Sri Lanka: Sex Abuse Fears as Traffickers Target Orphans

The international aid agency Save the Children Fund (SCF) has warned that the trafficking of children orphaned by the Dec. 26 tsunami could become widespread. SCF staffers in Sri Lanka have found evidence of children being bought for as little as 4,000 rupees (US$92) at a camp for displaced people on the east coast of the island.

"One of our social workers has told us of young children being sold by adults in camps around the town of Batticaloa," said Tahirih Ayn, a child protection officer at SCF's office in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. "We believe two children were sold to traffickers from Colombo. We don't know why they have taken the children but we fear they will be passed on to pedophiles or sold for some other form of exploitation."

SCF is also concerned over the threat of sexual abuse in the camps. "Some affected children are staying with relatives but others have been put into these camps alongside adults," said Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, executive director of Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka's largest indigenous aid agency. "We've had reports by our staff in Hambantota that drunken men have been trying to grab some of the children and take them away."

It is unclear how many children were orphaned or separated from their parents during the disaster, which killed nearly 30,000 people in Sri Lanka alone. At a camp set up in Matara on the southern coast, SCF estimates that 40 percent of those displaced are children.

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