Swaziland (eSwatini) has a long way to go before it
eliminates human trafficking, but it is making progress, according to a new
global report.
The United States Department of State stated in its annual
Trafficking
in Persons Report that as with the past five years, human traffickers continue
to exploit domestic and foreign victims in Swaziland, and traffickers exploit victims
from Swaziland abroad. Trafficking victims come primarily from poor communities
with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
Traffickers exploit Swazi girls, particularly orphans,
in sex trafficking and domestic servitude, primarily in Swaziland and South
Africa. Traffickers force Swazi boys and foreign children to labour in
agriculture, including cattle herding, and market vending within the country.
Mozambican boys migrate to Swaziland for work washing
cars, herding livestock, and portering; traffickers exploit some in forced labour.
Traffickers use Swaziland as a transit country to transport foreign victims to
South Africa for forced labour. Traffickers reportedly force Mozambican women
into commercial sex in Swaziland, or transport them through Swaziland to South
Africa.
Some traffickers force Swazis into commercial sex in
South Africa after voluntarily migrating in search of work. Reports suggest
labour brokers fraudulently recruit and charge excessive fees to Swazi
nationals for work in South African mines, means often used to facilitate
trafficking crimes. Swazi men in border communities are recruited for forced
labour in South Africa’s timber industry.
The report stated there had been some progress. In the
past year a trafficker in Swaziland was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for
forced labour and the Swazi Government trained front-line responders on how to identify
trafficked people. It also launched a five-year national action plan.
‘However, the government did not meet the minimum
standards in several key areas. The government did not have shelter policies or
guidelines to ensure quality of care for trafficking victims, and the primary
shelter available was inadequate. While the government did take action against
a government protection officer who assaulted and traumatized three foreign
victims while they were in a government shelter, overall lack of protection
efforts and oversight created the environment in which the assault took place,’
the report stated.
The report added, ‘While there were general reports of
government corruption, including immigration officials seeking bribes to issue
government documents such as visas, there were few reports of direct official
complicity in trafficking. The government investigated a senior official for
sex trafficking.’
The report listed a number of recommendations for
improvement. These included increasing efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute
more trafficking crimes, including internal trafficking cases; implement the
national anti-trafficking action plan; address leadership issues at the
anti-trafficking secretariat and enable the taskforce to fulfil its statutory
responsibilities; ensure all victims of trafficking are provided appropriate
and comprehensive care.
See also
University
lecturers ‘forced to weed fields of Swaziland absolute monarch’
Swazi
Govt misleads on child labour
Kids
forced to weed King’s fields
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