HAITI / CHILD TRAFFICKING

UNICEF is supporting child protection brigades working at the border to educate parents not to send their children with strangers who promise a better life in the Dominican Republic. Last year, the Brigade de Protection des Mineurs stopped over 1,400 children in Belladere trying to cross the border between the two countries without any proper documentation. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:26
• Production Date: 5 March 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: CRIMES; CRIMINAL JUSTICE
• Geographic Subject: HAITI
• MAMS Id: U110305b

Description

STORY: HAITI / CHILD TRAFFICKING
TRT: 2:26
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: CREOLE / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 28 JANUARY 2011, BELLADERE, HAITI AND MALPASSE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Shotlist

1. SOUNDBITE (Créole) Ellie Widlene Jasmine, Member, NGO Heartland Alliance:
“What is child trafficking? It’s when you have a child, and you entrust it to someone else, without the child agreeing.”
2. Wide shot, crowd at market place listening to sensitization lecture
3. Close up, parent Marie Anna Baldé in crowd listening to sensitization lecture
4. Close up, Ellie Widlene Jasmine from the NGO Heartland Alliance carrying out the sensitization lecture
5. Wide shot, crowd at marketplace
6. Med shot, woman in crowd listening to the sensitization lecture
7. Med shot, three members of sensitization team on platform
8. Med shot, crowd
9. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Marie Anna Baldé, Mother:
“I never knew that this existed, and after hearing about child trafficking, I would never send my child to go away with a stranger.”
10. Wide shot, official border point at Malpasse near the western border of the DR
11. Wide shot, border officials
12. Wide shot, woman walking past line of cars at the border with bucket on her head
13. Wide shot, Child Protection Brigade official checking bus to verify children’s papers
14. Wide shot, vehicles driving at border
15. Med shot, Child Protection Official walking with child and her mother back to the bus
16. Wide shot, child running after UNICEF car on mission
17. Wide shot, road in front of moving car
18. Wide shot, front view of moving car
19. Med shot, market place in Haitian village, boy cutting stick
20. Med shot, sign in Spanish
21. Med shot, barbed wire fence indicating the border between two countries
22. Med shot, the feet of UNICEF’s Gallianne Palayret walking along unofficial border
23. Wide shot, tree covered path along the unofficial border that can only be accessed on foot
24. Wide shot, man walking along path by the unofficial border
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Gallianne Palayret, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist:
“We’ve crossed the border into Haiti without anyone knowing. No one asked us for any paper. So the only thing to show that we are actually crossing the border is this sign, so imagine how easy it is for child traffickers.”
26. Close up, Ellie Widlene Jasmine, from the NGO Heartland Alliance carrying out sensitization in another village in the mountains
27. Wide shot, of crowd coming to listen to the sensitization, with UNICEF’s Gallianne Palayret among them
28. Close up, woman listening to sensitization
29. Medium shot, Ellie Widlene Jasmine speaking to crowd
30. Close up, child in crowd
31. SOUNDBITE (Créole) Briny Roger,Father:
“A child can have everything, be well fed, and have all material things, but real protection for them means that they would be in the centre of their family with their father and mother.”
32. Wide shot, moving landscape outside car
33. Wide shot, road with trucks lined up
34. Wide shot, marketplace with car stalled in the middle
35. Med shot, men sitting around a table
36. Wide shot, women crossing a puddle with bags on their heads
37. Med shot, two boys standing next to a bike

Storyline

“What is child trafficking? It’s when you have a child, and you entrust it to someone else, without the child agreeing,” Ellie Widlene Jasmine shouts out to a crowd at a market place.

In the fight against child trafficking, UNICEF is supporting partners, who travel to remote villages near the Haitian border. They pass on the message that parents must not send their children with strangers who promise a better life in the Dominican Republic. By doing so they are placing their children in danger.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Marie Anna Baldé, Mother:
“I never knew that this existed, and after hearing about child trafficking, I would never send my child to go away with a stranger.”

Sensitization alone is not going to solve the problem. At official border crossings, UNICEF supports child protection brigades that ensure children without papers do not cross illegally into the Dominican Republic.

But a UNICEF mission passed through miles of uncontrolled border.

This road is the only thing that separates the two countries. In this Haitian village, to go into the Dominican Republic, you just have to cross the road.

In other places, there are many small paths that traffickers use with impunity. Once across the border, children are vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse and other forms of exploitation.

SOUNDBITE (English) Gallianne Palayret, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist:
“We’ve crossed the border into Haiti without anyone knowing. No one asked us for any paper. So the only thing to show that we are actually crossing the border is this sign, so imagine how easy it is for child traffickers.”

Sensitization activities at the border villages warn parents of the dangers of child trafficking, and help many more to understand their responsibilities.

SOUNDBITE (Créole) Briny Roger, Father:
“A child can have everything, be well fed, and have all material things, but real protection for them means that they would be in the centre of their family with their father and mother.”

As long as the borders are uncontrolled, child trafficking is going to be immensely difficult to stop. UNICEF and partners are working to make people understand they have a responsibility to protect their children.