"Restaveks", the modern slaves in Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world, which is why basic needs are more than incomplete. Absent could be said. But from the hand of this problem appears, accepted by society, an even bigger drama: child slaves or modern slavery.

"restavek"It's a nickname that no Haitian boy would want to hear.It's a Creole term (the Creole language spoken in Haiti) that comes from French." stay with (stay with). The restaveks they are children of very poor families, who are entrusted to wealthier families and who, in exchange for household chores, provide them with food and education.

That's the theory because in reality the vast majority of restaveks Children aged 5 to 11 are used for the heaviest tasks in the home eight or ten hours a day. They are malnourished and never receive the promised education because they can not go to school.

As a result of a poor diet, the restavek The average 15-year-old is four centimeters shorter and weighs twenty kilos less than the average Haitian child.

Abuses

"The reality is that they are often victims of physical, badual and mental abuse, as well as food and dreams," according to the Global Slavery Index, published by the Free Struggle Foundation Free Modern Foundation.

This foundation fights modern slavery around the world, involving heads of government, entrepreneurs and religious, and conducts research to create the most comprehensive evidence base: the world's global index. # 39; slavery.

According to this index, one in ten Haitian children is restavekwhich places the small Caribbean country in an uncomfortable international position: the second, surpbaded only by Mauritania, in modern slavery.

What tasks are badigned to these children? Clean houses, carry large buckets of water and take to school the children of families who host them, among many others who do not take into account the danger, for their age, of handle sharp knives or gas wrenches.

The Walk Free report indicates between 300,000 and 500,000 minors in this situation. Of these restaveksOnly 20% are allowed to go to primary school and just 1% go to high school.

And according to information from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) cited in the Walk Free survey, 80% of Haitian children who fall under this regime are subjected to serious physical abuse and 30% are victims of physical abuse. badual abuse.

And more: the vast majority of restaveks They do not return with their families, having left very young, they do not know the way or simply can not afford to travel.

What is the origin of this practice? A cultural problem that was born in the very poor families of rural areas, who gave their children to rich parents. The practice has been extended and, through intermediary recruiters known as "kuchyes "it has become what it is now.

And precisely because it is something rooted in the depths of Haitian culture, it is very difficult to fight and eradicate. The entrance from the outside of the food aggravates the rural problematic and prevents to end the practice of childbirth.

The programmatic plan developed by UNICEF for Haiti was one of the ways to combat this form of modern slavery, in addition to the work being done by other organizations such as the United States. Haitian Institute for Children (IHE), IOM, Humanium Organization and the Organization. Limye Lavi, but it is obviously insufficient.

One of the fundamental problems is the lack of legal regulation whereby, if the deficiencies of the poor family are added to meet the needs of their children, they end up favoring the system of restaveks.

In recent years, the various humanitarian organizations and the Government of Haiti have been keen to make the problem visible. It is a step forward, but only to the extent that the fundamental problem is to solve the extreme rural poverty, to provide elements of work to ensure the economic livelihood and to break the root of slavery that touches the most vulnerable.