Human Trafficking in [Zimbabwe Street Children in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Zimbabwe] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic of Zimbabwe [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Zimbabwe is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Large
scale migration of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries—as they flee a
progressively more desperate situation at home—has increased, and NGOs,
international organizations, and governments in neighboring countries are
reporting an upsurge in these Zimbabweans facing conditions of exploitation,
including human trafficking. Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children are
trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labor and domestic servitude and
to cities for domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Women and
children are trafficked for domestic labor and sexual exploitation, including
in brothels, along both sides of the borders with Botswana, Mozambique, South
Africa, and Zambia. Young men and boys are trafficked to South Africa for
farm work, often laboring for months in South Africa without pay before
“employers” have them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants. Young
women and girls are lured to South Africa, the People’s Republic of China,
Egypt, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada with false
employment offers that result in involuntary domestic servitude or commercial
sexual exploitation. Men, women, and children from the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia are trafficked through Zimbabwe en
route to South Africa. Small numbers of South African girls are trafficked to
Zimbabwe for 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 ARTICLE *** Reports of Rape
and Torture Inside Zimbabwean Militia For Ms. Siyangapi's secret was not
merely her own. Her appearance was also testimony to one of the least
documented — and most brutal — practices of the military enforcers of Amnesty International documented
cases of rape within the Youth Service in a report released in April. The
Amani Trust, perhaps the most active human rights group currently in ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The traditional practice of offering a young girl as payment to
settle inter-family feuds continues to occur in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
traditional practice of offering a young girl in marriage as compensatory
payment in interfamily disputes continued during the year. Arranged marriage
of young girls also continued. The legal age for a civil marriage is 16 for
girls and 18 for boys. Customary marriage, recognized under the Customary Marriages
Act, does not provide for a minimum marriage age for either boys or girls;
however, the SOA prohibits sexual relations with anyone younger than 16 years
of age. Child welfare NGOs reported that they occasionally saw evidence of
underage marriages, particularly in isolated religious communities or among
HIV/AIDS orphans but lacked meaningful statistics on its prevalence. Musasa
Project reported an increase in instances where families pledged girls in
marriage and even unborn babies in exchange for economic protection. Such
girls often "married" well before the age of 12. There was little information on
the extent of trafficking beyond anecdotal reports of girls exchanging sex
for passage across the South African border, women lured to other countries
with false job promises, immigration officials of neighboring countries
sexually abusing children during deportation, children working as domestic or
agricultural workers, and employers requiring sex from undocumented
Zimbabwean workers in South Africa under threat of deportation. There also
were anecdotal reports that victims were trafficked to border areas and into
Botswana and South Africa. Likewise, there were anecdotal reports that
victims were transited through the country to South Africa from Botswana, Ghana,
and East Africa. Anecdotal information suggested
that citizens who emigrated to seek a better life were exploited while
employed illegally in a neighboring country, when being deported, or after
being lured to another country by false employment schemes. The groups at
highest risk were HIV/AIDS orphans and displaced persons. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1996 [13] The Committee notes with
concern the persistence of behavioral attitudes in the society as well as
cultural and religious practices, which, as recognized by the State party,
hamper the implementation of children's rights. Mention can be made in this
regard of the difficulties in ensuring birth registration in remote areas of
abandoned and refugee children, as well as of the situation of female victims
of practices such as ngozi (girl child pledging), lobola (bride price) and
early marriage, and of disabled children. [X-Files - Mon 14 May 2007 1029 ]
[Posted to the web 10 April 2007] Markets for body parts in the southern
Africa region seem to be on the upsurge as reports indicate that numbers of
missing girl children and women are shooting up, particularly in neighbouring
countries. The human parts found in
the plastic bag in Bindura are suspected breasts and private parts of a woman
probably trafficked under the pretext of job promises. Human body parts are believed to enhance
profits in business and the belief seems to be widespread in this region. Zimbabwe - A centre for Human Trafficking The Zimbabwean government has
rejected assertions by the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
that human trafficking is a growing phenomenon in the southern African
country, despite the existence of enormous evidence on the ground. United
States Mulls Further Sanctions on Zimbabwe Over Human Trafficking The U.S. administration said it
might impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, already hit with so-called targeted
sanctions aimed at the country's leadership, because the Harare government
has failed to take action on human trafficking. The White House said Zimbabwe made
no progress during a 90-day grace period given a number of countries listed
in June as deficient by the State Department. Other countries called “worst
offenders” included Nnorth Korea, Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Hunger
forces Zim girls into forced marriages Faced with starvation after six
years of poor harvests, Zimbabweans are resorting to centuries-old traditions
of "forced marriages", known in the local Shona language as
"kuzvarira", for survival. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Nip Human
Trafficking in the Bud Reports of organised human
trafficking and smuggling gangs in Zimbabwe are disturbing and call for swift
action to nip it in the bud before the problem gets deeply rooted. Scores of foreigners, mostly Asians of Pakistan
origin have been smuggled into the country, where they perceive huge
opportunities to engage in illicit activities. Immigration officials and the police have
managed to bust trafficking rings involving nationals from Pakistan, Rwanda,
Burundi and Somalia But for the majority of the
victims of human trafficking, promises of wealth and better life often turn
out to be modern-day slavery. Young
men and women are lured by agents who cash in on the dreams of the poor to make
it big in developed countries or African countries with opportunities like
Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana.
In Europe, the majority of the victims are women, who come from
eastern European countries such as Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Lithuania.
However, increasing numbers are also coming from Africa, Zimbabwe included. Section
IV Clinical and therapeutic responses
[PDF DOWNLOAD] [Sect IV, Ch 19] CASE STUDIES OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
IN ZIMBABWE (BY CLARE RUDD) – INTRODUCTION
- In this chapter,
case studies concerning children who were seen at the clinics are presented. Reports of
Rape and Torture Inside Zimbabwean Militia For Ms. Siyangapi's secret was not
merely her own. Her appearance was also testimony to one of the least
documented — and most brutal — practices of the military enforcers of Amnesty International documented
cases of rape within the Youth Service in a report released in April. The
Amani Trust, perhaps the most active human rights group currently in Earning
a Life: Working Children in Zimbabwe The important question we need to
address is not the fact that children work, but rather the conditions under
which they work. Stopping children from working for their livelihood is
likely to do them more harm than good. We need to prevent not the work of
children, but the abuse of working children. 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 [Zimbabwe Street Children in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]