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American Morning

Suspected Slave Ship Shows No Evidence of Children On Board

Aired April 17, 2001 - 09:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Other international news today. There is confusion this morning over a suspected slave ship that had been reported off the coast of Africa. The search centers on the West African nation of Benin.

More now from our CNN producer Stephanie Halasz who is in Benin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE HALASZ, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): As the MV Etireno pulled into the Cotonou Harbor, the United Nations representatives and Benin government officials said they were hopeful that the children believed to be on board of the passenger vessel would now finally be freed. But what was found upon entering the boat were mostly adults and a few children with their mothers.

There is confusion about the identity of the vessel. The Benin social protection minister said the Etireno may have been mistaken with a second ship that, indeed, carried child slaves, but there is no evidence of a second boat.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL: The only boat I've been speaking about is the boat with the 250 trapped children aboard. I don't think this boat exists anywhere. Etireno is here in Benin today with 139 passengers on board, passengers of all different nationalities.

HALASZ: The Nigerian captain of the Etireno says he left Benin on his usual route to Gabon more than two weeks ago with passengers of different nationalities trying to go there to look for work. When the boat arrived, police did not allow the passengers to enter because they lacked the necessary papers. The boat went to Cameroon to refuel and then made its way back to Benin.

The captain and his crew say they are disturbed by radio reports they listen to and that they are not human traffickers. Child slavery is a serious problem in Central and West Africa where children are sold for as little as $14 by desperately poor parents and end up as farm workers, domestic help, or prostitutes.

The question now is, if the children were, indeed, on board of the Etireno, where are they now, or were the children on a different ship or, indeed, if there ever was a slave ship at all.

Stephanie Halasz, CNN, Cotonou, Benin. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com