Children in Haiti need protection

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Haiti needs to enact legislation to protect children who are working as domestics in conditions that amount to slavery, an international organization suggests.

Amnesty International announced Wednesday it is launching a campaign to press Haiti's government to protect child domestic workers from abuse, ill-treatment and exploitation.

The United Nations estimated that there were as many as 100,000 Haitian girls working as domestics in 2007. Current Haitian laws do not provide protection for children.

"Most child domestic workers in Haiti live as virtual slaves," says researcher Gerardo Ducos of Amnesty International.

Ducos says girls in Haiti are trapped in a spiral of poverty and violence, often ending up on the street as prostitutes to survive.

"The eradication of this modern form of slavery is the only way to protect the rights of thousands of children," Ducos says.