The 32 were transported from Katima Mulilo to Victoria Falls by the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs. They were immediately arrested on arrival by Zimbabwean authorities and slapped with a common charge of exiting the country illegally through ungazetted points.
All of them pleaded guilty to the crimes which were committed between 2008 and February 2016. Most of the accused persons told the court they worked as housemaids, garden hands, construction labourers and commercial sex workers, while others confessed to being employed informally in agriculture sector jobs.
According to local radio reports, the majority of the deportees were from Harare. They asked the court to be lenient with them considering that they were coming from the Namibian prison in Katima Mulilo and had endured assaults and other abuses during their incarceration.
Each of the deportees was slapped with a three-month prison term, which was wholly suspended on account of the fact that they were first offenders who had already served time in Namibia.
Post published in: Africa News