The plight of the estimated 173,000 Haitian children trafficked for
domestic work, known in Creole as Restavek, will be the focus of
IOM's awareness-raising campaign to be presented this weekend in
New York.

Working with the Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad (MHLA), IOM
is launching the campaign during the Seventh Annual "KREOLFEST"
which attracts the Haitian diaspora living in the New York
metropolitan area.

Through the Restavek system, parents unable to care for their
children send them to relatives or strangers living in urban areas
supposedly to receive care and education in exchange for housework.
But in reality Restaveks often live in hardship, practically
enslaved to their "hosts", seldom attending school.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates the number
of Restaveks in Haiti at about 173,000; three quarters of them are
girls.

The campaign is aimed to encourage members of the Haitian
diaspora to be aware of the lives being led by these children and
to increase efforts to combat the Restavek phenomenon, the most
common form of trafficking in Haiti.

Joseph Augustin Leprince, General Director of the MHLA, is
convinced that "The Haitian diaspora can help fight against the
Restavek system in Haiti." He has indicated that his Ministry is
committed to working in partnership with national and international
organizations to eradicate this growing problem throughout
Haiti.

The IOM office in Haiti provides assistance to child victims of
trafficking, especially in the neighbourhood of Pilate in the north
of the country. Dozens of Restaveks have been reunited with their
families through IOM's Counter-Trafficking Programme.

The manager of this IOM project, Geslet Bordes, presenting the
new campaign in New York stresses that that the Restavek system
represents a modern form of slavery and a gross violation of the
most fundamental human rights that risks negatively impacting the
country's development and requires immediate attention at national
and international levels.

These IOM activities are funded by the United States Bureau for
Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

For more information contact:

Frislain Isidor

IOM Port-au-Prince

Tel: +509.244.1247 ext. 118

E-mail: "mailto:fisidor@iom.int">fisidor@iom.int