A slave ship carrying up to 250 children was expected back in Benin last night after being turned away from two nearby west African countries.
UNICEF was preparing to receive the boat on its return to Benin's commercial capital, Contonou, from which it was believed to have departed two weeks ago on a 2,000 km round trip.
The vessel was denied permission to dock this week in the capitals of Gabon and Cameroon.
UNICEF's representative in Cotonou, Ms Esther Guluma, said the number of children on board was estimated at between 30 and 250, adding that steps were already being taken to rehabilitate them.
"The government, through the ministry of social protection, as well as UNICEF and NGOs, will try to put in motion programmes to ensure that children will be put in centres and their origin can be identified.
"According to our information, they are children from Togo and Benin," Ms Guluma said, "and we will try to find their parents." She said the boat, the Etireno, was registered in Nigeria but "rented by a Benin national according to a probe by Interpol".
According to Benin port authorities, it regularly travelled between the Togolese capital, Lome, Cotonou and the Gabonese capital, Libreville, carrying vehicles and passengers.
An official said the boat left Cotonou about two weeks ago. It was turned away from Douala in Cameroon on Thursday.
Trafficking in children has assumed serious proportions in Benin, claiming several hundred victims each year who fall prey to organised rings.
Desperately poor parents often forsake their children for payments ranging from £12 to £18 to agents who promise to educate them and get them jobs to earn a livelihood.
The children eventually end up working for exploitative farmers in Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
Their masters "buy" them from the agents for between £160 and £240. Among the backbreaking tasks imposed on such children is work on the cocoa and coffee plantations.