Background:

On month of June 2003 it was announced through the National Afghan TV, that a number of 700 afghan children who were living illegally in Suadi Arab have been picked up by police and will be deport to Kabul city in different groups, since that time more than 4 groups of these children consisting of more than 200 children have been deported.  

In Principe the ministry of Labor and Social Affair (MLSA) is the prior responsible address for this children, UNICEF support the repatriation of this children by providing shelter, medical care and cloths and also cloths was donated by the NOGs to these children. Normally these children are staying around 2-3 weeks in the center till their relatives or parents could proof them by presenting a legal document called (Waseqa Shraii) to the MLSA.  

Based on a assessment done by UNICEF the majority of these children are from North East and especially from Baghlan province, whom were submit to their parents to go back to their villages. But a concern was raised that some of this child might never get back to their homes and they might be again a victim for trafficking. Therefore a mission was organized to this area.   

Mission Objective:

The objective of the mission was to:

• Sensitize government officials to the issue of child trafficking

• Do a rap up assessment on the situation of the deported children through visiting them and their parents directly.

Mission Overview:

The mission was started from Mazar Sharif where we recived briefing from UNICEF and UNHCR colleagues about the mission and logistic arrangements, the next day we drove to Baghlan where we meet with the UNICEF and UNHCR colleagues, and then the chief police and other officials, then a one day visit was organized to Dahan _e _ Ghori to visit the deported children, the next day was again planed to meet with the authorities and NGOs to sensitize them on the issue of child trafficking in the area. The road travel was arranged to get to Kunduz, and a meeting was organized with the UN/ NGOs and government representatives.

Meetings/ Briefings:

UNICEF Mazar:   at the UNICEF Mazar Office we meet with the representatives of the UNHCR and Mazar office program manager, in the meeting we discussed the objective of the mission and also it was clarified by the 2 present agency that it is the first time we are having a mission to directly visit the children, and also their have not been done any specific action on confronting child trafficking in Mazar. Some logistic points were also discussed and clarified by the UNICEF representative to the mission.

UNCHR Baghlan: by arrival to UNHCR office in Baghlan a briefing was give on the mission plan and also time schedule was made and agreed by every one, it was announced that the governor and deputy governor are not present in the province, so it was agreed to meet with the chief police and other relevant authorities.

Meeting Authority:

A meeting was organized at the office of chief police, where the chief of security division and head of criminal division, head of refuges department, and some other officials. The meeting was started with giving a briefing about the issue of deported children and it was found that non of the officials of the government was aware of the issue and they were totally not been informed about the issue of deported children. 

A copy of the list was submit to the chief police and also the meeting was informed about the new initiative of the UNICEF, AIHRC and MLSA.

It was agreed by the meeting that from now on they list of the children with the children should be submitted to the Department of LSA in Baghlan and they will be responsible to inform other relevant agencies in this regard and the LSA should be the prior responsible organization on the follow up of the issue.

Travel to Dahana Ghori:

The list of the deported children prepared by LSA was reviewed and the selection of district for visit was consulted by the team and based on the time given and the number of children Dahana e-Ghori was selected for visit. Because this location had the 2^nd  high number of children deported and also was accessible based on the time available.

By the good luck when we arrive their. it was a Bazar day and every one from villages was there in the Bazar we stopped at the district chief police office in Dahana-e-Ghori. The chief police was kind enough to help as with finding appropriate people in the districts, first they asked some of the elders of the district and especially village of Darah Kalan, that most of the deported children were came from and by help of the elders we were able to trace some of the cases; as a brief report (full list is attached) out of 45 cases 8 was present in the village, one was moved to City and one went to Pakistan for work and brining money from Hawala sent from Saudi Arab and about 10 of them were living in Pakistan and they never get back to Baghlan since years. They remaining were not known by any body in the district, the residents, elders and district officials. Among these group 6 child was received by one person by the name of Gh.Muhiulldin  which nobody was familiar with him and even the people living in the same village were interviewed, no one were able to know this person. 

It was agreed that the MLSA will send a copy of the photo and other documents related to the above named person so the police office can follow up and find out who this person is. (copy of the interview sheets are attached)

Closing Meeting in Baghlan:

To share the findings of the interviews and to sensitize the civil society groups and as well as the government another meeting were held by the assistance from UNHCR and also the Refugees department at the office of Refugees affair. About 30 people were participated in the meeting whom were representing different government and non governmental organizations.

A briefing was provide to the participants on the objective of the mission and as well as the findings of the mission and also it was made clear that the north east provinces and the Baghlan province is one of the well known places for the trafficking of the Children.

