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Human traffickers preying on children in Aceh: UNICEF

JAKARTA: Human traffickers are preying on children made homeless or orphaned by the tsunami disaster in the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday. UNICEF’s spokesman for Indonesia, John Budd, told AFP there had been one confirmed case of a child being smuggled out of Aceh to the nearby North Sumatran capital of Medan for trafficking purposes. And he said UNICEF’s Malaysian office had received an SMS on Tuesday advertising 300 orphans from Aceh aged between three and 10 who could be bought. “It’s chilling,” Budd said. “What this indicates is that they have got children or they have a network where they can identify a child and take them.” The Indonesian government has also moved to head off the trafficking of children from Aceh by placing a ban on any child under the age of 16 leaving Aceh without their parents. “The aim of the travel ban is to ensure there is no adoption and to prevent any sale and trafficking of children from Aceh,” Social Affairs Ministry spokesman Heri Krisitanto told AFP. afp

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