THE captain and crew of a vessel suspected of ferrying children destined for slavery appeared in a Benin court on Monday, judicial sources said in the capital Cotonou. The investigating magistrate in charge of a probe into the status of 43 minors aboard the ship heard Nigerian Lawrence Oghototuya and his crew, who had been held at the Cotonou police station from Friday through Sunday. Officials of the children’s advocacy group Terre des Hommes, which has been caring for the children since they disembarked in Cotonou early last Tuesday amid suspicions that they were for sale, said they had not yet been questioned. “Police have not yet questioned the children and no parent has so far turned up” to identify or retrieve a child, a Terre des Hommes worker said. However the group said the children were well. – AFP