Trafficking campaign launched

2007-12-17 14:30

Nairobi - The International Organisation for Migration has launched a campaign to raise awareness on human trafficking in Tanzania, a country increasingly becoming a transit point, it said in a statement on Monday.

The three-month campaign dubbed "Uwe sauti Yao" (Be their voice) was launched on Sunday at a hip-hop rally in the capital Dar es Salaam, and is being followed by public service announcements on television and radio.

Posters, brochures, calendars, stickers, T-shirts and caps will also be distributed in all major cities across the impoverished African country.

"We're delighted that this truly unique event has received the full support Tanzania's most famous hip hop and gospel singers," Par Liljert, IOM's chief of mission in Tanzania, said in a statement.

"Just like the media, artists have a crucial role to play to ensure people do not fall prey to ruthless trafficking networks," he added.

Cases of international and domestic trafficking have increased in Tanzania, most being internal ones.

"Girls and boys are routinely trafficked from rural areas to urban areas where they are abused and exploited in domestic worker, commercial agriculture, fishing and mining industries, and in child prostitution," the statement said.

Women and children are also trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation to neighbouring countries as well as to the Middle East and Europe.

Over the past two years, IOM Tanzania has assisted more than 120 victims of trafficking with support from the US State Department.

- AFP