How cartels are Making millions from Human Trafficking

A part view of the IFO 2 Refugee camp in Dadaab on November 23, 2016. Several refugees born and bred in the camps are in a dilemma following the expatriation orders as they consider themselves stateless by virtue of her birth at the camp. Photo/Jack Owuor

Kenya has been flagged as a source, transit, and destination country for persons subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking in East Africa.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2018 by the US Department of State assessed governments’ commitment to end human trafficking in 2017.

It notes that Kenya continues to host illegal recruiters, who maintain networks in Uganda and Ethiopia, which recruit Rwandese, Ethiopian, and Ugandan workers through fraudulent offers of employment in the Middle East and Asia.

A UN report, Economic Development in Africa Report 2018, also lists Kenya’s capital Nairobi as one Africa’s top migration hubs.

The report, however, notes the migrants — legal and illegal — are mostly on transit seeking entrance to Southern Africa, Europe and Americas. It adds that Somalia contributed to the highest number of immigrants to Kenya at 485,000. Political instability and conflict in Somalia was the key driver of forced migration in the region. Mutual recognition agreements within the EAC allowing cross-border practices has also been cited as a contributing factor propelling human trafficking in the country.

“Such agreements, along with the abolition of work permits by some EAC partner states, have been vital in facilitating labour mobility among highly skilled professionals within the region,” the report notes.

This trafficking is despite a directive by the government to register all agencies linking Kenyans to employment opportunities abroad.

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By last year, only 45 out of hundreds of overseas employment agencies had registered with the Foreign Affairs ministry.

The US Department report further notes some refugees from Kenya’s largest refugee camp, Daadab, are also subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking in Kenya.

However, Kenya has in the past been flagged as leading in human trafficking incidents in the region, as the country is a big source, transit point and destination of trafficked victims.

It borders Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, which are known sources of victims.

Moreover, adults in Kenya have been flagged to be more venerable to human trafficking compared to children.

This being attributed to treating some victims as criminals, corruption, and negligence by the authorities the authorities to offer protective services to victims.

The Trafficking in Persons Report further finds fault in the government for prosecuting trafficking crimes as immigration or labour law violations which attract less stringent sentences.

Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2010 criminalised sex and labour trafficking and attracts punishment of no less than 30 years imprisonment or a fine of not less than Sh30 million.

In 2017, the government reported 35 investigations of potential trafficking cases, compared to 530 in 2016, many of which included smuggling and other trafficking-related crimes.

“Corruption remained endemic at all levels of government, and traffickers were able to fraudulently obtain identity documents from complicit officials, and police often took bribes to warn traffickers of impending operations and investigations,” the report reads.

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