Human Trafficking in [Mozambique Street Children in [Mozambique] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Mozambique] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic
of Mozambique [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Mozambique is a source and, to a much lesser extent, a
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes
of forced labor and sexual exploitation. The use of forced and bonded child
laborers is a common practice in Mozambique’s rural areas, often with the
complicity of family members. Women and girls are trafficked from rural to
urban areas of Mozambique, as well as to South Africa, for domestic servitude
and commercial sexual exploitation in brothels; young men and boys are
trafficked to South Africa for farm work and mining. Trafficked Mozambicans
often labor for months in South Africa without pay before employers have them
arrested and deported as illegal immigrants. Traffickers are typically part
of small networks of Mozambican or South African citizens; however,
involvement of larger Chinese and Nigerian syndicates has been reported.
Small numbers of Mozambican children and adults are reportedly trafficked to
Zambia for agricultural labor. Zimbabwean women and girls are trafficked to
Mozambique for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. - U.S. State
Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full
country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Mozambique
tries to curb human trafficking Mozambique has not prosecuted
anyone for human trafficking. Efforts to do so have been handicapped by the
former Portuguese colony's general tolerance of child labor, which is common
in its rural areas, as well as its weak border controls. Smugglers have seized on the country's
complacent attitude, arranging for young men and boys to be sent to work on
farms and mines, and young girls to be sold into domestic servitude and to
brothels in neighboring southern African nations. Authorities said the smuggling
networks were usually small operations run by Mozambicans and South Africans.
South Africa is one of the major destinations for those who fall prey to the
human traffickers. An estimated 1,000
Mozambican women and children are trafficked to South Africa each year,
according to a recent study by the International Organization on Migration
(IOM). They are promised a better life in
South Africa, but instead they are kidnapped, branded and sold into sexual
slavery for as little as R380. Women
and children, some as young as 13, are falling prey to syndicates operating
in Mozambique and Swaziland, trafficking and smuggling them to South Africa
on an unprecedented scale. Six held over nun's murder in Mozambique Four missionary nuns living in the
same town told Portuguese radio TSF last week that
they had recently had a narrow escape from an armed ambush after presenting
what they said was evidence that local children were being killed so that
their organs could be sold. The four
nuns told a Spanish newspaper earlier this month that they had gathered
testimony from would-be victims of the network who had managed to escape and
had photographs of dead children with missing organs. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - An increasing number of children, mostly girls, also work as
domestic servants. In some cases,
children are forced to work in order to settle family debts. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Poverty,
a history of child migration, and weak border controls all contributed to
trafficking. In a widely cited 2003 study, the International Office on
Migration (IOM) reported that approximately one thousand Mozambican women and
children were trafficked to IOM conducted an inquiry in April
that indicated women continued to be trafficked from the country and sold to
mine workers at a mining district west of In March police in Quelimane, Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2002 [66] The Committee is concerned
that (b) Some children are victims of
trafficking for the purposes of prostitution; UN urges action on 'scary' levels of trafficking in
southern Africa http://www.haaba.com/news-story/un-urges-action-scary-levels-trafficking-southern-africa ‘None of the countries in southern Africa
has specific anti-human trafficking legislation in place,' Thomas Zindl-Cronin of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told reporters in Johannesburg. Specific legislation to tackle the issue
was needed to help the law enforcement agencies get to grips with the
situation. 'South Africa and Mozambique are more advanced than the
rest of the region, but the capacity of the police and the judiciary to deal
with the problem is low.’ Mozambique
tries to curb human trafficking Mozambique has not prosecuted
anyone for human trafficking. Efforts to do so have been handicapped by the
former Portuguese colony's general tolerance of child labor, which is common
in its rural areas, as well as its weak border controls. Smugglers have seized on the country's
complacent attitude, arranging for young men and boys to be sent to work on
farms and mines, and young girls to be sold into domestic servitude and to
brothels in neighboring southern African nations. Authorities said the smuggling
networks were usually small operations run by Mozambicans and South Africans.
South Africa is one of the major destinations for those who fall prey to the
human traffickers. An estimated 1,000
Mozambican women and children are trafficked to South Africa each year,
according to a recent study by the International Organization on Migration
(IOM). Human
traffickers thrive in Mozambique Daring human traffickers are
taking advantage of Mozambique’s weak adoption laws in order to traffic
children out of the country for the purposes of prostitution or cheap labour, Vista News reported on Tuesday. A 2003 study on trafficking in the
region by the International Organization on Migration (IOM) estimated that
1000 Mozambican women and children were being trafficked to South Africa
every year for sexual exploitation. Mabunda maintained that although cases of cross-border
human trafficking received most attention in the media, trafficking by local
crime syndicates was by far the most prominent form of the crime. The main reason for the practice was the
extreme poverty besetting most people, and a culture that allowed girls to be
married off at an extremely young age. Human,
drug trafficking at border on the rise "We are currently not
pre-occupied with people who enter illegally into South Africa or Swaziland
to buy two or three kilograms of rice, but those who use the illegal points
for criminal activities," she said.
