Saving Child Trafficking Victims With DNA

By Fadzli Ramli KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- Children are our most priceless assets, yet there are cold-blooded people out there who would put a price on these innocent souls. There is news of child-trafficking almost every day in the newspapers, on television, radio and the internet. Children are asked to wield weapons to kill others, forced to sell their bodies in dark alleys, work without rest in factories and farms. In other words, they have been turned into modern-day slaves. The question is, how can we stop this modern day child slavery and ensure the despicable parties behind child-trafficking are brought to justice. "Even though they are not your own children, can you stand to see them that way?" asked Dr Jose A. Lorente (picture), Director of Laboratory of Genetic Identification at the University of Granada in Spain. Dr Lorente spoke to Bernama here Thursday after the DNA-Prokids workshop: The Use of DNA to Fight Human Trafficking. DNA-Prokids is a programme he founded in 2004 to fight child-trafficking. What is interesting about the programme is the use of DNA to rescue the victims of child-trafficking and reunite them with their families. DNA UNITES FAMILIES "DNA is really special for us humans, as all members of our family share similar DNA. Your DNA is the same as your children's DNA and your parents’ DNA. "This DNA link is so beautifully created that we can trace back our families and our roots, and this is the foundation of our programme, called DNA-Prokids," he said. In realising the goal in the war against child-trafficking, DNA-Prokids is collecting DNA from two groups -- the children themselves and their family members. Dr Lorente said that children's DNA group was collected from children found living in the streets, shelters, orphanages and illegal adoption centres. "We do a cross match between these two groups of DNA. If we find a match, we will notify the authorities immediately so the children can be returned to their families," he said. DNA-Prokids can also become a tool for the authorities to curb child-trafficking activities and bring those responsible to justice. "We have all the technology available to do this, but the question now is how to make all the countries in the world work together to create a big collective DNA database," he said. DEVELOPING A DNA DATABASE Dr Lorente said the main problem faced by DNA Prokids in developing a worldwide DNA database is the privacy of identity information of the DNA holder. It goes without saying that every country in the world is keen to protect the privacy of their citizens’ identities, especially from the eyes of foreign agencies like DNA-Prokids. "To overcome this concern, we created two sets of DNA databases. The original country, whose database contains all identity information, such as names, pictures, and DNA codes, holds one set. "The other set, a worldwide database, is held by DNA-Prokids. This database only holds the DNA code and reference number. No identity information is available in this database," he said. A DNA match will be run on the DNA-Prokids database, which contains the DNA of both the children and parents. When a match is found, DNA-Prokids will notify the country involved for further action. Since the pilot programme of DNA-Prokids began in 2006 with the collection of DNA in Guatemala, Dr Lorente said, it has succeeded in finding 480 matches and preventing 220 illegal adoptions. "One of our sweetest achievements was in Haiti last year. After the earthquake, 25 Haitian children were taken to Bolivia. Through the DNA-Prokids programme, we found 13 of them who had been reported missing by their parents back in Haiti. "The authorities in Bolivia and Haiti were able to prevent these children from being victims of trafficking by using DNA-Prokids. They were then able to rosecute the culprits using the evidence provided by DNA-Prokids," he said. The cooperation between the two countries was crucial in ensuring the success of DNA-Prokids. For Dr Lorente, his main mission in life is ensuring that DNA-Prokids achieve greater success in the bid of reuniting children to their loving families. COLLECTING DNA FROM ACROSS THE WORLD "Currently, we have 2,700 DNA in our database, but we need more to save the children," said Prof Dr Arthur J. Eisenberg, the chairman of the Department of Forensics and Investigative Genetics from the University of North Texas, United States of America. Dr Eisenberg is one of the main scientists in the programme. He said DNA-Prokids would help countries joining the programme in collecting andanalysing DNA samples. "This can be done by sending the DNA samples to DNA-Prokids. We will do the testing and give back the DNA data to the country. For the countries that have DNA testing facilities available, we will find the common ground to share the DNA database. "We also provide DNA collection kits free to the country. This sharing of information will not endanger individual genetic privacy, as only numerical identifiers will be made accessible to all," he said. However, Dr Eisenberg said it was impossible to have the DNA-Prokids database expanded to include the DNA codes from other world-population projects. "Our DNA collections are voluntary, so we can only use them for the DNA database in fighting child-trafficking. Also, other DNA data may not be suitable because of types and the technologies involved," he said. Dr Eisenberg said the media plays an important role in spreading information on the programme and its efficacy in aiding the search for victims of child-trafficking, as well as its importance to the world population. "People should know they have another way, an effective way, to search for their missing children, and authorities should know that DNA-Prokids is another tool they can use to fight child-trafficking," he said. THE FUTURE OF DNA-PROKIDS "In the future, we hope law enforcement agencies such as immigration can test DNA samples at the site itself. This will take a lesser amount of time, perhaps 45 minutes, compared to around three hours per sample now. "When they get the result they can cross-check it easily with DNA-Prokids database in a matter of seconds. I myself have three daughters and four grandchildren, and cannot imagine my life without them. It is the same for the victims’ parents," he said. Currently, Brazil, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Philippine, Sri Langka and Thailand have signed the MoU to join DNA-Prokids. Malaysia, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, India, Korea, Paraguay, Peru and Vietnam are in talks to sign the MoU with DNA-Prokids. (photoBERNAMA) MALAYSIA