BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE -The Eswatini Government increased its capacity to conduct anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.
Although the statistics for arrested offenders cannot be attained at this period, in 2009, the government enacted comprehensive anti-human trafficking legislation, which provides for the prosecution of trafficking offenders and protections for victims, including immunity from prosecution for immigration violations.
The People Trafficking and People Smuggling (Prohibition) Act, 2009 became effective in December 2009.
The legislation considers consent and past sexual behaviour of the trafficked persons to be immaterial, and incorporates provisions against money laundering as a way to identify persons involved in human trafficking.
The Act covers both internal and transnational forms of trafficking and provides for victim restitution through the forfeiture of convicted offenders’ movable property.
The law prescribes penalties for all forms of trafficking, including the act of facilitating trafficking offenses, of up to 20 years imprisonment, plus a fine determined by the court to compensate the victim for his or her losses; these penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as sexual assault.
Likewise, the prescribed penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment for trafficking children for any purpose are also sufficiently stringent.
When sharing expertise on the matter, Human Rights Lawyer Siphephiso Simelane said more was needed to be done, while acknowledging the great strides taken by the government to make sure that more was done to curb human trafficking and that offenders paid for it.
“We live in an inhumane society therefore the enforcements done by the government to ensure that people who traffic others get their time in jail, is honestly a great move,” he said.
In addition to that he warned the public now that it is festive season, he said people should always move in groups and avoid meeting up with people from social media.
“We live in the new age world now people are on dating platforms, it is advisable that they always do proper background checks before they meet up with anyone,” he said
Worth noting is that SOS Children’s Villages Eswatini is also governed by this legislation. SOS CV Programmes ensure the safety of all children and young people at all costs.
“We have not had incidents of children being trafficked. However, we have taken in a few children who had been trafficked and placed in our care for safety, while the country was processing the legal processes and repatriation.”
