Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed the scandal of hundreds of children sold into slavery in Britain. Now David Harrison hears the story of one of the trade's young victims

"She hit me over the slightest thing. Once she pushed me down the stairs and attacked me with a shoe. She was hitting me everywhere and screaming that she would beat me to death. If her brother hadn't pulled her off, I think she would have killed me."

Dayo Adeyeni is perched on a sofa in a house in south London and telling how, as a child of 13, she was taken from her poverty-stricken parents in Nigeria and sold as a slave to a middle-class couple in London.

Her parents, who lived with their five children in one room, had been persuaded by a distant relative to let their daughter be taken to England for a good education and a "better life".

Weeks later, Dayo was flown to Britain on a fake passport and visa. At Heathrow she was handed over to a couple in their thirties, whom she had never met before, and they drove her to their house in north-west London.

As she sat in the back of the car, looking out at a strange new city, Dayo was nervous. But she still believed that she was going to live with a loving family. One day, she thought, my parents will be proud.

The shocking reality was that this frail, shy, 13-year-old girl was about to start a five-year ordeal. Every day brought a succession of chores, abuse and violence.

Dayo's work started as soon as she woke up at 6.30am. If she overslept, her alarm call was a hard slap across the face and a barrage of insults from the mother, a civil servant.

While other children her age were going to school and mixing with friends, Dayo shopped, cooked and cleaned. She had to wash, dress and feed the couple's three children, and cater to the mother's every whim, including back and shoulder massages on demand.

The work stopped only when she collapsed into bed at around 10pm. "I cried myself to sleep every night," she says. "I was lonely and afraid. I just wanted to go home."

Any minor failing, real or imagined, was punished with beatings. "She hit me on the knees with the frying pan once because I had forgotten to put spices on the meat," says Dayo, her brown eyes staring into the distance.

"And she liked to hit me with a big, heavy wooden spoon, usually on the legs or arms, but sometimes on my back or my head."

Dayo says the husband, a security officer who worked nights, ignored her as long as she obeyed orders. But the mother, a regular churchgoer and self-proclaimed "born-again Christian", was unrelenting.

"She called me a bushgirl and told me I was useless all the time, and that I would never do anything with my life."

Although bright and articulate at her primary school in Nigeria, Dayo was never sent to school in Britain. She was not allowed to eat with the family, and was confined to the kitchen or her tiny bedroom - which was also the laundry room - whenever the family had visitors.

"They stole my childhood and my education," she says. "To them I wasn't a person, just a slave."

Dayo was banned from contacting her family back in Nigeria's Ondo state and has not seen them since she was taken from her home.

"One day my brother called and the woman grabbed the phone and screamed: 'She is fine, OK? Don't you ever call here again.'"

The mother taunted Dayo about her helplessness. "She would say to me: 'I can do whatever I like to you. You are under my control now.'"

Dayo is certain that her parents were duped into believing that she would be well looked after. They would not know that, after leaving her home, their youngest child was taken to a hill near Lagos and forced to undergo exorcism rites, praying and fasting for three days.

"They said I was a witch-child and they had to get rid of the evil spirits before I went to England."

Once she was "cleansed", a university professor took Dayo to the British High Commission in Lagos, where he used a passport obtained by producing a fake birth certificate to get her a visa.

Dayo finally escaped from her captors in Britain after five years of abuse. Traumatised, confused and with no papers to prove who she was, she ran away and slept on the floors of friends she had met when she was allowed to enrol on a computer course for one day a week.

In 2006, she came across "child trafficking" on the internet and realised what had happened to her. She went to the police and told them her story. They said they would get back to her. They never did.

Dayo's story is not unique. Other child victims of the traffickers, who escaped from their captors, told The Sunday Telegraph how they were tortured by the families they had stayed with, including being forced to kneel or stand on one leg for up to two hours.

One girl was beaten over the head repeatedly with a large, frozen fish. Some were sexually abused.

Some of the girls who escape fall into the hands of predators who push them into crime and prostitution. Those who come to the attention of the authorities are often brusquely deported as illegal immigrants.

Debbie Ariyo, the executive director of the charity Africans Unite Against Child Abuse, says she has urged the police to investigate claims by girls in north London that they are being used as domestic slaves.

"The police say it is a closed community - but that is an excuse. Slavery is slavery and they should go and talk to the girls and the families. This cannot be swept under the carpet."

Vernon Coaker, a Home Office minister, maintains that child trafficking is a "top priority" for the Government. Later this month he will announce the introduction of special units at several councils to protect child trafficking victims.

Some 600 immigration officers have been trained to spot victims entering the country, borders and passport and visa security have been tightened, and police raids have resulted in dozens of arrests.

"It's a constant battle," Mr Coaker admits. "A few years ago nobody would have believed this was happening in 21st-century Britain. But it is. It's modern-day slavery and we are determined to stamp it out."

Such promises have come too late for Dayo. Two years on, and now 20, she is slowly rebuilding her life. She lives in a small room in a council house in south-east London, sharing a bathroom and a kitchen with several other people, and survives on benefits of £30 a week.

Dayo admits her ordeal has scarred her, but has applied to remain in Britain and wants to make a success of her life.
"I want to study hard and become a nurse," she says. "I want to prove I'm not useless."

She has one other ambition: to see her family again. "My father's old now and I want to see him before he dies."

