Africa Newsline
Tuesday, May 11th 2010
Fleeing from the female genital mutilation to seek refuge in the urban areas where the tradition is rather checked, young girls from Kenya and the rest of East Africa have found themselves the target of easy human trafficking cartels.First, the girls usually find their way to the urban centers under the guise of domestic workers, where they are concealed from the prying eyes of the anti-human trafficking activists and rights watchdogs.
But eventually well-connected cartels, mostly operating within the profitable tourism industry provide the first link to the young girls, with promises of lucrative jobs and cosy lifestyles, they are smuggled into Europe.Despite fresh crackdown on coastal villas, mostly in Mombasa and Malindi, which are believed to fuel the trafficking of children, the authorities have been unable to control the growth of human trafficking.
Consequently, authorities have been registering all villas in Mombasa for easy monitoring to stem sex tourism.The growth of sex tourism has been an issue of concern within the lucrative tourism circles, an issue which has forced the 100 hoteliers in the coast of Mombasa and its surroundings to introduce a code of conduct for operators.Experts say Kenya is an emerging centre of human trafficking, first as a country of origin, transit and destination, for trafficked children from the East and Central Africa, from where they find their way to Europe, mainly Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
Kenyan Labour Minister Dr Newton Kulundu says human trafficking is thriving in Kenya because of endemic poverty, which has seen the underprivileged children seek better lives in urban areas.“The vice is a relatively new phenomenon in the East African region, and it is very unfortunate that it was undocumented and unknown to many people,” he said.Kulundu says trafficking in young children is fueled by a number of complex issues among them, the disparities in economic development compounded by what he calls the ‘better life syndrome’ in the minds of people seeking jobs abroad.
The magnitude of trafficking in children as sex slaves is so high that authorities estimate that at least 60 percent of foreign commercial sex workers in Italy are from African countries.“It is very disheartening to note that traffickers exploit women and children resulting to forced labour and sexual slavery,” the Kenyan bureaucrat regretted. “It is very upsetting,” he adds.Victims are usually lured to their traps with promises of better lifestyles in Europe, a quick escape route from the debilitating poverty ravaging many African countries.
Their disappointment however comes in after doing everything in their power to travel abroad only to end up as domestic labourers and commercial sex workers.Human trafficking has also been on the increase due to promises of access to education and domestic jobs,” he said.Though Kenya is yet to sign or ratify the UN convention on trafficking in persons, Kulundu said the anomaly would soon be addressed and its contents domesticated in the statutes.
“Weak structures within the government enabled traffickers to operate easily and trade unions in East Africa need to do more to organize and educate workers especially those who may be in danger,” he said.Kenya is among the 47 countries drawn from Africa and Asia, which have committed themselves to legislate model laws to bolster a global crackdown against human trafficking.Kenya hosted a global law reform forum this year amid mounting concerns over the government’s reluctance to domesticate an international human trafficking treaty despite the upsurge of the illegal trade in the country.
The 44th Session of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) conference brought together some 350 delegates from Africa and Asia to brainstorm on critical issues among them human trafficking.AALCO Secretary-General Wafik Kamil presented a model anti-human trafficking law to the conference, giving principles to be included in the yet-to-enacted law to curb trafficking, which was adopted by the member states.
“This conference is for member states which was organized by the AALCO Secretariat to enable countries come up with positions, but these countries must enact their own independent laws,” said Nasra Hyder, a State Counsel at the A-G’s Chambers.
The conference sought ways to galvanise a global call to crackdown on child exploitation, forced labour, exploitation of prostitution, domestic work and organ harvesting, some of the factors precipitating prostitution.
Despite the setting of a special police unit to combat human trafficking and a recent proposal to set up a similar unit at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), participants were not hoodwinked into believing that Kenya has done enough to stem human trafficking.
Kenyan Attorney General’s Chambers officials say the government has taken drastic steps to limit trafficking and its related crimes such as sex tourism through a collaborative effort between the Home Affairs, Tourism and Labour ministries.
The government has not domesticated the international treaty against trafficking in human beings especially women and children although the practice has recently gained momentum with ritual killings becoming increasingly high especially in urban areas.
