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Trafficking in humans: Another threat calling for public intervention
2007-12-17 08:53:53
By Bilham Kimati
The ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children is preparing a comprehensive plan to unravel children currently under exploitation in various sectors ranging from mining, agriculture, domestic servitude, commercial sex operations and other forms of ill-treatment.
Information gathered from a high ranking official in the ministry who preferred anonymity for reasons of not being the spokesperson divulged that the government was working on the final details of a strategy that would ensure a systematic removal of children subjected to exploitation, abuse, torture, humiliation and some said to be denied payment for the service rendered.
``In response to the government policy that all school age children should be in school, the ministry has formed a multi-sectoral task force drawing its members from various departments entrusted with the duty to propose ways to stop child labour in the country and help seal off the loopholes.
Preliminary findings of the team indicated that there has been a very close link between human trafficking and violation of human rights especially among children being deceived to have better life in urban centres,`` said the officer.
The officer also commended efforts by the International Organization for Migration, IOM in Tanzania under the guardianship of Monika Peruffo, who is the Counter Trafficking Officer, for continued efforts by the alliance to address the problem of human trafficking.
IOM has in record more than 118 victims of human trafficking, majority being girls under the age of 18 rescued from exploitation in Dar es Salaam.
He was explicit that apart from relocating the children, the team would focus on factors behind the unusual shifting of children from their places of domicile.
The team would also assess the historical background of families where the victims come from to use the fact as study cases, learn about all tricks involved to deceive children and basically their respective parents and make suggestions on the best way to address human trafficking and the related complications that have resulted into all sorts of hardship to the victims.
The investigation team would also work in nine different urban centres in the country, three of the regions namely Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Zanzibar characterized as areas of destination and six others namely Iringa, Morogoro, Mbeya, Mwanza, Singida and Dodoma, the supply territories.
It is important that the appointed team works closely with all sections of the community to make sure that many stakeholders are involved in the entire process to stop the menace.
The targeted work partners should be the police, the local government authorities, school teachers, parents/guardians, peer groups and others.
The police will have the responsibility to bring to justice the perpetrators.
As for the local leaders who happen to know all residents under their jurisdiction should be contacted in case of the arrival of a stranger intending to take out children under the pretext of good life in urban centres.
They should talk to parents who seem to be easily cheated that once their children were taken away they would be receiving money from them within no time.
Schools teachers with much influence on the children should be involved in the awareness campaign to discourage fantasy among children and encourage them to acquire education as the only way forward for better life.
Also the awareness campaign against human trafficking should be sustainable.
Young men and girls who spend hours together contemplating `good life` in towns should be approached and should be given a chance to discuss the pros and cons of such risky life.
According to IOM, information gathered from immigration departments in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar indicates that human trafficking was a growing problem that deserved serious attention as Tanzania has also become a transit nation for human trafficking.
The victims come from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Burundi being taken to South Africa, Europe and other parts of the world to their own detriment and the benefit of unconcerned dealers. Here is an example of the suffering victims of human trafficking endure.
Habiba Shegere, 14, (not her real name also an orphan) from Dodoma is one of the victims of human trafficking brought to Dar es Salaam by a man who went to her village making all good promises about prosperity in town.
In fact he came from the neighbouring village and happened to know the grand parents of Habiba.
The man said he would take care of the girl and enroll her with a tailoring vocational training college to help her become a competent tailor, earn a living to support the grand parents back in the village.
They (grand parents) agreed and allowed her to accompany the stranger.
Mid last year she narrated her ordeal to this reporter saying coming to Dar es Salaam she discovered the whole truth.
She was taken to a strange family instead of a tailoring school where she worked as a house maid for eight months without being paid anything.
She worked for 18 hours a day no payment in return for explanation that she took meals, shelter and better looking second-hand cloths from the host family.
After sometime someone advised her to be bold enough to register complaints to the police.
She agreed and went to one of the police stations in the city.
Unfortunately she ended up in more misery than ever as the policeman found on duty was spiteful. He kept her waiting for hours and finally advised her to accompany him to his house for the night.
Regrettably, he was not married and decided to put her in a family way without her consent.
The police always locked her in the house.
After two weeks a concerned neighbour reported the matter to the police and local leaders as she always heard someone weeping in the house of the policeman.
The local leaders forced open the door to rescue Habiba who was found terribly depressed.
She complained of serious abdominal pains. She was taken to hospital only to be discovered that she had already been infected with syphilis.
One of the nurses accompanied her to The Guardian newsroom seeking assistance from the media to inform the public about mistreatment of the girl.
As the media started to make a close follow up to get to the bottom of the matter it was learnt that some hurried arrangements were made to make sure that the accused policeman was transferred to unknown station outside Dar es Salaam being a strategy to cover up the scam.
IOM is convinced that one of the most effective ways to address the situation is for the community to support children in the education system, the initiative that the government has taken very seriously in building more schools to fight ignorance and poverty.
As an example Peruffo said IOM in 2007 assisted 34 girls to acquire education and out of the number 24 had never been to school before.
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