Toddler dies in hands of Illegal immigrant

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday May 13, 2015 16:33

The mourning parents could now face double trouble as the police intend to slap them with charges of hiring an illegal immigrant. The nanny has no travel documents, according to Serowe police.

According to the acting station commander of Serowe Police Station, Assistant Superintendent Molefe Molefe, the toddler’s parents returned home Tuesday night to find their child with a swollen head. The child was rushed to the hospital, only to pass away the following day.

Molefe said they suspected the child could have fallen down while the maid carried her on the back.

“We suspect that the maid may be aged between 14 and 16 and started working for the couple three months ago,” said the officer.

Molefe added that the police would charge the baby’s parents with the offence of hiring an illegal immigrant if they failed to produce her immigration documents.

“The maid claims to be having a passport which she says is with her grandmother in Francistown.

We are carrying out investigations to ascertain if that is true or not,” said Molefe.

He said the baby’s father was a police officer based at Serowe police station while the mother was a teacher at one of the primary schools in the village.“The maid is currently in police custody to help us with investigations in order to find out if there was any foul play or not,” said Molefe.

He said they were waiting for post mortem results to establish if the death was an accident or not, adding that if the death was deliberate they would charge the maid with murder.

Meanwhile Molefe warned parents to stop hiring illegal immigrants and children to take care of their babies.

He said children were inexperienced and could not be expected to properly take care of other children.