Child Slavery with Rageh Omaar

[first lines]

Rageh Omaar:
[narrating] I've spent my working life traveling, reporting on some extraordinary events and places and people. But it's the everyday things I find myself thinking about. Logged in my memory are faces, the looks of people I've never actually met. And I'm thinking particularly of children: a boy I remember selling pomegranates on the streets of Kabul; a young girl who used to beg near my house in Johannesburg. I've always just accepted these children, the fact that they're there. And that they work. And that's that. But perhaps because I've children of my own now, I increasingly wonder about them, worry about them even, because I know with my journalist's hat on that each and everyone of them carries a story that would shine a light on the world we live in, and that that world today in the 21st century is a world full of children who still live and work as slaves.

Girl:
I was twelve when I was first taken to the brothel. Right from the start, on my arrival, I felt uneasy. The place gave me the creeps. At first, I didn't really have anything much to do, just help out with cooking for the brothel owners. But then, one evening, a group of men came into my room. I asked them what they wanted. And they told me to go out and receive a client. I said, what am I supposed to do? So they told me, don't worry. You'll know what to do. And if you don't know, you'll soon learn. I said, I was sorry, but I came here to work in a clothing factory, not to do this kind of work. Then they started to drag me out of the room. I began shouting and calling for help. They said, there's no point in screaming. No one's going to help you. They put a gun to my head. I begged them not to kill me. And then another group of men came in. They had electric cables with them. I started to cry and scream, but nobody came. I remember them saying, nobody will dare help you now. I realized it was hopeless. I swore at them and told them they'd all die in hell. But they just told me to shut up and keep quiet, or I'd get the same treatment over again. I just remember crying. Then they left me in my room. They starved me, until I agreed to go with clients. So, during the days, I was kept locked in a cage beneath the brothel. They only brought me food if I went with a client. And I was only allowed out when a client came.

[last lines]

Rageh Omaar:
[narrating] It will take seismic shifts in the world to eradicate child slavery once and for all. Beyond economic reform, it's a matter of education, of human rights, of political and personal will. Perhaps that's above all: the sheer determination, stamina and belief that change is both possible and vital. Because whatever your culture, whatever your starting point, can it be right that a child in the 21st century is still a commodity, that a child can have quite literally a price on his head?