Many eyes and ears have been on Chad as the child trafficking case gets underway. The children, most of which proved to have family, the majority of which contained at least one parent, have been left in limbo. The children who have all been placed in protective custody of the Chadian Social Services, may have to wait months before they are returned to their families. Many of the ‘Kidnap’ children may not get home ever, as it is too difficult to determine their backgrounds.
Legal framework a hindrance in "child-trafficking' case in Sudan and the Congo. Chadian and UN officials say the absence of a child trafficking law in Chad will hamper efforts to prosecute members of the French charity Zoe's Ark, who were arrested in the country while trying to take 103 children to reported host families in France. The lack of a law may pose many issues in prosecuting this case, the largest being trying the case under a lower offence. The case which is to be tried as an abduction case, will be much harder to prove, than that of human trafficking.
"There are no other penalties in the abduction chapter [of the criminal code] stronger than the one we chose. Our penal code is limited. It doesn't cover [many] infractions. There is a gap", said Ahmad Daoud Chari, state prosecutor in Abéché, the eastern Chadian town where the members of the association were arrested.
The failure of the law in this case only highlights the need of so many states and countries to put into place specific laws against human trafficking and slavery. Four Chadian nationals have appeared in court in Ndjamena, charged in connection with the attempted airlift of 103 children to France. The four, officials from the border town of Tine, were charged with “fraud and complicity to kidnap minors.” Six French members of the charity Zoe's Ark, three Spaniards and a Belgian are in jail awaiting trail. A French lawyer, Gilbert Collard, arrived in Ndjamena Nov. 6 to take charge of the charity workers’ defense (BBC). While release was given to the three French journalists and four Spanish airline stewardesses detained under suspected implication in the illegal evacuation of the 103 children.
The case has had the world watching and debating the question of international adoption, especially from Africa, which many have already been left with speculation of too loose of adoption laws. The case has now promoted many other countries to look at the situation in their own country. The Chad arrests prompt suspension of international child adoption, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “I have taken this decision as a precautionary measure,” Aimé Emmanuel Yoka, the Congolese minister in charge of justice and human rights, said on 1 November. A 2006 study, showed that approximately 2,000 children where victims of cross-border trafficking, conducted by the Congolese government, the justice and peace commission and the UN Children's Fund.
While the children of this debacle sit in wait, the debate rages on, and we sit in astonishment and anticipation for the outcome of this case. What the outcome will be for the those accused of trafficking is still a long ways off, and one can only hope that this case will bring much needed attention to lack of laws against human trafficking and slavery.
