Alphonse Nkunzimana has spent the past few years of his life battling against the odds tackling horrific levels of child slavery in poverty-stricken Haiti.

The aid worker has seen first hand how hundreds of thousands of young Haitians are forced to get up every day at 5 a.m., before working their way through 16 hours of chores at the whim of their masters.

It counts for something, then, when Mr. Nkunzimana throws his weight behind The Royal Gazette’s Break The Chains campaign which demands an end to modern day slavery that blights the world today.

Mr. Nkunzimana, co-ordinator of Haiti’s Trafficking in Persons campaign, has signed an on-line petition calling for world leaders to free at least 12 million men, women and children around the world currently in various forms of captivity, including human trafficking and child labour.

The petition was launched by Anti-Slavery International in the run-up to the official bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and its territories in 1807, later followed by the abolition of slavery itself.

If you need to see child labour in action, you need look no further than Haiti, where about 250,000 children — some as young as four — are currently estimated to be involved in illegal jobs.

Often they are sent by their parents to go and live with richer families, with promises of a better life, where there is more food and water and a better chance of education.

However, they usually arrive to find themselves plunged into child labour, and many lose contact with their own families for ever. “The amount of children working illegally is unbelievable,” said Mr. Nkunzimana. “The children, some of them four years old, have to perform all kinds of things: washing dishes, fetching water, cooking — the kinds of jobs that the family don’t want their own kids to do.

“They get up at 5 a.m. and work for 16 hours every day. It’s something that started back in the day.

“Parents from urban areas would send their kids to work for their friends who were better off, thinking they would get better access to food, water, electricity and education.

“In exchange they did things like the housework. That was 30 years ago.

“Since then, there’s been an increase in the urban population and some areas have been going deeper and deeper into poverty, so that many more children don’t get education.

“They send their child to a village and hope they will do better. But that child can be transferred three or four times before getting to a family and by the end they can have no link whatsoever with their biological family.

“Some children don’t remember their biological families at all they were so young when they were sent out. They just know they have to work.”

Mr. Nkunzimana was made aware of Break The Chains through a relative who lives in Bermuda and agreed to sign the petition straight away.

“I absolutely back the Break The Chains campaign,” he said. “Slavery does not necessarily work like it did before — but there are contemporary forms.

“When you look at anti-slavery campaigns around the world, it’s amazing that people aren’t more aware of what’s going on.

“Governments definitely need to do more to stop it from happening. It’s our job to push them.”

Haiti’s Trafficking in Persons project is doing its own rallying against child labour and has recently embarked on a publicity campaign involving radio adverts and pamphlets.

“I think we have done a great job in raising awareness to the population in general,” said Mr. Nkunzimana.

“Child labour is a growing problem, but for a long time nobody was even willing to talk about it. It was one of those things that just made you uncomfortable. Now people are realising there’s something that needs to change. For the most part, it’s because of the campaign we have been running through the media.

“But still there is work to be done. We are trying to get the Government to adopt laws that prevent and punish incidents of trafficking.

“The Government can also enforce existing laws. There are laws to punish people who abuse children but they have never been enforced.”

More also needs to be done to stop the trafficking of Haitians to the Dominican Republic, the Spanish speaking country which shares the island of Hispaniola, he said.

Many people are duped into leaving the country to take what they are told are proper jobs, only to end up working as slaves.

Mr. Nkunzimana said: “The Government of Haiti should control the border and check with people where they are going when they leave the country.

“Once you get to the Dominican Republic, there’s no recourse and you can be trapped in a modern form of slavery.”

Charities, community groups and religious leaders have also backed our campaign.

* To sign the Anti-Slavery International petition, go to www.antislavery.org/2007/actionsign and fill in your details.

* What do you think? E-mail Tim Smith - tsmith[AT]royalgazette.bm - or call him on 278 0153 with your views.