Child slaves, 8 years on | France 2 | la suite

Sitting on the step of his house, the man tries to convince us that he’s just any other boss. “These days, adults want work that demands no effort, like office jobs. So, because they won’t do the arduous jobs anymore, I’m forced to take children in their place. But it’s a good thing for the children, too, because they learn a trade. This means they don’t become lazy or delinquent”. Flanking their boss, the little workers of around 15 years old, listen to him describing their daily round as slave labour. And they don’t react. All day long they break stones in a quarry or lug sacks of sand on the banks of the river that flows down below. Child slavery hasn’t ended in this region lying in the east of Nigeria. Daniel Lainé went back to Africa to find Paulin, Clementine and Anifa. Eight years ago, our crews met these three child slaves. At that time they had been taken in by charitable associations that sometimes seemed overwhelmed by the scale and violence of the phenomenon. What has become of Paulin, Clementine and Anifa?