In most of the cases, the victims are promised well-paying jobs in countries in the southern African region—particularly South Africa and Botswana—and beyond. Most of them pass through the border posts without documentation and once at their final destinations, they are subjected to inhuman treatment, denied food and wages, and are unable to escape because they have no papers and know no-one in the countries to which they have been taken.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable. The traffickers take advantage of the poverty in source countries to convince their victims that the grass is greener where they would be going. Women and girl children often end up as sex slaves while the boys and men are forced to engage in illegal activities for little or no pay.
Many of the victims have little education, a condition that makes them easy prey. They have little knowledge of the law and do not how to act when they find themselves in difficult situations.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) acknowledges that human trafficking is difficult to deal with due to the absence of proper legislation and research, but admits that the problem is rife.
Corruption is rampant at Zimbabwe’s border posts – which is why so many undocumented citizens are able to pass through them. There is therefore need for government to plug the holes by adopting zero corruption strategies.
Government must ensure that there are effective police deployments at our borders to sniff out trafficking. These units would also work undercover to investigate cases of corruption among immigration officials.
This would be aided by the introduction of laws that are sensitive to the plight of trafficking victims and the need to curb the problem. We are aware that Zimbabwean legislators are currently working on the Trafficking of Persons Bill. We urge them to work speedily to finalise the process so that it becomes law, complete with deterrent sentences for offenders.
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga
NB: Women and children are particularly vulnerable, and Many of the victims have little education. They have little knowledge of the law and do not how to act when they find themselves in difficult situations.
Time to acknowledge that failing to educate our women has now been to our own detriment. How sad. In the UK Cameron is swiftly replacing the old men with female graduates in the Conservative Party.. what does that tell you? It is also toooo late?
found on allAfrica.com
“SOUTH Africa’s powerful trade union, Cosatu, on Wednesday criticised the country’s new immigration laws saying the regulations were silent on unskilled and migrant labour…”
And, that criticism does not even raise the subject of what they are doing about the trafficking of vulnerable women and children through our mutual borders into South Africa as sex slaves?
Again another law rushed through without seriously considering the repercussions. If virgins are especially identified in their kidnapping, because they are disease-free, it is doubtful whether they will be by the time their bullying guards get them through to the masters of slavery in South Africa.
However, the good news is that by carrying forth the STD diseases of the guards to their masters in this manner, it is a sure way of slowly killing off the slave dealers from the bottom up to the top. But how long will this karma take?