Tapfumaneyi Kusemwa, the IOM Zimbabwe Counter Trafficking Officer, said Zimbabwe will remain Southern Africa’s transit point for human traffickers because of lack of effective legislation..
“We are in a bad situation because we do not have legislation to fight or prevent human trafficking.
“The country will remain a source, transit and destination for human traffickers because of lack of necessary legislation to fight it (human trafficking),” Kusemwa said on Wednesday in Bulawayo addressing journalists during a training workshop.
“We should copy Zambia that now has legislation to fight human trafficking. In Zambia one can be sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for practising human trafficking,” he said.
The IOM official said cases of human trafficking it the country were rampant in Harare, Bulawayo, Plumtree and Beitbridge.
He said Beitbridge was vulnerable because of its proximity to South Africa where trafficked individuals are taken for slave jobs and prostitution. However, he said, it was difficult to get the actual statistics of trafficked individuals.
Kusemwa indicated that the delay by the government to ratify and domesticate the Palermo Protocol to fight the practice is to blame for the increase in human trafficking cases.
Parliament only approved the Palermo Protocol, a United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppresses and Punish human trafficking in July this year.
Post published in: News