Safari lodges use Batswana women as sex slaves - report

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) last week published a report on core labour standards in the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

"According to the USDoS Trafficking Report 2008, one local non-governmental organisation (NGO) received reports from Batswana women that they were forced to provide sexual services to tourists at some safari lodges. Usually with the hope of attaining better education and more opportunities, parents from rural areas give their children to better off families in towns. It has been reported that some of these children are later used for domestic servitude or for herding in remote cattle posts," the report says.