MOZAMBIQUE: Approves New Law on Human Trafficking

MAPUTO, July 31, 2007: -The Mozambican government has approved a new law which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences. Over 1,000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or to provide free or cheap labour, IPS reported. Human trafficking in southern African, especially of women and children to work mostly in brothels or sometimes as unpaid labour or as cheap labour in agriculture, is believed to be on the increase.

The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) found in a study, that over 1,000 Mozambican women and children are trafficked into South Africa each year. ‘‘The number is going up,'' said Nelly Chimedza, the assistant programme officer of the Southern Africa Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme in the Maputo IOM office. The Mozambican Bill will be adopted during the next sitting of parliament in September this year. Chimedza comments that ‘‘this is a major achievement, especially as up until now, there has not been one conviction for these kinds of activities in Mozambique.''

However, Chimedza warns that even if the parliamentarians pass the Bill, there is still more work to be done before there is a guarantee that traffickers will be bought to justice. ‘‘The challenge will be to disseminate information on the law so that people are aware that trafficking is a crime.'' But even with this knowledge, ‘‘fear and shame'' persist, she adds. Many of the victims of traffickers do not want to talk about their experience, not even to close family members. ‘‘They want to keep the stories to themselves. They self-stigmatise themselves, especially as sexual abuse is often involved. They want to go through the healing process alone, like Sonia is doing,'' Chimedza explains.

The United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF) supports awareness campaigns among law enforcement agents, community leaders, parents, young women and children. ‘‘People are not fully aware of the trafficking issue and the risks involved,'' says Mioh Nemoto, child protection specialist for UNICEF. ‘‘It is especially difficult as poverty is one of the underlying causes for the existence of trafficking. People are probably told that if they give their children to work in South Africa, they will have the chance to go to school too.''
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