ZAMBIA
Child Trafficking Bid Fails
The Times of Zambia
POLICE in Lusaka are keeping 14 Congolese girls between five and 17 years and one woman aged 29 who allegedly tried to smuggle them to South Africa without legal documents.
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
October 25, 2004
Posted to the web October 25, 2004
Perdita Chenjela
POLICE in Lusaka are keeping 14 Congolese girls between five and 17 years and one woman aged 29 who allegedly tried to smuggle them to South Africa without legal documents.
The woman who travelled with the children from the Democratic Republic of Congo using a local bus is alleged to have been pairing the girls so as not to raise suspicion among other passengers.
Police spokesperson Brenda Muntemba and Victim Support Unit (VSU) officer Peter Kasale both confirmed the arrest.
Mr Kasale said the group was intercepted at the Chirundu border post in Southern Province as the woman was trying to make arrangements to smuggle the children in small numbers in order not to raise suspicions at the exit point.
It was found that the woman had no legal documents to support her being in possession of the children drawn from different families.
Mr Kasale said the woman did not even have legal travel documents or any document to show that the children were in her custody legally.
He said he was saddened that a person could decide to move with a child as young as five years old in such circumstances.
According to one of the children talked to at one of the Orphanage Centres where they are being kept in LindaTownship, the woman had promised the girls that they were going to be employed in South Africa while some would proceed to America.
The child said her parents could have been given some money for they are the ones who allowed her to accompany the woman so that she finds her a job.
"I do not know whether I was supposed to be employed in South Africa or America but my parents told me that the woman was going to find me a good job and that I should not worry about anything," she said.
Another child said she was told to say the woman was her aunt and that the family was going to join relatives in South Africa.
Mr Kasale said some of the children would be repatriated to the DRC during the week, while others will be repatriated next weekend together with the woman who has been arrested for travelling with no valid documents and alleged child trafficking.
"Some of the children will be repatriated back to Congo while the woman is being held for investigations. But we hope to hand her over to DRC authorities," he said.