Tanzania
is facing the increasing challenge on human trafficking and influx of illegal
immigrants, as this week on Monday the Guardian newspaper from London
reports that Malawi children
are being trafficked into Tanzania
to work as forced labour or in the sex trade.
The report said that Malawi
children are falling victim to human traffickers in Tanzania due to economic hardships
which includes income poverty, jobless, poor working condition and extremely
poverty into their motherland.
The report from the Guardian added that Walusungu Msondo a
10 years boy was first approached by traffickers while he was fishing at Lake Malawi .
"The foreigners were being directed by two local people
who could show them where they could find young fishermen. When they found me
and my colleagues at the lake, they coaxed us with some money and told us that
they had well-paying jobs for us in Tanzania ," saysWalusungu.
The boy and his friends thought their poverty-stricken lives
were about to change for the better, but instead it was the beginning of a
nightmare. Walusungu lives in Ngala, in Karonga district, on Malawi 's border with Tanzania , from where the men had
travelled in search of vulnerable children.
They said the children would earn good money if they came to
fish at Lake Rukwa
and Lake Tanganyika, both in Tanzania .
The men explained the arrangements for the trip, but when
they instructed the youngsters not to tell their parents, some of Walusungu's
friends changed their minds.
He decided to go because he thought he could earn good
money. They were joined by others who had been recruited by traffickers
operating in the Chilumba area, about 35km south of Ngala.
They were ferried across the Songwe river into Tanzania , and taken to Lake Rukwa ,
which is surrounded by thick forest. It was here that Walusungu realised he had
been lied to.
There were many other children, some speaking different
languages, and the traffickers told Walusungu he had to work nine hours a day
catching fish. He was promised only USD88 for around 12 months' work.
He asked to leave but the traffickers would not allow it.
Fishing on the lake can be dangerous, and Msondo says he saw children being
eaten by crocodiles, including one of his friends.
Local community leaders say some Malawians are collaborating
with Tanzanian traffickers and luring young children over the border.
Mwirang'ombe, a community leader in Ngala, says he was "deeply
shocked".
"We have already
lost a young man who was caught by a crocodile at Lake Rukwa ,"
he says, adding that he had reported the crime to the government but nothing
had been done. "[The] government must do something because human
trafficking is illegal."
His views are backed by Habiba Osman, one of the country's
top human rights lawyers, who works with the Ecumenical Council of Malawi. She
says a lack of a legislation on human trafficking is contributing to the
increased prevalence of the crime.
"We don't have a human trafficking law in place, so
this makes it difficult for the government to actively trace such cases … it's
high time we put pressure on our lawmakers to put a human trafficking law in
place so that we can address this," she says.
Osman says many children from Malawi
are also taken to other neighbouring countries, such as Zambia , Mozambique
and South Africa ,
where they are forced into the sex trade and/or domestic slavery.
Chief Wasambo of the Chilumba police says he knows
unemployed young people are being coaxed over the border by Tanzanians.
"Most youths are going there due to lack of activities [here] to earn them
a living," he says. "The provision of business loans and creation of
temporary jobs can positively contribute towards the fight against human
trafficking here."
However, Haston Jaji, from the ministry of gender and
welfare at Karonga district welfare office, says that although there have been
confirmed reports of human trafficking, the number of cases had reduced due to
government awareness campaigns.
The campaigns came too late for Chaston Mwafuliwa and Emot
Msuku from Karonga district, who ended up fishing at Lake Rukwa
along with Walusungu. They too saw people being killed by wild animals and
crocodiles, and say others died of cholera due to poor sanitation.
They say people had
no access to clean water and there was little food.
"There were a lot of problems we were going through at
the lake, apart from being financially exploited," says Emot. "Hunger
was a big problem. We were sleeping in trees for fear of being caught by wild
animals – they were plenty of them."
The boys, including Walusungu, were stranded there for 10
months, and the traffickers refused to pay them. Finally, one of the men drove
them to the Songwe border, where he abandoned them. They made it back into Malawi , but Emot says many Malawian children are
still in Tanzania .
"I can't go back to school," says Walusungu,
"because this [fishing] is my bread and butter, though I am aware that my
education is a milestone to a very successful life."
