Bolivia, Chile Meet To Discuss Child Trafficking Problem

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Authorities from Sename, Chile’s national service for minors, met with Bolivia’s equal opportunities vice-minister, Eveling Llanos, in northern Chile last week to discuss the labor abuse of Bolivian children. Several Bolivian police chiefs also attended the meeting, held in Iquique. Many Bolivian children are used in drug trafficking from Bolivia to Chile, or in domestic or agricultural labor in the Tarapacá (I) and Antofagasta (II) regions in northern Chile. According to officials, children are employed for about US$50 to cross the Andean frontier. Bolivia and Chile share about 620 miles of border, meaning that it is relatively easy for couriers to cross over unseen.Sename has reported an increase in the number of such cases. This year, seven children between the age of 13 and 16 were caught transporting drugs into Chile. But according to Gloria Sepúlveda, Sename´s international relations chief, the reported cases are only the “tip of the iceberg” and the number of unidentified crimes is expected to be enormous.Sepúlveda explained that groups of criminals tended to work with obedient, docile children who have no legal documentation and are not included in the Bolivian Civil Registry. “They make sure that the children have no legal status so that they can use them without fear of punishment,” she told local media recently. Many are made to carry out domestic tasks in homes in Antofagasta, Calama, Iquique, Pozo Almonte and Alto Hospicio. Others are given US$10 and sent into the Andes to look after livestock; they are then abandoned and sent food every 15 days. “They are practically slaves; only in very special cases are they discovered,” Sepúlveda said. But in March 2009, policemen found a young Bolivian boy wandering in the Tamarugal Plain, in Tarapacá, with bruises and hypothermia. He was 16 years old, but told authorities that he had arrived in Chile at the age of 13 with other children, who have not yet been found. The child is now under observation in the Ernesto Torres Galdames Regional Hospital in Iquique.Angélica Marín, chief of Sename´s rights protection department, said 113 Bolivian children were under protection in Sename centers in Chile. To take the minors safely back to Bolivia, Sename must coordinate with Bolivian authorities to locate family members. “To solve this problem, it is vital that we increase awareness of the issue in both the Bolivian and Chilean populations, paying special attention to areas in which children are at particular risk to exploitation,” Sonia Lahoz, with the Chile branch of the International Organization for Migration, told The Santiago Times.