Malawi National Assembly Passes Trafficking in Persons Bill

Malawi National Assembly Passes Trafficking in Persons Bill

The Malawi National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon passed Trafficking in Persons Bill.

Passing of the bill gives Malawians hope of an end or reduction of cases of human trafficking which have been on the increase due to lack of specific legislation to curb such illegal practice and porous borders . 

Recent media reports indicate not long ago this year, 13 children the youngest being 6 years old were trafficked from Zomba to Mozambique. And in Phalombe district, Police have been involved in rescue operations with Mozambican authorities where more than 124 children have been rescued and it is alleged that some of these had their genitals mutilated.

A lot of children and girls in Malawi have been vulnerable to trafficking due to poverty, domestic violence and child-headed homes as well as lack of economic opportunities. Such trafficked children have been experiencing various forms of exploitation including forced labour, forced prostitution, domestic slavery and body organs.

Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Hon. Paul Chibingu when presenting the Bill in the House emphasized that the bill will address number of issues that emerged due to lack of proper law. He said the Bill seeks to protect and promote rights of vulnerable people especially children and girls who are the most target of traffickers who uses deception or force for the purpose of exploitation.

Hon Chibingu indicated that the legislation has several stiffer penalties including imprisonment sentences which some of the longest ones are more than 20 years of imprisonment. He said such penalties will effectively protect children of Malawi from being trafficked as it has been the case. 

Since Malawi was the only country in the SADC region without proper legislation on Trafficking, the Minister further said when the bill is enacted into law there will be a better collaboration between Malawi and its neighboring countries in combating trafficking as well as in prosecution of such cases.

“This bill will assist the country especially in our courts, they have been having problems in dealing with human trafficking cases just because we had no proper law of governing courts in terms of passing sentences” said Chibingu “But this time around, once this bill becomes a law our courts will have a uniform way of discharging the justice and imposing penalties for to be offenders.”

Spokespersons for political parties in the House, from Malawi Congress Party (MCP), People’s Party (PP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) all supported the bill.

During the general debate some members while supporting the bill they also raised a number of issues among them on the need to strengthen security in all border districts where human trafficking is rampant and that issuing of national identification cards is necessary.

But the Internal Security Minister has assured parliamentarians that government is making sure that security is tight in all the districts and that before end of 2015 government will commence issuing national identity cards as another way of preventing human trafficking.