Media reports on
Wednesday said 45 illegal immigrants, believed of Somali and Ethiopian origin,
died from suffocation in a truck in central Tanzania
while on their way from Kenya
to Malawi .
Speaking to Mirror Digest in an exclusive interview in Dar
es Salaam on Wednesday Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) Executive
Director Ananilea Nkya said that the influx of illegal immigrants is a huge
challenge to the government and the society and concerted efforts were needed
to fight the rampant problem in the country and Africa at large.
“Economic hardship always forced young men and women to go
to exile to find a better employment and green pastures to earn their
livelihood,” she said.
She said that although its illegal to traffic children under
18 years to work or other related activities but this have been common
phenomenal into Tanzania due to poverty and lack of life skills inside and
outside the country.
Nkya added that the problems that young men and women face
in Tanzania it is almost
common to other neighboring countries such as Malawi because respective government
cannot address the common man problems effectively.
She said that in Tanzania are increasing economic
hardships have been fuelled by unscrupulously leaders who cannot distribute the
cake of the country to majority of people in the country which have forced many
people including children into poverty.
Nkya further said that the problem of illegal immigrants is
between the Police force and the society to prohibit illegal immigrants because
it’s a transboundary issues.
On his part the private advocate Yuda Tadei based in the
city centre said that the problem here in Tanzania is to implement the
abiding laws that protect children from all different kinds of crimes include
commercial sex workers.
He said that the Law of the child act of 2009 protect
children with the all kinds of evil from the society or community but the main
problem it’s for those who were given authority to implement the abide laws
that protect children in Tanzania .
“We have the goods written laws in the mainland but the main
obstacle is to implement those acts effectively to serve the interest of the
public and the country at large,” he said.
Tadei added that corruption is another bottleneck to the government
officials who were given a mandate to implement the given laws in the mainland.
He cited an example of the recently deaths of the illegal
immigrants from Ethiopia
who were found dumped in the forest, he cautioned on whether the authority from
various entry or check points could not prevent the massacre?
Efforts to find Director of Immigration Department or any
other officials found futile as the landline phones went unanswered which was
same apply to the Minister of Home Affairs Emmanuel Nchimbi.
But the Minister for Women, Gender and Children Development Sophia
Simba told this reporter that she was in the meeting with the Liberian
President Ellen Sir leaf which she can’t comment anything.
Last year the US
state department published a report that named Malawi as a source country for men,
women and children to be trafficked for forced labour and sex.
The authors said the Malawi government does not fully
comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but was
making significant efforts to do so.
In October 2009, the UK 's
Department for International Development (DfID) allocated £18,000 to an
anti-trafficking project to protect children at risk in Malawi but the
scheme ended in March 2010. Today, there are fears the problem is escalating.
Over a hundred illegal Ethiopian immigrants were found
dumped in a forest in the central part of Tanzania on Tuesday, apparently
abandoned by the one transporting them.
At least 43 of the lot were found dead, 72 alive but in
life-threatening condition and only 11 in reasonably good health – and now at
large.
Global Detention Project reports that Tanzania has been host to one of the largest
refugee populations in Africa and is an important transit country for migrants
heading to South Africa .
UNHCR meanwhile says conflicts compounded by famine in the
Great Lakes region dramatically increased the number of refugees in Tanzania from
292,100 in 1992 to 883,300 in 1994, only to drop to just over 100,000 by
January 2011. That was after the government took measures to deport illegal
aliens.
However, Tanzania
had recorded a decrease of 19 per cent in serious crime from January to
December last year, compared to 2010 when the percentage was higher.
Tanzania
has recorded at least 114 cases of illegal immigration and human trafficking
from January to March, 2012.
Most of the illegal immigrants were from Somalia , Ethiopia ,
Sudan and Pakistan , he said.
According to IGP Mwema, a big number of illegal immigrants
were caught on their way to South
Africa to seek greener pasture.
A random survey conducted by this paper has found majority
of commercial sex workers in the city centre from Buguruni popular bar sewa,
Kibonga and Manzese Rambo found young girls between 13 to 16 conducting
business with 4,000 to 6,000 price to customers hence majority of these girls
are from Mtwara, Lindi, Mbeya and Tunduma.
Ends.
By Damas Makangale
Post a Comment