Children of war #16: child trafficking in Yemen
An opinion piece warns that the war in Yemen has opened the country to human traffickers, and that its children are being sold for sexual exploitation.
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A country in pain
Yemen stands in pain and in blood. Its borders have been breached, its skies darkened and its people blockaded.
The author argues that Yemen has also become a new playground for human traffickers, and that its children are now exposed to the open sexual exploitation of minors.
A trade carried out in the open
Few nations are free of child sexual abuse. But, in the author's view, most have been spared its open commercialisation: no group has dared to build an industry on it in broad daylight, without fear of prosecution.
The author accepts that sex trafficking is a flourishing part of the international black economy. The difference, in the author's view, is that the criminals in Yemen act openly. They taunt the communities they prey on and believe that powerful patrons protect them.
A regional pattern
The author sees Yemen as the latest country to fall to a well-organised system in which human misery is traded. The piece points to countries that, in the author's words, have suffered at the hands of Wahhabi radicals: Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and now Yemen.
In all of them, the piece says, sex traffickers have targeted vulnerable communities and sold their children into a system that profits from child abuse.
Gaps in the law
Because of the fragile political situation, the government faced serious obstacles in fighting trafficking. These included internal security threats, weak institutions, systemic corruption, a weakening economy, limited control of its territory and poor law enforcement.
The government made no visible effort to enforce the law against trafficking. Investigations and prosecutions were held back because no law criminalised all forms of trafficking, and because the government treated trafficking and smuggling as the same thing.
Article 248 of the penal code criminalised slavery, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. These penalties were strict enough and, for sex trafficking, in line with those for other grave crimes such as rape. But Article 248 focused narrowly on transactions and movement. It therefore did not cover many forms of labour and sex trafficking as defined under international law.
Article 279 criminalised child sex trafficking under its "child prostitution" provision. It set penalties of up to seven years in prison, rising to 15 years in aggravating circumstances. These penalties were also strict enough and in line with those for other serious crimes, such as rape.