African News Agency : Welcome

New York, 21 Dec - (ANA) - A United Nations independent expert has called on the Government of Madagascar to take “urgent measures” in its fight against poverty, saying poverty was the driving factor in the island's slavery epidemic. “Human rights cannot thrive in an environment of extreme poverty,” the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, stated at the end of her first-ever visit to the African country. “Madagascar’s experience has shown the extent to which men, women, and children suffering from extreme poverty end up living in conditions of contemporary forms of slavery such as domestic servitude, child slavery in mines and quarries, bonded labour, and servile marriages,” Ms. Shahinian said. She noted that many parents across Madagascar are “desperately poor” and are often faced with few alternatives regarding employment and where to send their children to school. As a result, the children, who are frequently undernourished and suffer from chronic hunger, are doled out across the countryside as domestic workers in order to pay off rising debts or simply to help feed the family. In addition, many girls and boys are forced to marry against their will and at ages as young as 10 years old, despite laws to the contrary. The UN expert also pointed out that many children were illegally working in Madagascar’s artisanal mining and quarrying sector, often living in remote areas plagued by violence and lawlessness where they were exposed to rape, prostitution and potentially fatal health hazards. (ANA)