Boatload of Children at Risk of Slavery Turned Back to Benin

COTONOU, Benin —  A boat carrying scores of children believed to be destined for slavery was headed back to Benin after being turned away from ports in Cameroon and Gabon, government officials said Friday.

The boat was thought to have left Cotonou clandestinely about three weeks ago.

Government officials said they believe that about 100 children were aboard and that they had come from Benin and neighboring Togo.

Child trafficking has become a serious problem in Benin and other parts of West and Central Africa, where aid workers say desperately poor parents give up their children for as little as $14 to smuggling rings who promise to educate them and find them jobs.

Most of the children end up working abroad on plantations or as domestic workers for little or no money, aid workers say.

Moussa Zoumarou, director of Benin’s Social Welfare and Women’s Affairs Ministry, said he was informed about the boat by officials in Douala, Cameroon.