Mozambique: SADC Fights Against Human Trafficking

allAfrica.com: Mozambique: SADC Fights Against Human Trafficking

27 May 2009

Maputo — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is designing a response to the growing threat posed by human trafficking.

To this end, a three day technical meeting of the organization began in Maputo on Tuesday to prepare a forum of ministers on the matter. The objective of the meeting is to design a regional strategy to fight against the trafficking in people, which mostly affects women and children

Opening the meeting, Mozambique's Minister for Women's Affairs and Social Welfare, Virgilia Matabele, defended the need for coordinated action among SADC member states.

'Trafficking in human beings is a concern to every country across the world, and to SADC in particular", she said. "This practice is the most degrading form of crime. It is necessary to find a way to prevent this kind of practice, that affects particularly women and children, and we feel that there is a need for coordinated action to fight against this evil".

One of the weak points in the fight against trafficking is the lack of specific legislation on the matter in most member states. Mozambique was the first SADC member countries to adopt a specific law banning trafficking in people. It was followed by Tanzania and Zambia, and South Africa and Malawi are working on it.

Speaking to reporters after the opening session, Lurdes Mabuda, head of the police department dealing with crimes against women and children, said the Mozambican police are investigating cases of trafficking of children involving two young girls, one aged 25 and one just 14 years old, who were being transported in a vehicle to South Africa, allegedly to be employed as maids.

Mabunda said the 25 year old was recruited at Palmeiras about 90 kilometres north of Maputo. On its way to South Africa, the vehicle stopped at a house in the Maputo suburb of Xipamanine, where the 14 year old was picked up.

But the police intercepted the vehicle, and when the person accompanying the girls was interrogated "he said that he did not know them, though they had declared that they were going to South Africa with him", said Mabunda. "We had to interrupt the journey, and the case is now under investigation".

Another case was reported in Inhambane province, where a woman was found transporting 10 children aged under 15. She was supposedly taking them to jobs in Mabalane, in the neighbouring province of Gaza, but the police found them in Maputo.

According to Mabunda, the woman was intending to take those children to South Africa. "This is a case of human trafficking where adults are involved or were used by relatives who are living in South Africa to recruit children, allegedly to find jobs, but the true objective is only found out at the end of the journey", she said.

"It is normal in Mozambique to have people easily accept proposals of good jobs even if they don't knowing whether the people recruiting them are suitable", said Mabunda. "Often those recruited do not even know where they are supposed to be working and end up being trafficked and used for other purposes".

The regional network against human trafficking, SANTAC, estimates that about 1,000 Mozambicans are trafficked to South Africa every year. They are enticed with the promise of employment, but end up in illicit activities, such as prostitution, and drug trafficking.