From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jan 06 2010 - 16:01:43 EST
"According to a recent report released by US State Department in June 2009,
Kenya is a source, transit and a destination country for men, women and
children trafficked for the purpose of better lives, forced labour and
sexual exploitation. Victims take tedious routes to South Africa and
sometimes to some European countries. Traffickers make millions of dollars
every month by arranging and directing the journey to South Africa. Some
victims end their travels with shocking deaths"
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/837336/-/view/printVersion/-/h21jr0z/-/index.html
Slave trade booms as poverty bites
Human traffickers prefer crowded areas like Eastleigh in Nairobi to carry
out their crime, while anti human trafficking activist Amina Kinsi (above),
founder of Ngazi Moja Foundation, fights the crime with the only weapons at
her disposal. Photo/ ABDULLAHI JAMAA
By ABDULLAHI JAMAA Posted Wednesday, January 6 2010 at 18:21
A group of young are gathered behind a makeshift structure where they have
been living on edge. They have been sitting idle for the some hours. Their
discussion returns to poverty, and how to overcome it. Sweats are beading on
their worried foreheads.
Indeed, if there is a poverty-stricken place near Garissa Town, it is Bulla
Masalani Village. The sun sets gently, leaving a cloudless sky and the first
hints of cool air begin to blow through the thatched houses that make most
homes.
“The sun rises everyday and it sets everyday, and like that sun, poverty
rises here everyday, making us a lost generation,” says a 20-year-old youth
we shall call Sheikh.
Seek asylum
“The only option now is to move out of this county and seek asylum.” For
months Sheikh has been weighing the possibility of making the long journey
to Africa’s biggest economy: South Africa. “We know that the journey is
dangerous, but I cannot allow myself to be consumed by poverty. I better die
elsewhere.
“We cannot further our education here, we cannot do business, we cannot get
meals, so why should we stay in this horrible condition,” he asks the man
who completed secondary school two years ago. He has borrowed the money
required for the voyage South, now he has only few weeks the journey with
human traffickers this month.
“Many friends and relatives have already gone, some died on the way and
others are surviving. The one important thing is to run away from Kenya,” he
says. Human trafficking business in the North Eastern region is getting
bolder with every passing day.
“Of course we will have to seek better life elsewhere. We are concerned.
Living conditions are getting worse by the day” says, Ahmed 19. Human
traffickers have established a strong network to make money from those who
are fleeing the sheer crumbling economy and the shocking unemployment that
has ravaged most of Kenyan youth.
And here in the North, the scale of human trafficking is alarming.
“Trafficking of people is very rampant here. It is a multi-million dollar
business that is getting bold in much of the Great lakes and Horn of Africa
region,” says Mr Abdullahi Hirsi, the executive director of Northern
Heritage, a local aid agency in Garissa.
“In the past few years alone, because of droughts, we have seen a huge
number of economic refugees targeted by human traffickers with a promise of
better life elsewhere,” he said. A spot-check in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera
shows that the illegal business is conducted daily, final arrangements done
in Nairobi.
“In Garissa, at least five persons are trafficked in each of the more than
10 buses plying the route to Nairobi. You can imagine the number of people
on sale everyday — more than 50,” says an anti-trafficking activist who
sought anonymity due to security reasons. “This depicts a completely
worrying picture.”
Nairobi’s’ Eastleigh has been the hub of the internationally denounced
trade. Economic and conflict refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Kenya are sold in the sprawling commercial centre to move to other
countries. “Eastleigh is a connection point for most victims. It is where
the journey starts and it is where most monies exchange hands,” says Amina
Kinsi of Ngazi Moja Foundation, a lobby group in Eastleigh.
According to a recent report released by US State Department in June 2009,
Kenya is a source, transit and a destination country for men, women and
children trafficked for the purpose of better lives, forced labour and
sexual exploitation. Victims take tedious routes to South Africa and
sometimes to some European countries. Traffickers make millions of dollars
every month by arranging and directing the journey to South Africa. Some
victims end their travels with shocking deaths.
The cheapest illegal migration goes well over $600 while the most expensive
takes more than $2,000 for a journey that sometimes takes several months.
“Sometimes, you become stranded in a town where you know no one. I spent
more than a week in Zambia as I had run out of cash,” said Farah, who
returned from South Africa at the height of Xenophobia against Somalis.
“I reached Johannesburg after more than three weeks of journeying. It was
the worst journey ever for me.” The cartel of human traffickers usually
collect per-head fee at every entry point of these countries. “Traffickers
use unmanned border towns, often meeting with little police and security
restrictions,” says Mr Hirsi of Northern Heritage.
Some of this money is usually meant to pay kickbacks to Immigration
officials and border police. “We travelled in group of about 10. At every
point we paid about $100. If you don’t have enough money, you are left alone
and you may get lost. That could mean losing your money or even your life,”
says Farah.
The International Organization for Migration says women and girls are
vulnerable to sexual abuse including rapes by even their own traffickers.
Corruption among public officers has made life easy for benefiting from the
sale of stricken villagers. Anti-trafficking NGOs in North Eastern say
corrupt police officers are part and parcel of the business. Intelligence
officers in the province agree. The authorities are incapable of changing
things to stop the slave trade.
However, the North Eastern PC James Ole Serian says the government is making
efforts to investigate and prosecute officials suspected of involvement. “We
are having names of about seven individuals allegedly taking part in the
illegal trade of selling people. We are investigating their case and we will
obviously arraign them in court,” he says.
Pressure groups are saying that bus companies from the region to the capital
Nairobi traffic even young children. “Bus conductors and some police
officers on major roadblocks are major players,” says an activist. But as
public transport gets tough for those involved in the business, the
provincial authorities say these thieves have now resorted to more unlikely
means.
Over the past few months, boats and dhows have been used to transport
victims across River Tana. More are reportedly using government vehicles
that are not searched by police.
Groups campaigning
Groups campaigning against the illegal trade are worried that trafficking
industry continues to be a profitable one in much of the Horn, but there is
misery involved. An assessment carried out by the International Organization
for Migration in the target regions of Kenya establishes poverty and the
search for livelihood as key factors that render people vulnerable to
trafficking.
Over the years, trafficking has grown a well organised crime that operates
on a global scale, with an estimated trade value of $32 billion a year. Lack
of global action and accords to prevent the trade is one key problem.
“In Kenya for instance, there are no immediate laws that can be used to
address this problems. Some laws and amendments are urgently needed to stop
the vice,” says Mr Hirsi. “You can realise the state of our lives. We are
seeing traffickers are making money from people like us but we have accepted
ourselves to be trafficked just to reach greener pastures,” Sheikh finally
says.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----