UN eyes Malawi child trafficking
2007-11-09 07:26
Lilongwe - A major new study has been launched in Malawi to determine the scale of child trafficking in the impoverished southern African country, says the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
Linda Kabwila-Kalenga, Unicef's child protection officer in Malawi, said: "We don't have any data on child trafficking in Malawi and so we want to carry out a research to provide an indication on the magnitude of the problem."
Kalenga said she wanted the study to be used to build up the case for a comprehensive child protection legislation. She said: "We have been improvising on child laws, but now we want to advocate for the child care protection bill to pass."
The study was being supported by a coalition of 40 non-governmental organisations as well as the police and state-funded commissions on Law and Human Rights.
ILO's national programme officer for Malawi, Chimwenje Simwaka, said there was "a lot of child trafficking for sex and labour in Malawi which we don't see".
According to a recent report by the UN's Organisation for Migration, southern Africa was a "fertile ground" for human trafficking.
The report identifies Mozambique, Malawi and Lesotho as "key source countries for women and children trafficked to South Africa".