|
Back to Index
MOZAMBIQUE:
Exploitation and abuse awaits Zimbabwe's migrant children
IRIN News
May 25, 2006
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53541
MAPUTO - Save
the Children-UK (SCF-UK) has raised the alarm over increasing numbers
of Zimbabwean children illegally entering Mozambique to escape poverty
at home.
Many are AIDS
orphans or unaccompanied, hoping to find a better life in better-off
neighbouring Mozambique. Instead they can fall prey to exploitation
and abuse, including prostitution and child labour.
While the evil
of child trafficking is well recognised, SCF-UK calls the voluntary
migration of children a "hidden phenomenon" that can only
be effectively tackled if the children themselves are consulted
and involved in the response.
"If these
children, some of them as young as 12 years, are able to cross a
border illegally and survive on their own, then it doesn't make
sense to exclude their opinions in programming on how best to serve
their interests," said Chris McIvor, director of SCF-UK in
Mozambique. "But they have not yet been given an adequate voice."
Although the
exact numbers of Zimbabwean children crossing the Mozambican border
each day is unknown, a study by SCF released on Wednesday pointed
out that "large numbers of these children are alone and extremely
vulnerable".
Zimbabwe is
in its eighth year of economic decline, which has cut GDP by 40
percent. McIvor, however, noted that child migration was not a problem
peculiar to Zimbabwe, but a growing issue in the southern African
region.
"Mozambican
children are entering South Africa illegally, Angolans are entering
Namibia, and so on. When we have talked to these children, they
say that they were not fully aware of what was going to face them
in the countries. The children interviewed often thought they would
earn money quickly," noted McIvor. The reality is that they
often become trapped in a cycle of abuse and dependency.
The SCF study
of Zimbabwean children found that many young girls - some aged as
young as 12 - ended up in the sex trade along the transport corridor
linking Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira in Sofala province.
Sofala has the highest HIV infection rate in Mozambique, at around
26 percent of the adult population.
In a previous
study, SCF found that young Zimbabwean sex workers living illegally
in settlements along the Zambezi River in central Mozambique were
popular with men because they were exploitable.
"Many Mozambican
men tend to be sexually involved with Zimbabweans because they are
cheaper," the report quoted a government official in the central
Mozambican town of Machipanda as saying. "With 30 to 40 thousand
Meticais [just over one US dollar], it is possible to have one afternoon
or a night of pleasure."
Zimbabwean girls
are also employed in barracas - informal, often rowdy bars - and
in restaurants. The owners see English-speaking staff as a status
symbol, said the report.
Children often
find employment illegally on farms. Although the SCF study could
not find a farmer ready to admit it, the provincial government in
the central province of Manica confirmed that child labour occurred,
with boys paid up to 900,000 Meticais (about 33 US dollars) a month
for long, arduous work herding livestock or as farm hands.
SCF is looking
to develop a range of school magazines and radio programmes targeting
children, clearly spelling out what it means to travel to another
country "without papers, family or friends to support them,
and for them to know that the kind of problems they will face will
be massive and grave", said McIvor.
SCF is also
calling for police and border officials to be provided with additional
training on children's rights and abuse laws.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
