Child kidnapping on the rise

Afghan authorities in the capital Kabul have said that child kidnapping is on the rise. According to Interior Ministry officials, at least 200 children have been kidnapped or abducted over the past 12 months. "The Interior Ministry recognises child kidnapping as a serious issue and is taking positive steps to stop this crime. We have arrested 100 kidnappers in two years and this shows the efforts the ministry is making," Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told IRIN. The UN's children's agency UNICEF is also working to eradicate the problem. "Certainly UNICEF is increasingly concerned at the number of reports of child abductions and trafficking in Afghanistan. We take the reports seriously and are working closely with our partners in the government and at community level to try to reduce the risks to children," UNICEF spokesman Edward Carwardine told IRIN in Kabul on Tuesday. He said that UNICEF was focusing on both prevention and on the reintegration of children who have been intercepted while in the process of being trafficked. This has included training for police officers and border patrols to raise awareness and understanding of the trafficking issue. There has also been training for key government officials. UNICEF is also working with partners on the ground in areas where trafficking has been reported to increase awareness amongst communities themselves, through meetings with village elders and local workshops. The children's agency has also been working with religious leaders and community Shurasa (councils) to promote the value of education, emphasising that the school is a safe environment for children where the risk of abduction was reduced. Afghan authorities say kidnappers are the first link in an international chain of organised criminality that sees the kidnapped children sold as servants and sexual playthings, primarily in Arab countries. Many are killed and their body parts sold. "We seriously condemn the kidnapping of children in this war-torn country and we will have a session with the justice, foreign and social affairs ministries as well as with UNICEF, at which we will call on the government to punish the kidnappers," Babrak Zadran of the child rights department of the Human Rights Commission told IRIN. UNICEF, along with the government, is drawing up a National Action Plan to combat child trafficking that would cover a range of issues from prevention, law enforcement and reintegration of children affected by trafficking. The plan is expected to go to the cabinet for final approval in June.