Apparently nobody around the table were experienced working against child trafficking and even nobody was aware of the deporting of these children form Saudi Arab.

After brainstorming and analyzing the problem and the situation in regard of child trafficking it was conclude that this issue is a newly

Also the need for presence of the AIHRC unit was expressed several time and was requested from the commission to have a leading role in the process.

Last briefing in Baghlan:

Before travel to Kunduz we meet with the UNHCR/ UNICEF colleagues to ask them for necessary follow up; it was agreed that bout agencies will facilitate the first meeting of the committee and well provide them with information and materials.

Meetings in Kunduz:

We reached Kunduz late 27 January and on 28^th a meeting was arranged at the UNAMA office participated by UN/NGOs representative, representative of education department, attorney office, police department and court. 

At first participants were briefed about the purpose of the mission and the importance of confronting child trafficking at this stage, then the findings of the mission was shared with the participants and recommendations for the relevant organization at were present, one of the important recommendation for the relevant organizations was to support the capacity building process both at the government and NGO level and share information regarding the child trafficking as wide as possible. At the end comments were made by the participants about the issue. Also it was expressed by the UNICEF representative that the officials in Kunduz already received a series of training on the issue of child trafficking and they are much more organized to confront the problem.

Meeting was closed by the full agreement of the participants on the importance of the issue.

Findings:

• Through out the mission from Mazar e- Sharif to Baghlan and then Kunduz hereby we are presenting the major findings:

• There are less or even not information on the issue of child trafficking with in the GOV and NGO staff,

• Yet a specific action or reaction has not been done to confront trafficking,

• Most of the families interviewed were express that the poor economical situation made them to send their children away,

• The drought effected the north east and especially Baghlan was the main reason for immigration out side country,

• Because getting to Saudi Arab is easier than other countries via Playgramach program to Maca many families get their,

• The relation and communication line between Kabul and provincial offices are very week or at least in the case of deported children their have been no communication with the provincial level authorities,

• Based on the statement by villagers there are a number of religious schools established by Saudi Arab which are mainly part of concern in regard of child trafficking,

• The plantation of narcotics are one of the main reason for child trafficking in the region,

• The lists prepared by the MLSA was not unify and clear enough to help for tracing,

• Many villagers are sending their children out, because they are told that these children will received Islamic training in Pakistan, Arab and elsewhere,

• almost all of the deported children were disappointed and physiologically disturb,

Recommendation:

• Based on the findings from the mission we are proposing following recommendations to the relevant organizations:

• the committee on confronting child trafficking should establish as soon as possible in all provinces or at least in the provinces with a high risk,

• awareness raising sessions, training programs should organized for the relevant authorities as well as for the community,

• In particular the capacity of LSA departments should be build in all provinces to actively lead the process,

• An AIHRC out post or focal point office should be established in Baghlan to monitor and organize anti child trafficking strategies,

• Chief police and other relevant authority should be informed on deported cases at the soonest,

• Department of religious affairs and also department of culture should be involved more deeply with the publicity activities,

• police and security staff should be fully trained on the subject,

•  the reunification and rehabilitation process should start and should be much deep and strong at the home town of these children,

• a data base or registration system should be established by the child protection network across the country to find out the rough number of trafficked children,

• the MLSA colleagues who are responsible for implementing the program should be much more focus and well trained,

• proper forms and system should be established by the MLSA to register the deported children with full identification,

• the certificate (waseqa e Sharaii) should be certified and should be registered either at the office of LSA or Chief police at the district level,

• more attention should be paid to the education system for preventing children from going out side the country,

Closing Remarks:

As closing point for this report I would appreciate the initiative from UNICEF for organizing such mission, which was very much useful in terms of sensitization both for the government/ NGOs and for the families and community as a whole.  

To improve the mission plan in the future followings are some remarks to be considered: 

• the Time given for the mission was not enough and there is a need for a special team to investigate more deeply the cases,

• time spent in Mazar and in Kunduz was not very much useful for accomplishment of the mission objective, instead was useful if we could length the stay in Baghlan in order to cover other districts,

• the mission were not able to meet the governor, deputy governor who were the high level authority at the province level, it is suggested to coordinate more with the field office in  advance so we can get the based use of the time and resources.

Note: it is worth mentioning that the government officials were very much cooperative in Baghlan and assist the mission a lot , especially I would appreciate the assistance from Mr. Shamsullah the head of Refugees affair department and the chief police of Dahana -  Ghori District.

Also I appreciate very much the assistance provided by Mr. Baryali head of UNHCR Baghlan, who contribute a lot for the success of this mission.