Criminals May Be Trafficking Orphans

Fears are growing for children orphaned in the tsunami disaster after a senior UN official warned of credible reports that criminal gangs in Indonesia are offering them for adoption or exploitation.

Carol Bellamy, executive director of Unicef, said yesterday that organised syndicates were exploiting the crisis in Aceh province. "They have been using sophisticated technology such as SMS messages to people throughout this region offering children for adoption," she said, citing reports from Unicef's partner agencies in Indonesia.

She continued: "Whether it is [for] adoption or exploitation purposes or sex trafficking, these are criminal elements so it is very important not to let them get a foothold."

Sri Lanka is already compiling a register of orphaned children to forestall attempted trafficking there.

Indonesia yesterday said it was investigating the rumours of child trafficking to Java and abroad but that there was as yet no evidence to substantiate the reports.

Commander General Suyitno Landung said officers were paying particular attention to Medan, a city south of Aceh. "They've been tasked to check refugee camps as to whether children there were evacuated with their families or with other people," he said. "The data will be compiled and crosschecked."

On Monday the government banned Acehnese under-16s from leaving the country.

The Medan-based Aceh Sepakat Foundation has found evidence that 20 Acehnese children have been smuggled out of the province since the disaster, according to yesterday's Jakarta Post newspaper,

It quoted an Aceh Sepakat manager, Mazria, as saying that the children were allegedly whisked to Malaysia and the city of Bandung in West Java by an unnamed organisation in Medan.

Gen Landung said traffickers tend to use one of three methods: posing as members of a charitable foundation, as relatives or as a foster parent.

The Jakarta Post also reported that an unnamed foundation was offering Acehnese children for fostering via cellphone text message.

Indonesian social affairs ministry data shows that about 35,000 Acehnese children lost one or both of their parents in the disaster.

A ministry spokesman said yesterday that the department was doing all it could to prevent child trafficking. "We are taking these reports very seriously and are doing all we can to prevent the children who lost their parents in the natural disaster from becoming victimised again," he said.

In Sri Lanka, Unicef says there are no confirmed cases of abduction but it is working with the government to register every child in the country's makeshift refugee camps.

"The aim is to identify and register all children, separate those who are unaccompanied from the rest of the camp population, and arrange for fostering, preferably by a member of the extended family, or otherwise by a reputable foster carer," Ted Chaiban, Unicef's representative in Sri Lanka said last night, adding that these displaced children were particularly vulnerable.

The teams have already finished in Galle and Batticaloa and plan to have covered the whole country within the next five days.

The definition of "orphan" in Sri Lanka is wide, Mr Chaiban added, and can mean a child who has been deliberately abandoned by a parent.

Some children in camps have an older brother or sister with them, so although they may have lost their parents, they are not necessarily without close family protection.

Laura Conrad, press officer of Save the Children, said there had been a few "fairly unsubstantiated reports" of adults in eastern Sri Lanka making false claims to be children's parents. "The vast majority of children are being extremely well cared for by relatives in very difficult circumstances," she added.