05 May 2024

The Ministry of Justice held a workshop to raise awareness on human trafficking and the necessity for collective action to combat human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.

The workshop, attended by Selebi-Phikwe town councillors in  Selebi-Phikwe recently raised awareness on the gravity of human trafficking and the necessity for collective action to combat human trafficking, educate communities about the indicators of trafficking and how to identify and report suspected cases and provide information.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary - Human Rights and Equity in the ministry, Ms Thobo Letlhage said the town council was an important stakeholder that could join hands with her ministry to combat human trafficking and smuggling of migrant workers.

Ms Letlhage said human trafficking was a global issue that affected millions of people worldwide and generated billions of money in profits for traffickers each year, explaining that human trafficking was a crime that involved the exploitation of people through force, fraud or coercion for various purposes such as forced labour, sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude.

She said the 2023 statistics showed that the Botswana Police Service recorded a total of five cases of human trafficking, three of which were sex trafficking, one case for labour exploitation while one was of unspecified exploitation.

Ms Letlhage informed them about the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, which Botswana is party to, affirming its commitment to combatting transnational organised crime and promoting international cooperation in addressing these complex challenges.

She touched on Anti-Human Trafficking Amendment Act of 2024 that introduced stiff penalties against those found guilty of the crime.

She said combating human trafficking called for collaborative efforts of various stakeholders including the town council, urging them to disseminate information to various communities they were representing.

The councillors were also informed about migrant smuggling, defined as the procurement in order to obtain directly or indirectly, a financial or other material of illegal entry of a person into a state party of which that person is not a national or permanent resident.

Ms Masedi Mosa-Sebele, a representative from the International Organisation for Migration, said in most smuggling cases, the intending irregular migrants seek and initiate the contact with smugglers themselves to realise their objective of crossing the border into a third country illegally.

Ms Mosa-Sebele emphasised on the need to differentiate between human trafficking and migrant smuggling, adding that migrant smuggling involved irregular border crossing and entry into another State while human trafficking did not necessarily involve crossing a border.  She said smuggled migrants generally consented to being smuggled while victims of human trafficking never consented.

Mr Lucas Modimana, the mayor of Selebi Phikwe, thanked the Ministry of Justice for sharing such crucial information with councillors.

He said councillors, as part of the district leadership, were in a better position to disseminate information to their respective communities, adding that the workshop helped them understand issues of human trafficking and migrant smuggling. ENDS