A chocolate boycott would hurt the Ivory Coast

It says that it had no idea what was going on on its plantations, and that, if there are child slaves in the Ivory Coast, then they are only to be found on plantations owned by foreigners.

The government claims that Malians and Burkinabe bring their young relatives to the Ivory Coast to work for them without wages.

Success claim

The authorities are already claiming some success in intercepting and sending back groups of children.

Now they have summoned all the law enforcement agencies to a meeting to lecture them on the need to take child trafficking seriously, to arrest the perpetrators, and take the children into custody until they can be handed over to their consular authorities.

The government is also threatening to prosecute transporters and impound their vehicles if groups of children are found on board.

The heavy emphasis on the cocoa industry is clearly the result of the bad international press, and fears of a boycott of the Ivory Coast's most important crop.

So far there has been far less interest in the fate of the little girls who are also brought to Ivory Coast in large numbers to work as child minders and kitchen maids.