Zim: Smuggling syndicates surfacing in SA

  1. Posted on Wednesday 10 December 2008 - 10:00
    Justice Zhou
    Image of Justice Zhou
    Justice Zhou, AfricaNews reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa Photo: These children are not those the story refers to
    Truckloads of children of schooling age are being secretly smuggled each night through the porous borders to the crime hotbed city of Johannesburg. A syndicate of human traffickers is cashing in on Zimbabwean youths escaping hardship into neighboring South Africa lured with false lucrative job offers.
    Children_Zimbabwe_Elles van Gelder
    Once there, the refugees are held hostage, to their surprise, in isolated bungalows where money is extorted from them. At times hostages are ordered to surrender their belongings, raped or beaten up. The coyotes would then free boys whilst girls, some as young as 12 years of age are kept and traded to brothel magnates operating in the notorious central Johannesburg suburb of Hill brow.

    The thriving brothels host throngs of destitute youths who suffer dire exploitation, abused as sex workers and strippers. In the worst case scenario, youths are exposed to the danger of contracting HIV.

    “I was promised a job before I left home by the men who brought me here” said Regina Chauke, one of the victims who now stay at the Central Methodist Church which shelters hordes of Zimbabwean asylum seekers.17 year old Regina, a college drop-out, was raped several times by a stranger who had sweet-talked her into accepting a job at a Johannesburg call center. She also lost her educational certificates to this ‘good Samaritan’ who suddenly only turned out to be a smuggler.

    Jacqueline Tladi, a spokesperson for the Johannesburg based NGO, the Southern African Women’s Institute for Migration Affairs, (SAWIMA), which serves the needs of African immigrants said her organization is dealing with significantly rising number of similar cases involving sex slavery and domestic servility.

    However a senior inspector at Hillbrow Police Station refused to be drawn into questions about the trafficking ring, referring the matter to low ranking officers who expressed lack of information, only promising that ‘a sting operation will be embarked on to uncover the organized smugglers and bring them to book’

    With Zimbabwe’s economy melting down further, it is clear human trafficking will also escalate, posing immense danger to the lives of susceptible youths.

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