🚨 WHAT THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS ABOUT CHILD TRAFFICKING IN PAKISTAN
- The U.S. State Department says traffickers in Pakistan buy, sell, rent and kidnap children for forced labour, begging, domestic work and child sex trafficking.
- Children are reportedly subjected to sex trafficking around hotels, truck stops, bus stations and shrines.
- The report says boys as young as 6 from Balochistan, KP and Afghanistan have reportedly been lured to coal mines and subjected to sex trafficking.
- In one Balochistan mining community, widespread sexual exploitation of boys was reported in previous years.
- NGOs and police reportedly say some restaurants and factories require boy child labourers to provide sexual favours to get or keep jobs or accommodation.
- The report says children working on the streets are vulnerable to forced begging and sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking.
- It also says some police officers allegedly refused to register cases of child sexual exploitation without bribes.
- The government identified 20,809 sex-trafficking victims, including 921 children, during the reporting period.
- Civil society identified another 238 sex-trafficking victims, including 59 children.
- The report also warns that victim-protection services are inadequate, particularly for male victims, and that some victims face re-victimization.
- Pakistan remained Tier 2 in the 2024 U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report, meaning its government did not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking.
These aren't social-media rumours.
These are findings and reported allegations documented by the U.S. Department of State.
And that raises a simple question:
Before giving billions in aid, shouldn’t the IMF be asking what is happening to children allegedly trapped in systems like this?
Shouldn’t there be accountability before billions are handed over each year to Pakistan?