Human Trafficking in [Botswana] [other countries]
Street Children in [Botswana] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Botswana] [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

In the first ten years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2009

Botswana Through fiscal discipline and sound management, Botswana has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $13,300 in 2008. On the downside, the government must deal with high rates of unemployment and poverty. Unemployment officially was 23.8% in 2004, but unofficial estimates place it closer to 40%. HIV/AIDS infection rates are the second highest in the world and threaten Botswana's impressive economic gains. An expected leveling off in diamond mining production overshadows long-term prospects. [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Botswana is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked internally for domestic servitude and cattle herding, while women report being forced into commercial sexual exploitation at safari lodges. Botswana is a staging area for both the smuggling and trafficking of third-country nationals, primarily from Namibia and Zimbabwe, to South Africa. Zimbabweans are also trafficked into Botswana for forced labor as domestic servants. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report]

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Botswana. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

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Botswana in sweat shops, human trafficking crisis

www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1

www.sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1

The Sunday Standard turned up further information that another company, Zheng Ming, which operated a sweatshop in Ramotswa, was part of an international trade in modern day slavery. Industrial Court Judge, Elijah Legwaila, would later rule that “it appears that Chinese nationals pay large sums of money to recruitment agencies who send them abroad with all sorts of promises and that some Chinese nationals even leave China with promises of work in developed countries and that by the time such people land at any destination they have neither the money nor the bargaining power to protect their rights.

“These Chinese nationals are then housed and fed in compounds at the pleasure of the employer. Their passports, air tickets, work and residence permits are retained by the employer.” Legwaila was passing judgment in a case in which Bin Quin Lin, a Chinese national working for Zheng Ming Knitwear, was held in forced labour without pay. Chinese investors are the biggest investors in the textile industry which exports garments to America under the lucrative AGOA agreement.

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U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs [PDF]

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children in Botswana are employed in agriculture, predominately subsistence farming, and family businesses. In remote areas, young children also work as domestic servants. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some children are exploited in prostitution. In addition, there are unconfirmed reports that Botswana is a country of transit for children trafficked into South Africa.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2008

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The law does not prohibit trafficking in persons, although penal code provisions cover related offenses such as abduction and kidnapping, slave trafficking, and procuring women and girls for the purpose of prostitution. One suspected trafficking case was prosecuted during the year on false documentation charges, although anecdotal evidence suggested that additional trafficking cases may have occurred and gone undetected. There were unconfirmed reports that women and children from eastern Africa were trafficked through the country to South Africa. Traffickers charged with kidnapping or abduction could be sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.

The Protection Project - Botswana [DOC]

www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/botswana.doc

Trafficking Routes and Forms of Trafficking - Botswana is both a country of origin and a country of transit for trafficking in women and children for commercial sexual exploitation. Victims from Botswana are trafficked to South Africa via the so-called Maputo Road and are sold to brothels in Johannesburg.

More specifically, porous borders, combined with recurrent civil and political unrest and a lack of economic opportunity, have ensured a consistent southward flow of both legal and illegal migrants in southern Africa. Trafficking victims are difficult to distinguish amid these flows. In southern Africa, traffickers capitalize on the vulnerabilities created by war, poverty, minimal education, unemployment, and a general lack of opportunity. Some harmful cultural practices have caused women to be viewed as a sexual commodity, thus making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Women and children trafficked for prostitution are among the most vulnerable groups exposed to HIV/AIDS, and children orphaned by the disease are especially vulnerable to trafficking. Furthermore, the ongoing food crisis in the region has exacerbated already desperate conditions.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 2 Status: Free

Botswana in sweat shops, human trafficking crisis

www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1

www.sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1

The Sunday Standard turned up further information that another company, Zheng Ming, which operated a sweatshop in Ramotswa, was part of an international trade in modern day slavery. Industrial Court Judge, Elijah Legwaila, would later rule that “it appears that Chinese nationals pay large sums of money to recruitment agencies who send them abroad with all sorts of promises and that some Chinese nationals even leave China with promises of work in developed countries and that by the time such people land at any destination they have neither the money nor the bargaining power to protect their rights.

“These Chinese nationals are then housed and fed in compounds at the pleasure of the employer. Their passports, air tickets, work and residence permits are retained by the employer.” Legwaila was passing judgment in a case in which Bin Quin Lin, a Chinese national working for Zheng Ming Knitwear, was held in forced labour without pay. Chinese investors are the biggest investors in the textile industry which exports garments to America under the lucrative AGOA agreement.

Human trafficking ring smashed in Botswana

www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=91932&sectionid=351020506

Botswana police smashes a human trafficking ring suspected of smuggling into Canada some 1,000 people for servitude and sexual exploitation.

The Botswana police chief said that foreign traffickers targeted vulnerable young women and girls, who could be susceptible to force and deception, using business consultancy offices as a front for their operations. “Police have discovered that a number of illegally and legal registered business consultancies run by foreigners … that are a front for international human traffickers who often lure victims into phony moneymaking opportunities, then hold them in slavery-like conditions in Canada,” Mokgosi asserted.

Reducing Exploitive Child Labour in Southern Africa

www.reclisa.org/content/index.cfm?navID=2&itemID=14

The ILO estimates that in 2000 there were 30,000 economically active children in Botswana between the ages of 10-14, typically young children in remote areas working as cattle tenders, maids, or babysitters. Urban areas also see exploitative child labour problems, however, partly due to the increasing numbers of street in urban and peri-urban areas. Many workers, including prostitutes, are also imported from Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Child labour persists in Botswana mainly because of limited public awareness and research concerning children's participation in exploitive labour; Inadequate harmonization and definitions and laws protecting core labour standards, including those pertaining to exploitive child labour, and limited capacity to enforce existing laws; poor school transportation, infrastructure, and material conditions in rural areas; and lack of vocational primary and secondary educational opportunities for street children, abandoned children, child-headed households, pregnant girls or teenage mothers, children of migrant workers, HIV/AIDS orphans, and older children.

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Human Trafficking in [Botswana] [other countries]
Street Children in [Botswana] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Botswana] [other countries]