ZORORAI NKOMO
Today the whole world is grappling with the scourge of human trafficking.
Zimbabwe is one of the Sub-Saharan African nations grappling with a serious undercurrent of human trafficking. She has also turned into a source, destination, and transit for this scourge.
Human trafficking is a complicated billion dollar and thriving modern day slavery industry.
Simply put, the illegal trade in and exploitation of people constitutes human trafficking. It is a very lucrative industry run by strong, well-connected gangs that deal in drugs, arms, and smuggling.
In 2016 Zimbabwe launched Trafficking in Persons (TiP) National Plan of Action (NAPLAC). This was done in order to put into practice the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Act, a law designed to combat and eradicate human trafficking.
One of the reasons for the national plan of action was to strengthen the identification of human trafficking victims which was one of its baseline tools to measure Zimbabwe’s effective response to human trafficking.
The United States Department of State’s 2022 Trafficking in Person Report for Zimbabwe revealed that despite significant government efforts to combat human trafficking, Zimbabwe has remained on the tier 2 Watch list for the second consecutive year.
This indicates that despite significant government efforts to combat human trafficking, the country is still unable to meet the requirements to eliminate and suppress the practice.
These efforts include investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases.
In 2014, Zimbabwe’s legislature promulgated and subsequently enacted Trafficking in Persons Act, a piece of legislation which was aimed to combat and suppress human trafficking.
Legally speaking, the mischief behind the enactment of the Trafficking in Persons Act of 2014 was to provide for the prohibition, prevention and prosecution of trafficking in persons and the protection of victims of trafficking, to establish an Anti-Trafficking Inter-Ministerial Committee and provide for its composition and functions, to establish centres for trafficking victims.
However, despite these legislative efforts, the rising poverty levels and widening gap of inequality in the society is making young people and women vulnerable to human trafficking.
The country continues to face an upsurge in cases of human trafficking.
In May 2023, the director legal services, inter-ministerial committee on Trafficking in Persons, Prisca Madziviridze told parliament that at least 139 Zimbabweans fell victims to human trafficking in 2022 alone.
The 2022 official statistics which were tabled before Home Affairs Parliamentary committee clearly shows that there is upsurge in cases of human trafficking in Zimbabwe
In 2016, more than 200 Zimbabwean women were trafficked to the Gulf after promised lucrative employment opportunities.
Even today they are still falling prey to trafficking predators after promised green pastures in these foreign countries.
Majority of these victims are being recruited through social media platforms. Despite the fact that social media has become an easy source for opportunities and a conduit to link people around the world to prospective employers, it has also become a landmine for human trafficking.
Majority of these victims are being ubjected to inhuman and degrading treatment such as alcohol abuse and majority of women forced into sex work.
Section 327(2) of the Zimbabwean Constitution clearly stipulates that an international treaty which has been concluded or executed by the president or under the president’s authority does not bind Zimbabwe until it has been approved by parliament and does not form part of the law of Zimbabwe unless it has been incorporated into the law through an Act of Parliament.
Zimbabwe signed both the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
On the December 13, 2013, Zimbabwe acceded to both of the two cardinal international law instruments to fight human trafficking which were concluded in 2000 in New York, the United States of America at the 5th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
However, despite having a cocktail of both soft law (International Law) and domestic legal instruments, human trafficking remains a thriving industry for sub-Saharan Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
According to the Zimbabwe Trafficking in Persons National Plan of Action (2019-2021), between June 2016 and December 2018, 74 cases of human trafficking were reported and only 6 convictions were secured.
This is a clear indication that there is more work to be done in fighting the problem of human trafficking.
However, despite the low conviction rate, I understand the rationale behind.
Human trafficking is an extremely complicated offence which really requires massive investment in our law enforcement agents and other players in the justice delivery system. There is a need for capacitation of our players in the justice delivery system on how to handle trafficking in person cases.
More financial resources should be channelled towards the country’s justice delivery system to fight this wildfire engulfing the whole world. These players include police service, immigration department, the National Public Prosecuting Authority, Judicial Service Commission and all Chapter 9 institutions of the Constitution.
These players require urgent capacitation due to the fact that trafficking in persons crime is still evolving as the society evolves. It is a thriving industry where perpetrators are well oiled with financial resources.
They have the capacity to infiltrate our justice delivery, they have more resources at their disposal to bribe and arm twist our systems for their benefit.
However, for now I will not delve much into how to invest in our law enforcement agents and players in our justice delivery system. This is the discussion which I will touch on in one of the next episodes on the political economy of human trafficking.
It is high time for all players and sectors in the country to come together and form a formidable front to fight and suppress the growing problem of human trafficking so that we can protect our women, young people and vulnerable members of our respective communities.
There is a need to recalibrate our legal framework so that our justice system can adequately deal with this problem in a manner which is compatible with the international standards of suppressing and fighting trafficking in persons.
Zororai Nkomo is a Zimbabwean journalist, lawyer and social justice activist. He writes in his own personal capacity. You can contacted on zoronkomo@gmail.com
