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Mombasa Remains A Lucrative
Route For Human Traffickers

LACK OF A SPECIFIC LAW TO FIGHT THE MENACE

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya is fast becoming a source, a destination and a transit point for victims of human trafficking and smuggling.

The trade that is said to be among the most lucrative illegal businesses in the world is on the increase in the country. International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an anti-human trafficking organisation says Kenya’s porous borders and war in the neighbouring countries is fuelling the vice. In the past months, police in Nairobi have rescued hundreds of people being trafficked through Kenya. Most of these people were found living under deplorable conditions and they had paid thousands of shillings to their traffickers. Japheth Kasimba, IOM’s counter-trafficking officer says most people who are trafficked come from Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Congo and Kenya itself. “Victims are trafficked from these countries after being promised better jobs and living conditions. “However, they end up working as slaves with little or no pay wherever they are taken,” he says. Kasimba says Kenya has become a lucrative human trafficking centre because of lack of a specific law to fight the menace. “The country does not have a specific law to protect victims and counter human trafficking. “It would have been easier for police to combat the crime if there was a precise legislation to assist them,” he says. Reports from anti-human trafficking organisations cite Nairobi, Coast and North Eastern province as hot spots. “Mombasa is a lucrative route for human traffickers. “Victims are lured into Kenya with hopes of getting better jobs and linking up with wealthy tourists but some of them end up as sex slaves in massage parlours or prostitutes,” says a counter trafficking organisation based at the Kenyan Coast. It is estimated that about 10,000 people are trafficked in the province, which is Kenya’s tourist hub, annually. Kenya is considered a transit route for victims of trafficking from its war torn neighbours to Europe, Asia, South Africa and the US.

It is also a destination for people from Somalia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Globally, it is estimated that human trafficking trade rakes in up to about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars in profits..

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