Cases of human trafficking are drastically increasing in Malawi since the trafficking bill has not yet enacted as a law. The revelation comes in following a Global statistic report presented at the Press briefing by the Norwegian church Aid (NCA) Malawi in Lilongwe on 11 February 2015.
Child right activist Habiba Osman in an interview after addressing the gathering expressed dissatisfaction over government. Osman said, failure of Malawi government to enact human trafficking bill into a law is a big brow in as far as trafficking cases are concerned. “After 50 years of independence since 06 July1964 Malawi is supposed to grow and develop in its three arms of government (The Executive, The Legislative and The Judiciary). The Legislature deals with low enforcement and amending the law, it is my plea to relevant authorities in Parliament and other branches of government to consider the human trafficking bill for better of the citizen before it is too late”, she said.
Osman lamented that the human trafficking law is important since it will stop human trafficking (form of modern –day slavery) in Malawi. This culminates in the destruction of countless children, women and men around the world. Not only that but also, the law will encourage participation from different stakeholders (NGOs, Civil Society Organization, Law enforcers and Security Department) to reduce trafficking cases in Malawi.
NCA Project Officer Maxwell Madele urged the government to enact the bill into law since it is one way of dealing with gender based violence. The traffickers usually beat people; prohibition of girl- child from attending education is violation of women right. “For example; last week, South African Police have arrested a man (Malawian) for selling five individuals from Malawi for R 500 in South African. This clearly indicate that most Malawian are suffering from this deadly disease so called “Human Trafficking” hence inviting all citizen to join hands in fighting this unlawful act”, he said.
The authors stand is that Malawi government does not adequately comply with general standards for prevention and elimination of unlawful act originating from human trafficking .Therefore, government is in-breach of section 269 of the penal code and trafficking remains a problem in Malawi since it lacks specific ant-trafficking laws.
In Malawi the race of combating human trafficking is of all ages (young, adults and old), in partnership with The Salvation Army, Chisomo Children’s Club, Youth Net and Counseling (YONECO), Ecumenical Counseling Centre and Norwegian Church Aid which is an independent diaconal organization commissioned by Christian churches in Norway.
