Abstract:
The UN Palermo Protocol, Article 3(a) defines trafficking in persons as: “…the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or
other forms of coercion, of abduction, or fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position
of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
The concern of child trafficking has been growing both at global and national level. It also has
become a major social problem in Jimma town, South West Ethiopia. The Problem is widespread
in the town. The objective of this study is to understand the factors, processes and consequence of
child trafficking in Jimma town Bocho Bore Kebele. A qualitative research method was used to
answer the research questions. An in-depth interview and key informant interview was conducted
in Boche Bore Kebele Jimma Town between April and March 2016 to assess the main
factors/causes, consequences, the process or mechanism, and people’s awareness of human
trafficking to fill knowledge gap on the area thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The
findings of the study showed that people were aware of the existence of child trafficking. Even
some people believe it’s legal to exploit children as a house maid. They stated that deceiving and
motivating people to migrate specifically to Jimma town is widely practiced by brokers in hidden
ways. Divorce, early marriage, peer pressure, are the main problems. There are other latent
socioeconomic problems like limited land for farming, population growth, poverty,
families’/relatives’ and friends’ influence, brokers’ initiation, success history of some returnees.
Traffickers use initially persuasive mechanisms and then force immediately after the victims left
their home. Child trafficking and illegal migration is a widely practiced by brokers in the studied
area and almost all people are aware of the phenomenon. Despite government restriction, it remains
challenging since many children have still the intention to move.
