A recent investigation by The Guardian found the continent’s £10bn appetite for cocaine has led to forced child labor on an equally massive scale. Increasingly powerful drug cartels are forcing hundreds, possibly thousands, of unaccompanied child migrants to work as drug sellers on European streets. They do this to meet the growing demand for cocaine in cities including Paris and Brussels.

Industrial scale exploitation
The increase in refugees willing to risk their lives to escape grinding poverty or violence and fleeing to Europe over the last decade is well documented. All migrants are vulnerable to increased risks of exploitation and human trafficking, but unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable to becoming trapped in modern slavery. The new investigation shines a light on that vulnerability. Additionally, E.U. police forces warn that the exploitation of African children by Western European cocaine gangs has now reached an “industrial scale.”

Belgian federal police for Europol stated:

“Thousands of unaccompanied foreign minors cross the EU’s borders every year, disappearing without any traceable trail. Many of them are ‘captured’ by criminal circles to exploit them, which worsens their traumas.”

Drug trafficking networks are forcibly recruiting North African minors in increasing numbers to sell narcotics on the streets. Drug cartels view these vulnerable children as an “unlimited” supply of labor. Some sources believe the number of children caught in cartel slavery could run into the thousands. The report cites the latest police data, showing that in 2022, 15,928 unaccompanied children arrived in Europe, and many of them have gone missing.

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