In WEST AFRICA, an alleged slave ship snafu reflects the trauma of an ongoing business of marketing children as forced labour.

Africa has the highest rate of child labour in the world: 41% of 5 to 14 year olds work. Many children simply help on the family farm or look after younger siblings. But some are bought or taken from their parents and forced to work. Most child slaves come from the poorest countries, such as Benin, Burkina, Faso or Mali, where up to 70% of the people live on less than £1 a day. "These people are in areas where there are no options for children, no schools and no jobs," says Beth Herzfeld, spokeswoman for Anti-Slavery International, a London based advocacy group. "They don't have the belief that they can build a future for their families."
And so parents sell their children for as little as £15, in the hope that the children will find a better life in a relatively affluent neighbouring country such as Ivory Coast or oil-rich Gabon.
Local traditions fuel the problem. In the past it was normal for West African families to send a child to stay with richer relatives in the city and for newlyweds to hire a young village girl to cook and clean for them.