Child Traffickers Are Using Airlines for Sex and
Organ Trade, and… Terrorism!
Help CHILDREN ON TOUR
prevent child trafficking!
by Rob Waterlander
Across the world, a terrible
hidden trade is fueling the trafficking of children for sex, organ harvesting,
and even terrorism!
Children On Tour (COT) has discovered that the Unaccompanied Minor
services offered by international airlines can easily be exploited by
child traffickers who use them to transport child victims globally.
This is likely to someday explode into a significant scandal that will
expose this black market trade that currently hides in plain sight.
The loopholes
The public is little aware of a loophole in the system that allows anyone
to drop off a child at an airport and hire an unaccompanied minor (UM)
service to expedite the child, who may be as young as 5 years of age
(some Asian airlines allow even younger kids), through security and
onto an aircraft. At the child’s final destination, the child is
escorted by another UM service handler, expedited through customs and
handed off to whatever individual’s name is recorded as the ‘receiver’
in the UM paperwork. There is no authority in place to check the validity
of identification or the passports of those dropping off and picking
up the child; there is no database in place to screen for whether an
individual dropping off/picking up the child has a criminal record or
is suspected of human trafficking; nor are there guarantees to verify
that a child’s parents are the ones who booked such a service.
The only requirement stipulated by most airlines is that a UM-form is
filled out and that the ID document of the person dropping off the child
at the departures area, as well as the person receiving the child at
the arrival airport, merely matches the name supplied on this UM-form.
It can literally be anyone! The address to which the child is going
isn’t recorded or even required on the UM-form, which may hamper
law enforcement when trying to trace a potential victim of child trafficking
after arriving by aircraft.
The UM services are the perfect package deal for child traffickers to
move their commodity smoothly, easily and completely unseen.
The causes
The trafficking of children for sex or organ harvesting is a sick and
depraved business run not only by hardened criminals whose motivation
is simply greed, but the UM services are also used by people who want
to harm Western society on the whole. Recently COT received information
that radicalized children who have become a threat to society itself
are being trafficked by and for terrorist organizations. The West must
cut off this transport of recruits before these children develop into
tomorrow's suicide attackers. While the West stands united in maintaining
and protecting our shared values in the face of terrorism, we also have
a responsibility to demand that our leaders tackle this threat in EVERY
way possible. Will the citizens of the Western democracies tolerate
this threat against our children until the day comes that those children
are turned against us?
States obligations and the responsibility of airlines
Airlines and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are
aware of the loopholes in the UM services that turn children into an
easily transported commodity. The UN Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime and the supplementing Palermo Protocol, aimed at preventing,
suppressing and punishing “People Trafficking,” came into
effect in the year 2000. The Palermo Protocol urges countries to adopt
all possible measures to prevent commercial carriers from being used
in the commission of child trafficking. Despite being signed by 117
countries, no signatory state has required airlines to implement initiatives
to deter child traffickers. Airlines, however, have a responsibility
to do so on their own.
Principle 5(e) of the UNICEF Children’s Rights and Business Principles
states: “The corporate responsibility to respect includes: Seeking
to prevent and eliminate the risk that products and services could be
used to abuse, exploit or otherwise harm children in any way."
This principle therefore calls for action by airlines to stop child
trafficking within their operations.
To compel such action by
airlines, countries could impose a “duty of care” on airlines
that would require them to prevent, with all possible means, third parties
from using their services to traffic children. The intentional trafficking
of children is already penalized to a point, but international criminal
law could also be further developed to spur airlines into action if
it would penalize the (unintentional) facilitation of child trafficking.
Up to now there has simply
not been the proper focus on this issue by airlines. These corporations
seem to turn a blind eye to what is happening! Someday this might blow
up in their faces when airlines and countries find themselves are confronted
with a civil case of an Unaccompanied Minor who is trafficked and harmed
because of the known loopholes within airline UM services, or the day
a young jihadi becomes responsible for blowing up your shopping mall,
school or football stadium in Europe or the United States.
We as COT suggest simple
solutions to prevent UMs from being trafficked as much as possible:
- Establishment of a database that stores:
*A minor’s passport + notarized birth certificate
*Notarized municipal records of the person dropping off, and the person
picking up, any child (pref anyone younger than 18) who is traveling
without their parents/unaccompanied.
*Passports of the adult dropping off, and the adult picking up.
*These records should be checked and copied by an airport authority
before releasing the child who is approved to fly and before they leave
the airport with the adult who is picking them up.
- Creation of a simple “UM app” used by all airlines that
connects the information in the database with the authorities.
States and airlines: It’s time to act, protect and respect!
What COT has done to fight
child trafficking
For the last six years Children on Tour has been working to raise
awareness of these issues and the thousands of children worldwide whose
futures have been stolen from them by child traffickers. And now we
need your help! Please support our campaign and break the silence so
that we may see these children protected.
COT has been striving to
further these goals by working with government agencies and non-governmental
organizations that are at the forefront of combatting human trafficking.
COT regularly consults with a former agent of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency
in Washington DC, and has developed a dialogue with Europol Director
Rob Wainwright. Together they have provided a platform to petition even
more professionals engaged in combatting child trafficking. COT continues
to establish links with the Ministries of Justice and the police across
many nations. Authorities in most countries cannot continue to claim
that they are unaware of the loopholes and abuses our research has uncovered.
COT has also been working to establish a dialogue with the European
Union's Commission for Home Affairs and the EU's Anti Trafficking Coordinator.
Although we have yet to receive a promised response to our initial contacts,
we remain optimistic that we can develop a constructive dialogue with
these EU offices in the near future.
Our request
COT continues to endeavor to advance the issue of UM reform onto the
political agendas throughout Europe. COT’s strategy also depends
on promoting public awareness and garnering public pressure to achieve
international review and implementation of the Palermo Protocol and
to convince airlines to respect what is stated in Principle 5(e) of
“The Children’s Right and Business Principles.” We therefore
ask you to support us and join our campaign in any way you can.
Please consider sharing our information, helping us with funding, or
even connecting us with the people who can help in governmental and
non-governmental positions or in the media or publishing sectors. We
also ask people to support our future petitions and letter writing campaigns
in order to demonstrate to elected officials that the public wants action
to close these gaps and loopholes.
The life of a child who is trafficked defies imagination. Wherever these
kids are originally from, please try to see them as “our”
children, coming from our streets and our communities.
We should not let them remain invisible as their lives are being taken
away from them. Neither can we allow networks of people who would perpetrate
such criminal activity to hide in our midst, unopposed. If we are aware
of child trafficking for sex or organ trade, it will usually involve
a child we did not know personally. However, when a child as young as
nine years of age has become a jihadi, suddenly the damage that child
can do to our friends and loved ones becomes incalculable. All children’s
lives are worth saving.
We at COT are dedicated to our cause, and we are confident you will
feel the same.
Visit our website today:
CHILDRENONTOUR.ORG
Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/UnaccompaniedMinor/
