Combating Children Trafficking By Using DNA

By Fadzli Ramli KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (Bernama) -- The global trafficking of children for illicit adoption, prostitution, forced labour or recruitment of minors as child soldiers are a serious problem of international concern. According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime’s (UNODC) website (www.unodc.org) an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, and 20 per cent of the victims of human trafficking are children. The problem is indeed serious but law enforcement alone cannot combat this inhuman crime, so in 2004 a scientist from University of Granada, Spain -- Dr Jose A. Lorente -- suggested a unique programme to combat human trafficking by using DNA. Program for Kids Identification (DNA-Prokids) seeks to come up with worldwide DNA registries to be made up of parents with a missing or abducted child, homeless children found living on the streets or in shelters, and children found in orphanages or illegal adoption centres. DNA-Prokids (www.dna-prokids.org) aims to identify missing children, to reunite abducted and homeless children with their parents and to provide law enforcement agencies a scientific method to help combat children trafficking. "This program also aims to gather information on the origins, the routes and the means of this crime (police intelligence), a key elements for the work of police forces and judicial systems. "The goal was to not limit the scope of research to domestic crimes but to spread results worldwide with aim of boosting international fight against human trafficking," the DNA-Prokids website said. DNA-Prokids has five main objectives in order to combat children trafficking. The first one is promoting international and systematic collaboration, thus creating a worldwide database with genetic information. The second objective is studying and applying improvements to enable police and judicial systems to fight more effectively human trafficking, especially children and women. The third and fourth objectives are analysing and suggesting a common legislative framework and solving social communication problems that hamper the effective fight against human trafficking. "The fifth and last objective is providing collaboration for coordination and training specialist in genetic identification from different countries," the website said. There are now eight countries that have existing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DNA-Prokids. These are: Brazil, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Malaysia and eight other countries, namely Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, India, South Korea, Paraguay, Peru and Vietnam are still in the process of signing a memorandum with DNA-Prokids. On Nov 14 there will be a pre-symposium about DNA-Prokids here. Meanwhile, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, the special representative and coordinator for the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said there were so many children vulnerable to trafficking. "They include boys and girl from abusive or dysfunctional families, the child of drug addicts, child victims of domestic violence, the child belonging to ethnic minorities, the child left behind by migrating parents, orphans and children in institutions. "These vulnerable children often come to the attention of the public authorities at some stage and we need to be aware and take opportunities to intervene and strengthen the protective environment around children," she was quoted in the UNODC website. -- BERNAMA Malaysia