Apart from facilitating human trafficking, she said these points also
assisted criminals to traffic drugs and illegal arms between the countries. Organisations working with trafficked women say
more than 1000 Mozambican women are trafficked each year, mostly to South Africa. They are promised a better life in
South Africa, but instead they are kidnapped, branded and sold into sexual
slavery for as little as R380. Women
and children, some as young as 13, are falling prey to syndicates operating
in Mozambique and Swaziland, trafficking and smuggling them to South Africa
on an unprecedented scale. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free Organ
traffickers 'threaten' nuns Four Catholic nuns say they have
received death threats after exposing an organ trafficking network allegedly
operating in northern Mozambique. The
traffickers are said to target the sex organs of children, which are sold to
make magic charms. The nuns from the
Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate order say they have gathered evidence of
the trade. Six held over nun's murder in Mozambique Four missionary nuns living in the
same town told Portuguese radio TSF last week that
they had recently had a narrow escape from an armed ambush after presenting
what they said was evidence that local children were being killed so that
their organs could be sold. The four
nuns told a Spanish newspaper earlier this month that they had gathered
testimony from would-be victims of the network who had managed to escape and
had photographs of dead children with missing organs. Human
Trafficking in Mozambique:- Root Causes and Recommendations [PDF] [page 21] Sixteen year-old Tobi
wipes a tear from her eye as she recalls the night she was plucked from her
home, forced to trek through the bush and then sold to a recruitment agent in
South Africa. She recoils from memories of being handed to a buyer in
search of cheap farm labour, a nanny and sex slave,
who abused her for months before she escaped to safety. Tobi is one of the hundreds of young Mozambican girls
kidnapped or lured by cash who end up mainly in South Africa every year or
are shipped to Europe in an industry that is growing at breakneck speed. Lack of legislation fuels child trafficking http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/social/0,2172,93978,00.html Recent findings revealed that
children are increasingly being trafficked to be used as cheap labourers, sexual exploitation and even for criminal
activities. To curb the trend, the Mozambique, Limpopo
and Mpumalanga Task Team against child trafficking
launched the child trafficking campaign at the Lebombo
border gate between South Africa and Mozambique. Child Trafficking Projects in southern Africa http://www.stopchildtrafficking.org/site/Southern_Africa.172.0.html OFFERING REFUGE - In Mozambique, girls are
sometimes not even ten years old when they are sold off, mainly to be forced
into prostitution. Exploitation of domestic servants is also nothing unusual.
The destination for girls from Mozambique as well as neighboring countries
like Zambia, Angola or Tanzania is usually the more affluent South Africa. SOUTHERN AFRICA:
Major destination for traffickers in women and children Mozambican women have been
smuggled in by taxis because corruption in law enforcement or judicial
systems helps traffickers across borders. Child
Slave Rings Rife in Southern Africa But Leia
Boaventura, an activist who is alarmed at what she
sees as a growing trend in child trafficking in Southern Africa, feels that
child slave rings are already operating out of Mozambique. Her organisation, Terre des Hommes,
has found that foreign nationals, mostly from Russia and China, are currently
involved in child slave operations. Child slavery usually does not
involve kidnapping, but a financial arrangement with the family or guardian of
children who are from an impoverished background. "Sometimes, desperate parents who
cannot feed, clothe or give medical aid to their children will seek out
someone to take them off their hands, to give them the necessities of life.
In poor areas with underdeveloped social welfare institutions, this can mean
selling a child into servitude," says Lawrence Ngwane
of the refugee agency, CARITAS. "All such deals are
heartbreaking for everyone involved - the parents, the children who are torn
from the womb of their families - though not for the child traffickers who
can profit handsomely," he says.
An investigation by Child Network, a Mozambique non-governmental organisation, found that child trafficking currently
occurs in Mahubo, in the Boane
district of the Maputo province. Mozambique:
children sold for organs Children are being kidnapped or
sold in Mozambique and are being used in prostitution rings and forced labour rackets in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Others are
less fortunate – they are killed before their vital organs are removed and
sold for transplantation. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Mozambique Street Children in [Mozambique] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Mozambique] [other countries]