children, including those who have run away from home and choose to stay and sleep on the street, who then depend for survival entirely on the street. The second category consists of children who go onto the streets to work and then later go home. They often carry out illicit and petty businesses for survival. 440. The government is responding to this challenge by taking street children to social institutions, orphanages and schools for education. Complemented by the efforts of some CSOs, such as the Centre of Shelters, the government is indeed working hard to protect and shelter these street children. Unregistered Children 441. In 2008, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated the level of birth registration in Mozambique at less than 40 per cent and reported that 94 per cent of children under the age of four were not registered. 33 In some cases, particularly in rural areas, the lack of birth certificates prevented citizens from registering for school, accessing healthcare, being immunised and exercising their right to obtain public documents, such as identity cards or passports. With the assistance of UNICEF, the government is doubling its efforts to register previously unregistered children. Human Trafficking 442. The CRM heard that children are being trafficked in the northern provinces of Mozambique, such as Cape Delgado, Nampula, Niassa and Zambézia, and then transited through Sofala province to Maputo. The traffickers are wealthy businessmen, who even give money to unsuspecting poor parents in order to entice them to release their children. With the consent of their parents, these children are promised a better education and work in Maputo and South Africa. They generally end up in prostitution and servitude in Maputo city, South Africa and some other countries. In response, the government has enacted a new Anti-Human Trafficking law, which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences. Mozambique is also liaising with other SADC countries in the fight against human trafficking, in view of its international and cross-border nature. Geographical Disparity 443. Apart from rural and urban disparity, there is also regional disparity in the central government’s allocation of resources to poor children. Studies by UNICEF have shown that the northern provinces of Nampula and Zambézia host about 40 per cent of all Mozambican children and have the highest levels of childhood 33 United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour: 2008. 2008 Human Rights Report on Mozambique. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119015.htm. 152 A P R M COU N T RY R EV IEW R EP ORT NO. 11