‘HUMAN TRAFFICKING NEW TREND OF MODERN SLAVERY’

THE hospitality industry in Zambia has remained the most vulnerable sector to cases of human trafficking in the country as not much revelations about the trend are being made, International Organizations of Migrations (IOM) has said.

IOM Protection Officer Nomsisi Pearl Wonami has noted that Zambia is a country of origin, transit and destination for men, women and children who may be subjected to forced labour and sexual exploitation.

Ms Wonani has charged that despite all this, the country has taken significant steps towards addressing human trafficking.

However, she noted that there is still so much to do adding that globally, the hospitality industry is unknowingly a key conduit for human trafficking.

She was speaking during the official opening of a three days human trafficking training for frontline workers and managers in the hospitality industry in Livingstone.

Ms Wonani said, as a result of these attributes, IOM found it necessary to enhance capacity building programs in human trafficking to bring competencies of the hospitality industry.

She said that IOM Zambia has partnered with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security to train personnel in the hospitality industry.

And Ministry of Tourism representative Clement Mulungushi has said that in many cases human trafficking have gone undetected in the hospitality industry.

Mr Mulungushi said therefore that the training is an important undertaking for personnel in the hospital industry as it will help them be aware of what is happening around their working environment.

Further, he said that the knowledge from the training will help the participants be able to protect not only their guests but also potentially innocent victims of modern day slavery.