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Zimbabwe attends regional summit to tackle human trafficking
Migration
Dialogue for Southern Africa (MiDSA)
May 28, 2007
Government officials
from Zimbabwe are today (28 May 2007) attending a three-day regional
summit in Gaborone, Botswana aimed at tackling the growing threat
of human trafficking in Southern Africa.
Hosted by the Government
of Botswana and organized by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) and the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP),
the three-day Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) workshop,
which runs from 28-30 May, brings together high-level government
officials from all 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC)
countries as well as Comoros and Seychelles, to discuss the legislation
needed to combat human trafficking in the region.
Human trafficking has
evolved into one of the most tragic features of contemporary global
migration, with up to one million people estimated to have been
trafficked across borders annually. The trade is now considered
the third largest source of profits for transnational criminal organizations,
with only drug trafficking and weapons smuggling more lucrative.
The trade also occurs within borders, with victims often trafficked
from rural settings for exploitation in urban centres.
A variety of push and
pull factors contribute to the trafficking of persons, including
poverty and economic disparities, and there is increasing evidence
of trafficking taking place in the Southern African region. Through
its Southern African Counter-Trafficking Programme (SACTAP), IOM
has undertaken research on the issue, trained law enforcement agencies,
assisted victims, and mounted information campaigns. In its interactions
with governments in Southern Africa, IOM has found a keen interest
and commitment to address trafficking and create legislation to
criminalize it. Legislation provides law enforcement agencies with
the mandate to seek out trafficking situations, arrest the traffickers,
see the case through prosecution, and effectively protect victims
of trafficking. The MIDSA workshop aims to provide governments with
a forum in which they can share ideas and experience on the development
of counter-trafficking legislation.
Hans Petter Boe, Regional
Representative for the International Organization for Migration
in Southern Africa, said:
"This MIDSA workshop
aims to galvanize the ongoing efforts of governments to tackle human
trafficking in Southern Africa. Trafficking thrives, in part, because
it offers traffickers high profits with relatively low risks. Counter-trafficking
legislation will help change this opportunity structure as it will
add to the arsenal that law enforcement in the region can use to
prosecute traffickers.
"It is crucial
that countries in the region coordinate as they develop trafficking
legislation. Trafficking by its very nature often involves the transport
of victims across borders, so sharing experience and ideas across
the region will ensure that all countries are equally able to prevent
human trafficking, assist the victims and prosecute human traffickers."
The MIDSA workshop on
human trafficking and legislation responses in Southern Africa will
include presentations from countries currently in the process of
developing counter-trafficking legislation including Zimbabwe, Zambia,
Malawi and Mozambique, as well as presentations from international
agencies at the forefront of counter-trafficking responses including
the International Organization for Migration, the US Government,
UNICEF and UNODC.
In Zimbabwe, the Government
has formed an inter-ministerial task force which aims to criminalize
the offence domestically; support national information campaigns;
install counter-trafficking experts at the entry and exit points
of the country to intercept traffickers.
The workshop in Gabarone
will review the progress made regionally with regards to counter-trafficking
legislation and draw up recommendations on how move towards the
establishment of national and regional (SADC) legislative frameworks
aimed at combating trafficking in human beings.
Notes
to editors:
1. The MIDSA workshop
on 'Human Trafficking and Legislative Responses in the Southern
African Region takes place at the Grand Palm Hotel in Gaborone,
Botswana from 28-30 May 2007
2. The International
Organization for Migration has been responding to human trafficking
in the region through its Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance
Programme (SACTAP). The programme aims to support and develop the
capacity of governments and civil society groups to deal with the
problem of trafficking in the region. It is organised into 4 components
- victim assistance, capacity building, research and data
collection, and information and awareness raising.
3. The UN protocol on
trafficking in persons defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by improper means, such
as force, abduction, fraud or coercion, for an improper purpose,
like forced or coerced labour, servitude, slavery or sexual exploitation.
Countries that ratify the Protocol are obliged to enact domestic
laws making these activities criminal offences, if such laws are
not already in place.
4. The MIDSA initiative
is a collaborative effort between IOM and its partner, the Southern
African Migration Project (SAMP). IOM and SAMP are the main facilitators
of the MIDSA workshops, which bring together senior government officials
from countries in Southern Africa to discuss and agree upon migration-related
issues of regional concern. MIDSA workshops have addressed migration
and development; migration management; labour migration; forced
migration; migration health; and irregular migration concerns such
as human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
For further information
contact Rebecca Wynn in Botswana on + 26 74187945
Or Nicola Simmonds in
Zimbabwe on +263 91 440076
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.
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