Exploitation and abuse of migrant children
Numbers of Zimbabwean children illegally entering Mozambique are increasing every year. Children want to escape poverty at home. Many are AIDS orphans or unaccompanied, hoping to find a better life in better-off neighbouring Mozambique. Instead they can fall prey to exploitation and abuse, including prostitution and child labour.
A lot of Zimbabwean children are crossing the Mozambican border each day. Large numbers of these children are alone and extremely vulnerable.
Zimbabwe is in its eighth year of economic decline, which has cut GDP by 40 percent. But child migration was not a problem peculiar to Zimbabwe, but a growing issue in the southern African region.
Mozambican children are entering South Africa illegally, Angolans are entering Namibia, and so on. Children say that they are not fully aware of what is going to face them in the countries. They often think they can earn money quickly. The reality is that they often become trapped in a cycle of abuse and dependency.
The study of Zimbabwean children found that many young girls - some aged as young as 12 - ended up in the sex trade along the transport corridor linking Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira in Sofala province. Sofala has the highest HIV infection rate in Mozambique, at around 26 percent of the adult population.
Young Zimbabwean sex workers living illegally in settlements along the Zambezi River in central Mozambique are popular with men because they are exploitable.
Many Mozambican men tend to be sexually involved with Zimbabweans because they are cheaper,” the report quoted a government official in the central Mozambican town of Machipanda as saying. “With 30 to 40 thousand Meticais [just over one US dollar], it is possible to have one afternoon or a night of pleasure.”
Zimbabwean girls are also employed in barracas - informal, often rowdy bars - and in restaurants. The owners see English-speaking staff as a status symbol.
Children often find employment illegally on farms. The provincial government in the central province of Manica confirmed that child labour occurred, with boys paid up to 900,000 Meticais (about 33 US dollars) a month for long, arduous work herding livestock or as farm hands.
SCF is looking to develop a range of school magazines and radio programmes targeting children, clearly spelling out what it means to travel to another country “without papers, family or friends to support them, and for them to know that the kind of problems they will face will be massive and grave”.
SCF is also calling for police and border officials to be provided with additional training on children’s rights and abuse laws.
That is horrible!!!!! I even don’t know what to say! A night of pleasure for one US dollar!!!!!!!!!!! Poor children…………. Yeah, it is a good idea to develop a range of school magazines and radio programmes clearly spelling out what it means to travel to another country alone and explaining to children what kind of problems they will face there. But I don’t think this measure can help a lot. Children want to escape poverty at home!!! They are going to another country because it is extremely difficult to live in their own country. I don’t think they want to work so hard for 33 US dollars because they like it. They just want to live better!!!!! Probably some reach European countries and USA can help to rise their economy. I don’t think it is too difficult for them. I understand that they can’t help all poor countries, but in such situation……..