*MAIDEI'S STORY - TRAFFICKED FROM ZIMBABWE TO MOZAMBIQUE AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
Maidei*, aged 15, met a Congolese man in Nyanga, Zimbabwe, who took her to a restaurant for lunch. He told Maidei that he was a Congolese tailor and promised her a job in Congo, if she accompanied him. She agreed to travel with him to Congo. Maidei had neither a birth certificate nor a passport. The man promised to organize the necessary travel documents for her. When they got to Mozambique, Maidei was made to change her name and pretend to be the man’s sister. They stayed at a hotel for a month, during which Maidei was held captive. Although she had access to quality treatment; expensive clothes, good food and hair dresser, she was frequently sexually abused. The trafficker made pornographic videos of her. Maidei travelled to Angola with her trafficker. When they arrived in Angola, they stayed in a very fancy hotel in Luanda for 5 months. The trafficker repeatedly sexually, psychologically and physically abused her for 5 months. They then returned to Mozambique and stayed at a hotel in Beira where, she was forced to have sex with other men. One day the trafficker took Maidei to a shopping centre and dumped her. Maidei approached the Zimbabwean Embassy in Mozambique for help. She was assisted by the Embassy to travel back to Zimbabwe. On arrival, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Victim Friendly Unit (VFU) referred Maidei to IOM for further assistance. IOM provided Maidei with temporary shelter, food, clothing, counselling, psychosocial support, family reunification and reintegration assistance. Although Maidei had threatened to kill herself if she tested HIV positive, she did not fulfil this promise when she learnt that she was HIV positive. Maidei is now safe.
* All the names have been changed to protect the identities of the victims.
*PATIENCE'S STORY - TRAFFICKED FROM ZIMBABWE TO ZAMBIA
Patience, aged 17, was trafficked from Masvingo, Zimbabwe to Zambia. In July 2010 Patience’s uncle (husband to her mother’s sister), approached her and suggested that she accompany him to Zambia for a holiday. The idea was for Patience to see if she would like to stay in Zambia permanently with her extended family, as her immediate family was struggling in Zimbabwe. Patience agreed to accompany her uncle to Zambia without the consent of her parents. She abandoned her studies and left for Zambia with her uncle. They boarded on a bus to the border and approximately five kilometres before the border, they disembarked and continued on foot, entering to Zambia through an illegal border crossing point. Once in Zambia, they made their way to the nearest town where they boarded another bus to Lusaka.
Patience does not remember exactly when they arrived in Lusaka, but thinks it may have been on the 14th of July 2010. Upon arrival at the place where they were going to stay, Patience realized that something was wrong. She had been told that she would have her own apartment and they would stay in a building owned by one of her uncle’s friends; instead her uncle rented a room near the bus stop. When Patience asked where she would sleep, her uncle responded that she was now his wife and she would sleep with him. Patience refused and told him that he was married to her aunt and thus it was not acceptable. Her uncle became very abusive an assaulted her both physically and sexually. These assaults continued over a period of two months throughout which Patience was locked in a room. Patience was gravely injured and had one of her ribs broken. At the beginning of September, her uncle left her after realizing that she was pregnant. Patience never saw him again since. After he left, she managed to get away from the building (she was scared as the people there were very abusive) and went to the Zambian police. The police contacted IOM offices in Lusaka and Harare and Patience was put in a temporary shelter where she receives assistance. Currently IOM is facilitating the processing of her emergency travel documents for her to be repatriated back to Zimbabwe.
* All the names have been changed to protect the identities of the victims.
*MICHAEL'S STORY - TRAFFICKED FROM BOTSWANA TO ZIMBABWE
Michael, aged 11, from Botswana was trafficked to Zimbabwe. After his parents died in 2007, he was staying with a female neighbour. One day, a Zimbabwean man approached the neighbour and promised her to give Michael an employment as a farmer worker in Zimbabwe. The neighbour agreed and Michael left Botswana for Zimbabwe. The man drove Michael to Zimbabwe and sexually abused him along the way. During the abuse, the man threatened to stab Michael with a knife, if he cried or told anyone. When they approached Plumtree border post, the man told Michael to tell the immigration officers that he was his son. Michael did as he was told; fearing that the man would kill him if he did not cooperate and they managed to cross the border without any legal documents.
Few hours later, Michael was abandoned at a local gas station. The man said he would come back to pick him up, but never did. Michael was then picked up by a woman and stayed with her for some time until his case was brought to the police few months later. The police handed him over to the Social Welfare which hosted him in a children’s home for safety where he received assistance and psychological support. The Social Welfare then contacted IOM for further assistance. IOM has since located Michael’s relatives in Botswana, and has provided assistance for him in the form of clothes, medical assistance, school fees and uniforms.
* All the names have been changed to protect the identities of the victims.
