By Cathy Maulidi:
Ministry of Homeland Security agents comprising Malawi Police Service and Department of Immigration officials have unmasked a human trafficking cartel at Dzaleka Refugee Camp.
According to information made available by the agents, the operation has led to the arrest of one Ahmed Muhamed Kondo, an Ethiopia national who, alongside his wife identified as Deborah, were involved in the human trafficking business.
Confirming the development, Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale Ng’oma said the officers stormed a compound belonging to Kondo at Dzaleka, where they forced open a house with several rooms.
“Clearly there were indications that individuals were inhabiting the rooms. Essentially this was more like a prison cell with razor wire on the roof, small rooms and metal doors for forced confinement. The law enforcement agencies were clearly dealing with a human trafficking situation and, upon force opening, they found 31 people confined in these cells.
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“Mr Muhammad and his wife Deborah were arrested right away. Muhammad was illegally staying in the country with no valid papers and doing his business of human trafficking while Deborah, the wife, has refugee status and was also involved in the same business,” Zikhale Ng’oma said.
According to the minister, deportation processes for the two have been effected, such that their country of origin has been informed and is expecting them.
At present the rescued victims, who include Ethiopia nationals and others, are being kept by law enforcement agencies while waiting to be sent to their countries, the minister said.
Zikhale Ng’oma has also disclosed that law enforcers are pursuing other assailants and their associates as there are many involved in such business at the camp.
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“Illegal immigrants cannot be entering this country, building houses or small prisons and forcing people into solitary confinement without authority,” he said.
According to information that we have sourced, the traffickers convince the victims to travel to Malawi for a better life and for easy route to Europe, America and South Africa.
“When they get into the country, that’s when they realise that they have been trafficked and they are kept in such cells, which are equal to maximum prisons, in exchange for payment of huge sums of money. Some of the victims are forced to contact their relatives back home and the traffickers demand ransom.
“Others have been made to pay $1,000 to be released but they end up not being released. Instead, the traffickers use them for other businesses. Dzaleka Refugee Camp has become a trafficking hub for foreigners and, if not careful, it will be Malawians being trafficked or kidnapped for ransom. It is a cartel that has been there for many years,” said an informant.
But national coordinator of the Malawi Network Against Trafficking, Caleb Thole, is of the view that the culprits must be punished here in Malawi.
“They have committed the offence here and, so, let them be punished here in Malawi. We have Malawians who have committed similar offences abroad and are punished where they have committed the offences. They are not sent back to the country,” Ng’ombo said.