A study conducted by the International Labour Organization in Africa indicates that child trafficking is the next most lucrative business after dealings in arms and drugs.

The study also reveals that globally over 1.2 million children are trafficked annually out of which between 200,000 to 800,000 occur in Africa, whereas 200,000 children are trafficked each year in West Africa.

However, here in Ghana, 2003 survey report from the Ghana Statistical Service estimated that a total of 1.27 million children who were engaged in child labour are linked to internal trafficking situation.

This situation, the report noted has been made possible because Ghana has become a source, transit and destination point of victims of child trafficking whereas no practical efforts have been made by the country's security agencies to drastically correct the situation.

The National Programmes Coordinator of the International Labour Organisation, Mr. Mathew Dally who made this revelation at the official launch of Child Trafficking Awareness Raising Campaign in Kumasi Thursday said the situation was disheartening and needed urgent holistic approach to combat child trafficking/ labour.

The awareness raising campaign attracted groups like Ghana Employers Association, industrialists, Educationist, key government officials/politicians, religious bodies, NGO's CBO’s, traditional leaders, senior civil/public servants as well as the media.

According to Mr. Dally, the campaign will be carried out in industries, geographical areas, schools and communities with the involvement of the various Regional Coordinating Council, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies as well as traditional authorities.

The ILO Coordinator explained that the purpose of the function was to prepare the atmosphere for the public to know how committed the government was to eliminating the canker from the country.

To him, until the chronic problem of poverty, ignorance, obnoxious cultural practices, economic inequalities are effectively and adequately addressed, the fight against child labour and trafficking would not be won anytime soon. Mr. Dally also that "high unemployment rate and demand for cheap labour, inadequate border controls and insufficient educational facilities are also factors contributing to child trafficking in Ghana.

He said most children who fall prey to such traffickers are subjected to hardships and are often denied access to quality education.

"Trafficking victims work long hours in harsh inhumane conditions, deprived of education, denied basic healthcare, adequate nutrition and might be subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse. They are treated like slaves and loose all their human rights. Often subjected to hazardous working conditions and confined to the work place and suffer long term psychological disorders". He therefore called on everybody to get involved in the fight against child labour/ trafficking in the country.

Nana Ampofo Twumasi, Asemhene, who represented the Asantehene, Otumfour, noted that since most trafficked children are often exposed to all kinds of inhumane activities like prostitution and selling at nights, they could be subjected to rape and defilement.

He said the Ashanti Region was much interested in the fight against the eradication of the problem and will render its outmost support to the government as well as the ILO to help make their awareness creation campaign a success.

KABUL, 3 February 2008 (IRIN) - The recent sale of three Afghan girls in separate incidents by parents blaming extreme poverty for their actions has sparked concern about the safety of poor children in Afghanistan and the lack of adequate legal mechanisms to effectively curb such trade.

Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has expressed alarm over the sale of the children, who came from Herat, Kunduz and Takhar provinces.

“We are shocked over these cases,” Hangama Anwary, AIHRC’s commissioner on the rights of children, told IRIN in Kabul. “They pose a serious warning about a possible catastrophe which may affect poor Afghan children.”

In early January, a displaced family in Shaydayee camp in Herat Province, in western Afghanistan, reportedly sold one of their twin four-month-old daughters for 2,000 Afghanis (US$40) due to their inability to feed both babies.

On 27 January, the parents of a nine-month-old girl in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz Province sold their daughter for US$20, the human rights commission confirmed. In addition to being very poor, both parents suffered from walking disabilities.

In neighbouring Takhar Province, another nine-month-old girl was sold for US$240, local Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported on 28 January quoting the provincial governor.

In all three cases only female children were offered for sale.

Philanthropic assistance

As a result of philanthropic financial contributions and assistance by government officials and local people, all three children have been safely returned to their parents, provincial officials say.

The parents of all the children have received financial assistance and the disabled parents have since been accommodated in a government-run home at the behest of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Legal or illegal?

All the parents denied any wrongdoing but called attention to their inability to feed their children due to extreme poverty.

Those that paid for the children also felt they had done no wrong as they intended to protect the children from hunger and cold.

While over 50 percent of Afghanistan’s 26.6 million people are estimated to be bellow 18 years of age, the country still does not have specific laws related to child abuse and the sale and trafficking of children.

“We are currently working to draft a law which will address various issues related to child abuse,” Anwary of AIHRC said.

However, all forms of child exploitation are prohibited by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Afghanistan is a signatory.
According to Article 35 of the convention, the state must make every effort to prevent any form of “abduction of children or sale of or traffic in children”.

The abuse and sale of children is also prohibited by Islamic Sharia law, which is the major source of nearly all laws and regulations in Afghanistan.

Stop further selling

AIHRC is concerned that the publicity derived from the recent cases of girls being sold may provoke other vulnerable parents to sell their children, particularly girls, in a bid to gain sympathy and financial assistance.

“We want the government to tackle the sale and abuse of children by their parents in a systematic, transparent and legal way, and not in an individual sympathetic manner,” said Anwary, adding that the living conditions of poor families must be improved to end the vulnerability of their children.

Plagued by decades of conflict, Afghanistan is the fifth least developed country in the world with over half of its population living below the poverty line on less than US$1 a day, according to the country’s 2007 national human development report.