Mozambican children are being smuggled across the border and forced to work as sex slaves in neighbouring South Africa, a spokesperson for police chiefs told state television Wednesday.
”We have had some confirmed cases of children, especially teenage girls, who have been press-ganged to work as sex slaves in South Africa,” said Joaquim Bule, spokesperson for the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) which ended a two-day meeting here late Tuesday.
Bule said that combating the trafficking of children through criminal networks operating in Mozambique and South Africa should be included in the police organisation’s list of priorities.
He said other cross-border crimes of concern to the organisation included arms and drugs trafficking, motor vehicle and cattle theft.
There have been numerous media reports in Mozambique of children going missing from the country’s southern province of Maputo, which borders South Africa.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the children might have been murdered in ritual killings. The use of children’s body parts in witchcraft is widespread in Africa, including South Africa.
Members of SARPCCO include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. – Sapa-AFP