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Child Trafficking in Senegal

Child trafficking found at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition.

On the day he decided to run away, 9-year-old Coli awoke on a filthy mat, curled against the cold, pressed between dozens of other children sleeping head-to-toe on the concrete floor.

It was still dark as he set out for the mouth of a freeway with the other boys, a tribe of 7-, 8- and 9-year-old beggars. Coli went between the stopped cars, holding up an empty tomato paste can as his begging bowl.

There are 1.2 million children like Coli in the world, trafficked to work for the benefit of others. Those who lure them into servitude make $15 billion annually, according to the International Labor Organization.

It's big business in Senegal. In the capital of Dakar, at least 7,600 child beggars work the streets, according to a study released in February by the ILO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank. The children collect an average of 300 African francs a day, just 72 cents, reaping their keepers $2 million a year.

Ninety percent of the boys are sent to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. Coli was brought to Dakar with his family's blessing to learn Islam's holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

Not all Quranic boarding schools force their students to beg. But for the most part, what was once an esteemed form of education has degenerated into child trafficking. Nowadays, Quranic instructors net as many children as they can to increase their daily take.

"If you do the math, you'll find that these people are earning more than a government functionary," said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, an Islamic scholar at Columbia University. "It's why the phenomenon is so hard to eradicate."

Adapted from: Rukmini Callimachi, "SENEGAL CHILD TRAFFICKING." The Associated Press. 27 April 2008.