no man’s land”, where police and immigration officials are in very short supply.
Among the many goods in transit, authorities fear, is something far more valuable: Haitian children taken illegally to the Dominican Republic.
UNICEF estimates some 2,500 Haitian children are trafficked every year - numbers that likely increased with Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.
SOUNDBITE (English) Francoise Gruloons-Ackerman, Haiti Country Director, UNICEF:
“You may a lot of movement of children walking with adults going from one side to another. That doesn’t mean they are all being trafficked, but this could happen in this environment.”
About a kilometer away is a key line of defense.
Inspectors from the Brigade for the Protection of Minors, a group trained and funded in part by UNICEF, stop and talk to every child under the age of 18 headed toward the border. Skepticism is the name of the game.
SOUNDBITE (French), Dieudonne Barnave, Inspector, Brigade for the Protection of Minors:
“We don’t know if that’s his mother, because the lady hasn’t got any papers and nor does the child. She has to go look for the papers, or the child stays with us. If she comes back with the papers, we have to let him go.”
Working alongside the inspectors is UNICEF partner Heartland Alliance, who help determine whether a child is travelling with a legal parent or guardian.
Eight months after the earthquake, the economic pressure put on many Haitian parents is still being felt. Child protection officers remain concerned some families may be persuaded by traffickers to give their children up.
SOUNDBITE (English) Marie-Elie Alexis, Border Project Manger, Heartland Alliance:
“There are people out there, these bandits, traffickers, they’re pretty smart to about it a different way, and promise something, education, a better life, meals for their kids, so it’s now them directly pressuring these individuals, but it’s the economic pressure of the country- they aren’t able to sustain themselves within a community.”
Through building the capacity of its police force, UNICEF is helping the Haitian government protect is most valuable asset, its children.
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