Botswana grapples with growing human trafficking scourge
Botswana is grappling to contain a growing scourge of human trafficking in the country, civil society organisations have said in their submission to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The report titled ‘The Big Governance Issues in Botswana’ released recently indicates that there is a growing trend of trafficking women and children in the country despite increased efforts to fight the problem.
According to the report, government identified 13 potential victims of human trafficking in 2018 with nine adult males exploited in forced labor, three women exploited in sex labor in neighboring countries and one woman exploited in sex labor within the country.
However, the civil society organisations say the numbers could be even higher as most cases are not reported nor detected. “It is possible that a numbers of both local and international victims remain unidentified. Many are made to work on private farms and homes as slaves where they are exposed to physical, verbal and sexual abuse,” read the report in part.
The report also lamented the Judiciary’s lack of knowledge of the 2014 Anti-Human Trafficking Act.
“While government has increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, the Judiciary’s lack of familiarity with the 2014 Anti-Human Trafficking Act has impeded its ability to prosecute suspected traffickers,” continued the report.
According to the report, officials prosecuted 11 suspected traffickers in 2018 but failed to convict a known trafficker for the second consecutive year. There have been several cases of human trafficking registered with the courts. In one of the cases in 2018, government reported that it was raising two babies who had been trafficked into the country and it has proven difficult to trace their origins because of the complex nature of the vice. Two women were arrested on suspicions of human trafficking after DNA results proved that they are not their biological babies.
Former Director General of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS), Isaac Kgosi also once told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the security agency had made headway in thwarting some forms of organised crimes, including human trafficking. Kgosi then told PAC that the agency had detected and counteracted several incidents of human trafficking which he said were a threat to national security.
Meanwhile, the report revealed that almost 40% of women in Botswana have experienced some form of gender based violence (GBV) in their lifetime.
It also said Botswana has the second highest rape rate in the world, with 92.9 incidents per 100,000 people. The consequences of GBV are far- reaching, severely limiting women’s human rights. The civil society organisations submitted that because Botswana is a predominantly patriarchal society, it produces attitudes and mind-sets that subjugate the rights of women and vulnerable groups.