“The government has ratified the Convention against transnational crime but it is unfortunate that we do not have a model law on human trafficking,” Hyder said.
By the government ratifying the 1949 UN protocol against child and women trafficking, it means it accepts liability for failing to enforce the law and can be held accountable.
“The protocol against transnational crime was ratified on June 2004 and the protocol on human trafficking was ratified in January 2005. These mean the government can be held responsible,” Hyder.
The government must now domesticate these laws and follow principles stated in the treaty which it ratified,” she added.
Kenya has no specific law against human trafficking but there are provisions in the penal code and the children’s act.
“Kenya has been identified as a place for trafficking. It is a problem we have not got the law passed,” said Hyder, a specialist on human trafficking and children’s rights.
The conference sought to galvanize stronger measures to deter human trafficking. Kenya was among the countries that contributed to the debate on child trafficking alongside China, South Africa and India.
Experts at the A-G’s Chambers say plans to fast track the harmonization and the subsequent legislation of a domestic anti-child trafficking law are at advanced stages.
“There are provisions in the Children’s Act which contradict the Penal Code among other statutes which address abuses against children,” Hyder noted.
The United States has given Kenya a clean bill of health for the country’s clampdown on trafficking in human beings, including tightening the noose against suspected traffickers.
The US dropped Kenya from its watch list of countries with the highest number of human trafficking cases.
Kenyan Police were last year involved in an international probe against human trafficking after a Kenyan was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the vice.
The country is believed to be a central zone in the human trafficking racket especially given its busy airports, which makes flight connections from and to any part of the world easy.
But police sources are weary of heightened trade across the borders, mainly with Tanzania, where a Kenyan, identified by Tanzanian Police as Justus Mwita, aged 40, was arrested in Shinyanga region alongside three others for trafficking in limbs mid this month.
The Kenyan was arrested alongside Samwel Mashauri aged 51, who was also identified by police as a peasant from Mwanza, Mahimbo Machiya aged 30 and Shita Shilembi also aged 30 who were suspected of trading in the body parts.
Tanzanian Polices said the Kenyan admitted during interrogations that he wanted the human limbs to be used as a cure for bareness.
Tanzanian police said trade in human limbs first emerged five years ago in southern Tanzania. The traders have infiltrated Kenya, which is believed to be the main transit point to Asia and Middle East.
Police in the United Kingdom say traffickers are now targeting children, mainly boys for ritual killings.
The boys are trafficked to Britain and then killed after a fake pastor or religious leader claims they (boys) are possessed with evil spirits, according to British media.
“There is special emphasis on children and women because they are the most endangered group,” said Hyder.
There have been very few convictions for human trafficking in Kenya as opposed to Tanzania where the High Court in Mbeya sentenced five people to death after finding them guilty of trading in human limbs in May.
Police in Kenya have been pursuing 20 cases of suspected human trafficking, in conjunction with the Tanzanian authorities, which also include instituting joint patrols to curb human trafficking.
“Trafficking of Kenyan children to Tanzania is on the increase,” Hyder said.
Meanwhile, trade in human parts and skin has sparked alarming incidents of dismembered corpses in the Tanzania and parts of the Kenyan coast with many residents suggesting the existence of markets for human organs in neighbouring countries.
Body skin and internal organs are sold for at least US$1,800 in areas where the trade is rampant. Some suspected ritual killings; mainly against elderly women on suspicion that they are witches are also common.
Conservative estimates put the rate of trafficking in human beings at between 700,000 to 4 million annually, mainly by organized criminal groups of use the trafficked human beings for commercial purposes.
The Government says cases of Kenyans being trafficked to the Middle East are on the increase, especially those taken as cooks, drivers and other forms of labour.
Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia was recently ordered to register all incoming citizens. The Labour Ministry has also started pre-departure training and counseling for Kenyans traveling abroad to counter human trafficking.
The minister said migrant workers should be provided with messages and information regarding safe migration practices, and urged the trade unions to be vigilant in negotiations attractive terms and conditions of employment.
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