Source: INSAE, REM - March 2013
333
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Other forms of exploitation:
They include early pregnancies that are observed among 0.31% of girls aged from 10
to 14 and among 5% of girls aged from 15 to 17 (see the above mentioned study on
sexual exploitation).They are listed mainly listed in the rural environment and cause
induce abortions which lead to fatal complications, girls at school represent 79 % of
the cases.
The above mentioned Child Code not yet in force presents interesting provisions on
this issue (art.331 to332), which will contribute to the strengthening of the existing
legal framework; and the new policy of child protection considers all these practices
as vulnerability factors to be eliminated for the child full blossoming.
iv.
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Protection against the sale, trafficking, abduction and begging:
The latest national survey on child trafficking dates from 2008.
This was the national survey on child labour. Child labour implies child trafficking.
According to the destination of the victim in Benin or outside Benin, there is internal
trafficking and external trafficking. Internal child trafficking in Benin has a significant
impact. According to that survey 57,437 children aged 5 to 17 are likely to be in a
situation of trafficking. Trafficking concerns more girls than boys. Indeed, out of more
than 10 children suffering from trafficking, 6 are girls (meaning 63%). This would
explain the fact that girls are more compelled to perform domestic chores, to hawking
of goods, in addition to works involving the use of children. The youngest and eldest
children are more victims of trafficking, but with a greater concentration of children in
situation of trafficking in the group of children aged 14 to 17 who account for 44% of
the concerned children. The greatest proportion (72%) of children victims of trafficking
in Benin live in rural areas. It must said that activities in rural areas build more and
more on child labour force and tend to expose children to harsh working and
subsistence conditions.
As regards external trafficking, Benin can be considered as a hub since the Etiréno
vessel case. It was about a vessel coming from Gabon, carrying victims of trafficking,
mostly Beninese boys and girls.
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Besides, following this scandal which occurred in 2001, hundreds of Beninese
children were also discovered in the gravel quarries of Abeokuta, in the West of
Nigeria nearly 100 kilometres of the border with Benin-Nigeria. Those children
revealed they were exploited in those quarries, working more than 8 hours per day, 5
to 6 days per week.
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Starting from these facts, some analysts have concluded about the existence of the
sale of children in Benin. But the phenomenon of child sale remains to be
investigated. Indeed, studies have revealed that Beninese companies are used to a
tradition of child placement strongly enshrined in cultures as a symbol of solidarity.
But modernization has ended by transforming those solidarity relations into highly
interested relations at the expense of children who are used as human resources, in
households, assigned to domestic tasks or to business activities in markets and to
farming activities in plantations.