2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

ficking victims as they attempted to board a flight to
London using forged travel documents; their handler
escaped before he could be taken into custody.
Protection
The government’s efforts to protect victims of
trafficking remained extremely limited. There
are no formal victim identification or referral
procedures in Zambia. In some cases, victims are
placed in shelters operated by NGOs. During the
year, Zambian authorities worked with IOM and
an NGO to shelter and repatriate two trafficked
Chinese women. The Ministries of Education and
Labor worked with a local NGO to remove children
from situations of forced labor, including girls
in prostitution, and provide them with formal
education and vocational training. In 2006, the
government allocated $142,500 to the Ministry of
Labor’s Child Labor Unit, almost twice the amount
given the previous year. This unit’s 50 child labor
inspectors, due to lack of transportation and other
resources, conducted fewer than 50 inspections in
2006 and resolved most violations through mediation
and counseling. The government encouraged
victims to assist with the investigation and prosecution
of traffickers. Identified victims are not
detained, jailed, deported, or otherwise penalized
for unlawful acts committed as a result of their
being trafficked.
Prevention
While Zambia lacks a comprehensive public awareness
campaign, the government sustained efforts to
prevent vulnerable children from being trafficked.
It continued operation of two youth camps that
provided 18 months of counseling and rehabilitation
services to street children vulnerable to trafficking,
including girls removed from prostitution; 204
children graduated from the camps in 2006. After
graduation, some children opted to be placed in one
of 16 Youth Resources Centers where they refined
trade skills such as carpentry, tailoring, or poultry
farming. The Child Labor Unit provided public
education on the worst forms of child labor by
staging public events to raise awareness, speaking in
schools, and informally counseling families, children
and employers. The government’s inter-agency
committee on trafficking made progress toward
realizing the goals of its three-pronged anti-trafficking
strategy that focuses on drafting a comprehensive
law, conducting a baseline study, and raising public
awareness. The government-owned radio station
broadcasted IOM public service announcements on
trafficking. The committee also facilitated the work
of an outside expert who drafted a comprehensive
national policy on human trafficking after consulting
with NGOs and other stakeholders.
ZIMBABWE (Tier 2)
Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination
country for women and children trafficked for the
purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.
Rural Zimbabwean children are trafficked into
cities for agricultural labor, domestic servitude,
and commercial sexual exploitation. Zimbabwean
women and children are reportedly trafficked for
sexual exploitation in towns along the borders with
the four surrounding countries. Young women
and girls are also lured to South Africa, People’s
Republic of China, Egypt, the United Kingdom,
Canada, and Zambia with false employment offers
that result in involuntary domestic servitude or
commercial sexual exploitation. Women and children
from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia are trafficked
through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa. Small
numbers of South African girls are trafficked to
Zimbabwe for forced domestic labor.
The Government of Zimbabwe does not fully
comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Over the last year, the
government displayed a more vigorous commitment
to addressing trafficking in persons issues. To
further its efforts to combat trafficking, the government
should complete investigations of pending
cases and prosecute suspected traffickers; advance
comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation; and
launch a broad awareness raising campaign that
educates all levels of government officials, as well as
the general public, on the nature of trafficking and
the availability of assistance for victims.
Prosecution
Zimbabwe’s anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts
significantly increased; during the year, the government
investigated cases of trafficking and registered
its first anti-trafficking conviction. Zimbabwe does
not prohibit all forms of trafficking in persons,
though existing statutes outlaw forced labor and
numerous forms of sexual exploitation. In June,
a magistrate’s court in Harare convicted a woman
under the Criminal Law Act for, under the guise of
providing legitimate employment, procuring a minor
and forcing her into prostitution; she was sentenced
to four years in prison. Nine other separate criminal
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