From United Press International:
MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 3 (UPI) -- Experts said the media coverage of the trafficking of humans to South Africa from Mozambique is only "the tip of the iceberg."
Fifty-two potential cases of trafficking children and girls have been reported this year, Save the Children-United Kingdom in Mozambique said.
Chris McIvor, country director for Save the Children-United Kingdom in Mozambique said increasing numbers of women and children are lured into trafficking by their hopes of a brighter future.
"Higher levels of unemployment, young people looking for better lives, demands in some countries for illegal, cheap labor create the conditions that are ripe for trafficking," McIvor said.
Because Mozambican laws have no terms for human trafficking punishment, no one charged with such activity has been put on trial for it, despite it being globally illegal, U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks reported.
The Mozambican Council of Ministers passed a law against human trafficking and presented the Children's Act in 2007, but both actions are waiting to be passed by parliament.Read the full article
From AllAfrica:
The Mozambican government favours stiffer penalties for criminals found guilty of trafficking in people, Justice Minister Benvinda Levi said on Thursday.
She was speaking at a parliamentary hearing organised by the several of the working commissions of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on bills presented by the government on child protection and on human trafficking. The hearing took place just days after testimony about the trafficking in minors was presented on Mozambique Television (TVM) by two teenagers rescued from a brothel in South Africa.
The Assembly's Legal Affairs, Social Affairs, and Defence and Public Order Commissions are drawing up written opinions on the bills with the assistance of a technical team from the Justice Ministry. The bills will be debated on the floor of the Assembly in the second week of April.
The government bill envisaged prison terms of between eight and 12 years for trafficking in people. But at the hearing Antonio Frangoulis of the ruling Frelimo Party, argued that there should be stiffer penalties for the worst forms of trafficking.
He thought it wrong to apply the same penalty for trafficking women to take part in pornographic films, and trafficking people who would be murdered for the removal of their genitals (used in grisly witchcraft rituals). The bill as it stands does not make this differentiation, and only recognises a single crime of human trafficking.
Levi accepted the proposal for harsher penalties, and also a suggestion by Maximo Dias, of the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition, that people suspected of human trafficking should not be eligible for bail or other forms of provisional freedom."Those suspected of human trafficking should be kept in jail until their trial", declared Dias.Both Levi and Dias seem to have forgotten that in February 2000 the Supreme Court ruled there could be no such thing as a crime for which suspects could never be eligible for bail.
Automatic bail refusals were "contrary to constitutional principles", the court ruled.
Read the full article
From allAfrica.com:
A truck packed with 40 children was intercepted in the central Mozambican province of Manica this week, sparking concern over increased child trafficking and the urgent need for effective legislation to address the problem.
"All the children are now in the protective custody of social welfare authorities in Chimoio [in Manica Province]. While investigations are underway, authorities have been trying to contact their parents," the UN Children Fund's (UNICEF) Thierry Delvigne-Jean told IRIN. "They have arrested a number of adults," he added. According to a statement released by the UN in Mozambique on Thursday, the truck was stopped by police on Monday in Inchope and the case is being investigated.
It is not exactly known where the children were being taken. "The details surrounding the case remain vague - there is a lot of contradicting information," said Carmen Ramos, Country Director for Save the Children Norway."The driver said he was taking the children to schools in Tete [a province in western Mozambique] and Maputo [the county's capital] to study the Koran, and that he had made the same trip with children 10 times before," she said.
It seemed the children had not been kidnapped because the parents had given their consent, "but the parents don't know where these schools are," Ramos added, which suggested that the children might have been in the truck for reasons other than schooling."
This incident calls attention to the serious problem of child trafficking and the urgent need for the adoption of legal instruments to enforce the protection of children against abuse and exploitation," UN Resident Coordinator Ndolamb Ngokwey said in the statement.
Let Down By the Law
Mozambican law makes no provision for prosecuting alleged human traffickers; consequently, no suspected trafficker has ever been tried for the crime, even though the practice is illegal under international law.
Nevertheless, suspected human traffickers have been prosecuted by the state and Rede Came, a Mozambican child protection non-governmental organisation, under laws covering kidnapping, the corruption of minors and hijacking, but these carry much milder penalties than violations of the trafficking laws in other countries.
A proposed Children's Act was approved by the Council of Ministers in March 2007 but has not yet become law. "The Act is pending with parliament and is expected to be adopted early this year," the UN statement said. "A specific law against human trafficking was also approved by the Council of Ministers in 2007 and is pending parliament's approval."
When it became law, the Act would cover child rights and include an article directing the state to adopt special legal and administrative measures to stop the kidnapping, sale and trafficking of minors."The UN urges Parliament to place this legislation on the agenda of the legislative session due to commence in March," said UNICEF Representative Leila Pakkala."
Once passed by parliament, the Children's Act and the Anti-Trafficking Laws will strengthen the legal and protective framework for children, including victims of trafficking and abuse."
Growing Concern
Although there are no recent figures on human trafficking in Mozambique the practice is believed to be growing. A 2003 study on trafficking in the region by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) estimated that 1,000 Mozambican woman and children were being trafficked to South Africa every year, mainly for sexual exploitation.
The capital, Maputo, is the main destination for internal trafficking, while South Africa is the main destination for children trafficked outside of Mozambique"Studies have found that Mozambique is both a country of origin and transit for child trafficking. The capital, Maputo, is the main destination for internal trafficking, while South Africa is the main destination for children trafficked outside of Mozambique and from neighbouring countries," the UN statement read.
Most children who fall prey to traffickers are aged between 13 and 18. "Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to exploitation due to their age and dependency," UNICEF said.
Mozambique's 19.8 million people are desperately poor: 40 percent live on less than US$1 a day, and recovery from a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992 has been slow. According to UNICEF, there are 1.6 million orphans, 380,000 of whom have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.
Amnesty International stated in a 2005 report that trafficking in the former Portuguese colony was also thought to be linked to the extraction of human organs for ritual and witchcraft purposes, with allegations that the practice was taking place in the northern provinces of Nampula and Niassa.
