Torture in [Botswana] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Botswana Street Children in [Botswana] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Botswana] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Botswana.htm
Botswana is a source, transit, and, to a lesser
extent, destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purpose of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked
internally for domestic servitude and cattle herding, while women report
being forced into commercial sexual exploitation at safari lodges. Botswana
is a staging area for both the smuggling and trafficking of third-country
nationals, primarily from Namibia and Zimbabwe, to South Africa. Zimbabweans
are also trafficked into Botswana for forced labor as domestic servants. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Botswana. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Botswana in sweat shops, human trafficking
crisis Gowenius Toka, Sunday Standard, 21-10-2007 www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1 [accessed 23 January 2011] The Sunday Standard
turned up further information that another company, Zheng Ming, which
operated a sweatshop in Ramotswa, was part of an international trade in
modern day slavery. Industrial Court Judge, Elijah Legwaila, would later rule
that “it appears that Chinese nationals pay large sums of money to
recruitment agencies who send them abroad with all sorts of promises and that
some Chinese nationals even leave China with promises of work in developed
countries and that by the time such people land at any destination they have
neither the money nor the bargaining power to protect their rights. “These Chinese
nationals are then housed and fed in compounds at the pleasure of the
employer. Their passports, air tickets, work and residence permits are
retained by the employer.” Legwaila
was passing judgment in a case in which Bin Quin Lin, a Chinese national
working for Zheng Ming Knitwear, was held in forced labour without pay. Chinese
investors are the biggest investors in the textile industry which exports
garments to ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2006 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF] www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/tda/tda2006/botswana.pdf [accessed 23 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children in Human Rights
Reports » 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/118987.htm [accessed 23 January 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law does not prohibit trafficking in persons, although penal code
provisions cover related offenses such as abduction and kidnapping, slave
trafficking, and procuring women and girls for the purpose of prostitution.
One suspected trafficking case was prosecuted during the year on false
documentation charges, although anecdotal evidence suggested that additional
trafficking cases may have occurred and gone undetected. There were
unconfirmed reports that women and children from eastern Africa were
trafficked through the country to The Protection
Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/botswana.doc [Last accessed 2009] Trafficking Routes
and Forms of Trafficking - More specifically,
porous borders, combined with recurrent civil and political unrest and a lack
of economic opportunity, have ensured a consistent southward flow of both
legal and illegal migrants in southern Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 2 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/botswana [accessed 26 June 2012] Botswana in sweat shops, human trafficking
crisis Gowenius Toka, Sunday Standard, 21-10-2007 www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=2186&GroupID=1 [accessed 23 January 2011] The Sunday Standard
turned up further information that another company, Zheng Ming, which
operated a sweatshop in Ramotswa, was part of an international trade in
modern day slavery. Industrial Court Judge, Elijah Legwaila, would later rule
that “it appears that Chinese nationals pay large sums of money to recruitment
agencies who send them abroad with all sorts of promises and that some
Chinese nationals even leave China with promises of work in developed
countries and that by the time such people land at any destination they have
neither the money nor the bargaining power to protect their rights. “These Chinese
nationals are then housed and fed in compounds at the pleasure of the
employer. Their passports, air tickets, work and residence permits are
retained by the employer.” Legwaila
was passing judgment in a case in which Bin Quin Lin, a Chinese national
working for Zheng Ming Knitwear, was held in forced labour without pay.
Chinese investors are the biggest investors in the textile industry which
exports garments to Human trafficking ring smashed in Botswana Press TV, Apr 19, 2009 edition.presstv.ir/detail/91932.html [accessed 23 January 2011] The Reducing Exploitive Child Labour in www.reclisa.org/content/index.cfm?navID=2&itemID=14
[Last access date unavailable] The ILO estimates
that in 2000 there were 30,000 economically active children in Child labour
persists in Botswana mainly because of limited public awareness and research
concerning children's participation in exploitive labour; Inadequate
harmonization and definitions and laws protecting core labour standards,
including those pertaining to exploitive child labour, and limited capacity
to enforce existing laws; poor school transportation, infrastructure, and
material conditions in rural areas; and lack of vocational primary and
secondary educational opportunities for street children, abandoned children,
child-headed households, pregnant girls or teenage mothers, children of
migrant workers, HIV/AIDS orphans, and older children. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
Torture in [Botswana] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Botswana Street Children in [Botswana] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Botswana] [other countries]