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Moz clamps down on prostitution
25/07/2007 13:39 - (SA)
Maputo - Mozambique is clamping down on human trafficking amid reports that the southern African nation has become a key route for adults and children sold into forced labour and prostitution, said a government spokesperson.
Cabinet spokesperson Luis Covane said the country's parliament was expected to approve a bill next month that would raise prison sentences for smugglers and others engaging in the practice. Those caught trafficking humans faced jail terms ranging from two to eight years.
Covane said: "We are seriously concerned over the continued reports of trafficking in Mozambique, which is now regarded as a corridor and a safe heaven for these wrongdoers.
"We will adopt legislation that will discourage this practice, which is very common in Mozambique and the entire southern African region." Covane declined to say what sentences traffickers would face if the bill became law.
Smuggling networks 'small operatives'
Mozambique had not prosecuted anyone for human trafficking. Efforts to do so had been handicapped by the former Portuguese colony's general tolerance of child labour, which was 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 neighbouring southern African nations.
Authorities said the smuggling networks were usually small operations run by Mozambicans and South Africans. SA was one of the major destinations for those who fell prey to the human traffickers.
According to a recent study by the International Organisation on Migration, an estimated 1 000 Mozambican women and children were trafficked to SA each year.
- Reuters
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