Home Affairs ministers from southern African countries on Friday ordered law enforcers in the region to intensify measures against human trafficking.
In a statement issued at the end of their two-day meeting at a beach resort in Zanzibar, Tanzania, the ministers instructed police chiefs in the region to investigate the trafficking of humans within Africa and abroad, and said police in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries should cooperate in bringing to justice the individuals and gangs behind the phenomenon.
"Ministers of Home Affairs from southern Africa have vowed to remove any obstacles facing law enforcers in the fight against human trafficking," said the statement.
The ministers met under the auspices of the Southern African Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation.
Tanzanian Home Affairs Minister Omari Mapuri, the current chair of SADC home affairs ministers, expressed concern at "increasing levels in the trafficking of humans from Africa to other continents".
According to the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), South Africa is the regional centre of an intricate trafficking network that recruits women and children from Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Eastern Europe, Thailand and China.
IOM's Jonathan Martens told an anti-human trafficking conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in June that trafficking in the region was conducted by four broad groups - organised crime, businesswomen, sex tourists and refugees.
The ministers also pledged to review legislation in their respective countries to ease the transfer of evidence for criminal prosecution of suspects.
For more details: South Africa regional centre for human trafficking
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