Police foil child traffickers
Chakalisa Dube | Wednesday December 10, 2014 15:26
Responding to a tip-off, on Monday morning the Tati Town Police did a stop and search operation at Low-Income Bluetown location. During the search, the police uncovered a vehicle full of children, aged between three and 14 years of age. The arrested child traffickers, aged between 25 and 30-years-old, were reportedly on their way to South Africa with the children.
“We cannot reveal much on the case. As I speak to you, we are conducting interviews with those involved,” said Tati Town police acting station commander, Assistant Superintendent Seanokeng Nkau.
“At this moment we have decided that we will not issue much information to the media or other external stakeholders in order to allow the investigations to go smoothly. This is also a sensitive case,” he added.
He said the children, who are also foreign nationals, are under police protection, while law enforcement officials attempt to locate their parents. “I cannot reveal the identity of the accused as this would jeopardise our investigations,” she said.
Nkau added: “I also cannot comment on why the children were being taken to South Africa, or even their relationship (if any) to the suspects”.
The incident comes six months after Parliament passed an eagerly awaited Anti-Human Trafficking Act. The law was passed after it was realised that traffickers are targeting Botswana, both as a source market and also as a transit route.
Presenting the Bill in Parliament, the then Defence, Justice and Security Minister Ramadeluka Seretse said the legislation would provide for the prohibition, prevention and combat of human trafficking.
He noted that vulnerable groups, such as women and children, were the most affected by human trafficking.
In December last year, it was reported that the government recorded a total of 44 cases of Batswana trafficked out of the country over the four preceding years, largely due to police incompetence and lack of intelligence gathering. Twenty of the 44 people trafficked were minors, a High-Level Thematic Regional Seminar on Trafficking Persons in Southern Africa was told last year.
Other cases were not easily detected because police lacked the expertise to avert trafficking. Most people who are trafficked are being engaged in forced labour and commercial sex.