Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
MAPUTO, Mozambique – Seven people suspected of trafficking women from Mozambique to South Africa have been arrested. They are part of a gang that specializes in trafficking women who are to become prostitutes.
On March 17,the police intercepted a young woman who was being transferred to two supposed buyers and arrested the three Mozambicans who were handing her over. Four more gang members were arrested later in the day.
The police worked with reporters from Johannesburg, who infiltrated the organization by posing as people interested in buying Mozambican girls to be taken back to South Africa to work in the sex industry. The Johannesburg media group, Media24, had one team member pose as a nightclub owner interested in purchasing Mozambican girls for his patrons. He was taken to Maputo to meet four other traffickers in Mozambique, when he secretly recorded their conversations.
Media24 released tape recordings between their team and the traffickers. The tapes reveal that the gang has been working in Mozambique since at least 2004 trafficking women to South Africa at a rate of thirty to forty women a month. The trafficking gang is made up of 15 Mozambicans and several Chinese citizens, with the main trafficker being Nando Matsingi of Rosettenville, Johannesburg.
Matsingi claims to have police contacts who make sure transportation goes smoothly. “Friendly policemen” help him smuggle the women across the South Africa-Mozambique border every week.
“I do this very often,” said Matsingi. “I took three girls last week. One was Chinese and the other two were Mozambicans.”
Two other traffickers told Media24 that Mozambican girls were available “at any time” but that the trafficking ring went as far as China and Chinese girls were also being sent to South Africa. The girls from China come to Maputo on cargo ships before being sold.
The women are sold for about $670 each.
The women are as young as 16-years-old. They happily pose for pictures when buyers come to see them. They believe that they are being sent to South Africa to work in hotels and restaurants as waiters. Instead, when they arrive they are forced to become prostitutes. If they resist they are raped and beaten into submission.
On March 30, a Maputo judge released the seven traffickers. A Mozambican police spokesman said he did not know why the judge released them. However, their release does not mean that the case against them is dropped. The public prosecutor’s office can still press charges against the men but in order to detain them there must e a serious risk that they will flee the country.
Jurist Abdul Carimo, chair of the South African Network against Trafficking and Abuse of Children (SANTAC), said that Mozambique has laws that deal with human trafficking.
“The law passed in 2008 is in accordance with United Nations conventions against trafficking,” he said. “It protects whistle-blowers and witnesses. It guarantees anonymity to whistle-blowers. It penalizes those who help the traffickers. It protects the victims and does not depend on them making a complaint first.”
When asked about why the law isn’t being used, Carimo responded, “You’ll have to ask the police that.”
He added, “The general problem in Mozambique is not any lack of laws. It’s lack of implementation. It’s not because of any lack of legislation that the police don’t act.”
For more information, please see:
AllAfrica – Judge Releases Traffickers in Women – 30 March 2010
AllAfrica – Network of Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010
AP – 7 Suspected Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010
Fox News – 7 Suspected Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010
