Afghanistan: Selling children to save lives

About 80 percent of Afghanistan's displaced people who have been forced to flee their homes since August are women and children. Following the Taliban take control of Afghanistan in August last year and the subsequent cessation of international aid, poverty has been widespread.

According to a report published by the Associated Press last month, Afghanistan's economy is on the verge of a complete collapse, and this has led many families in Afghanistan to sell their children to save their lives.

According to Anatolian field reporters, some families have sold their children for between $ 1,000 and $ 3,000.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has described reports of child trafficking in Afghanistan as "deeply worrying," and UNICEF Executive Director said in a statement: "We have received credible reports that some Afghan families sell their children, even their 20-day-old daughters for a forced marriage in the future, in exchange for money."

On January 26, the Washington Post reported from Afghanistan that widespread hunger in the country has led citizens to sell their children cheaply.

The phenomenon of child trafficking in Afghanistan is unprecedented, and reflects the fact that the economic situation in this country has reached the peak of the crisis. The exact number of children who are victims of this phenomenon is not yet known.

According to UNICEF, 28,500 children have been killed and injured in armed conflict and insecurity in Afghanistan since 2004. This figure represents 27% of the total child deaths in the world.

_{Source and Credit: AP, Guardian, Euro News, Pars today}