Mali to send home 46 trafficked Ivorian children

BAMAKO, Mar 6 (Reuters) Malian authorities intercepted 46 boys from neighbouring Ivory Coast being trafficked to Europe and will soon send them home, Mali's Ministry for Family, Women and Children said.

Malian police discovered the group last week in a villa in the southeastern town of Sikasso, where they had spent more than two months waiting for papers from traffickers who charged them or their families up to 300,000 CFA fancs each to get to Europe, officials said yesterday.

''These people are determined and organised,'' said Moussa Tamboura, deputy director at the ministry. He could not say how old the boys were, or what they had expected to do once they got to Europe.

A man identified only as ''Assuman'', who ran a soccer training centre of the same name, had been arrested when some of the boys told a local security official, he said.

Tamboura noted that 27 Malian children had been intercepted in Ivory Coast in December.

''To succeed in moving 20, 30, 40 children at a time, it makes you wonder how effective the controls are,'' he said.

Governments and humanitarian agencies have tried in recent years to curb trafficking of children in West Africa, where traffickers have exploited poor families, sometimes with the promise of a one-off cash payment or the prospect of regular wages for child labourers.

Traditions such as sending children away to be brought up by wealthier relatives or learn a trade have contributed to relative ease with which trafficking occurs.

Many children end up working on farms in countries like Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, or as domestic servants in cities.

Others have been caught up in networks trafficking people from Africa to Europe, where many from the poorest continent try to go in hope of a job and a better life.

Reuters SRS VP0442