Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

The current legal framework protecting children will be strengthened through the
implementation of the 2004 Family Act and the forthcoming Children’s Act, which
reaffirms children’s right to protection from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation
and the duty of the State to uphold this right, and provides for punitive measures to
be taken against any person violating the right of the child to bodily and moral integrity
(GoM 2006c).
C. Trafficking in children
The trafficking of children not only removes them from the protective environment
of their family, but also increases their vulnerability to child labour, violence, sexual
exploitation and abuse. 66 In Mozambique, there have been numerous reports of the
trafficking of women and children, particularly between Mozambique and South Africa
for purposes of labour and sexwork. Trafficking is also thought by some to be linked
with the extraction of human organs for ritual purposes, with recent incidents alleged
in Nampula and Niassa provinces (Amnesty International Report 2005).
It is also important to draw attention to a related but often neglected area: that of
cross-border migration of children. This much broader issue is of a more voluntary and
less coercive nature than trafficking. However, children who migrate are then much
more vulnerable to trafficking, both in their home and destination countries, having
little access to social protection mechanisms or public services. Mozambican children
primarily migrate to South Africa, but also to other southeast African countries.
Underlying causes of child migration include economic insecurity, lack of employment
opportunities, family instability, natural disasters and prolonged sickness and death of
family members, sometimes from AIDS. Very often, they soon find themselves in a
situation of increased poverty, vulnerability and exploitation once they cross a border
(see for example Save the Children Norway, 2000).
As regards trafficking, some of the most detailed information available comes from
the report of a study on trafficking in Southern Africa conducted in 2002/3 by the
International Organisation on Migration. This study found that Mozambique is both
a source country and a transit country for trafficking activities in Southern Africa and
that approximately 1,000 Mozambican women and children are trafficked to South
Africa every year, earning traffickers approximately one million South African Rand
annually (IOM 2003). The study showed that:
• Victims come from rural and urban backgrounds, from Maputo and Nampula
provinces;
• Two types of victims were involved: (i) sex worker victims in Maputo who are
offered sex work in Johannesburg; (ii) victims who are not sex workers are offered
restaurant jobs;
• Victims are recruited by Mozambican women, working in partnership with
Mozambican and South African men responsible for transportation of victims and
exploitation;
• Victims are transported by mini-bus taxi from Maputo to Johannesburg;
• Some victims spend one night in transit houses where their documents and
personal possessions are taken, and they are sexually assaulted to initiate and
intimidate them into sex work. These transit houses are well known to local
population and police;
• Sex worker victims are sold to brothels in Johannesburg central business district
(CBD) for 1000 South African Rand;
• Victims who were promised restaurant jobs are sold on private order, or sold as
‘wives’ to mine-workers on the West Rand for 850 South African Rand (IOM 2003:
12).
66 Trafficking refers to the illegal transport of human beings, in particular women and children, for the purpose of selling them or exploiting their
labour.
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