Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-17-Speech-4-214"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-05-17"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Forced labour by African children2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010517.10.4-214"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-05-17-Speech-4-2152
lpv:speaker	lp:Johan Van Hecke2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Temporary committee on the Echelon interception system (2000-07-06--2001-09-05)3 vice-chair; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (1999-09-14--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Christelijke Volkspartij (1999-07-20--2001-09-30)3 member; EPP-ED (1999-07-20--2002-09-17)3 substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, according to UNICEF, 200 000 children are traded annually in West and Central Africa. Poor families in debt give their children on loan to the creditors as deposit, or to pay off their loans. However, because they cannot get out of the red, the children are often sold and moved to other countries. There they are used as household helps, unpaid workers on cocoa or cotton plantations, or employed in the sex industry. Child traffickers rarely get caught or punished. The discovery of the Nigerian ship in the port of Cotonou is probably only the thin end of the wedge. The international labour organisation estimates that there are 250 million child slaves worldwide. Surely it is unacceptable that practices such as trafficking in children and slavery still exist, and even thrive, in the twenty-first century. We should therefore put more mechanisms in place to track down and punish the trade in and use of child slaves. The legal apparatus should be given far more resources and be better equipped to fight malpractices of this kind, and multinational companies must abide by the moral code not to abuse children for commercial purposes. At the same time, we must have the courage to tackle the underlying causes: poverty and unemployment. Let us hope that the pledge of debt discharge which was made at the Conference of the Least Developed Countries in Brussels this week is kept, and that our markets will at long last be opened up to agricultural products from those countries, so that we can give those people something to sell other than their children."@en1

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