…as internet remains effective tool for human trafficking
Mohloai Mpesi
THE spike in human trafficking in Lesotho is attributable to the country’s high poverty levels whose main contributory factor is high unemployment.
This is according to experts who spoke to the Sunday Express recently. They argue that marginalised Basotho living in abject poverty, are in the main vulnerable to human trafficking because they are lured by any fake job offers put before them in the hope of escaping their debilitating situations.
A case in point is the abduction of Reitumetse Phiri, a 19-year-old teenager residing in Mathokoane, Maseru, over the weekend.
She was looking for a piece job. She therefore made an innocent Facebook post, asking for laundry and house cleaning piece jobs, in the hope of keeping the hunger wolf at bay with the little that she would make.
Reitumetse’s post, innocent as it was, would be her undoing. A trafficker using a fake account went into her inbox, promising her a job at Masowe (Maseru-Southwest) to do some spring cleaning for M900.
Because she desperately needed the M900, she went to meet with her would-be trafficker in Masowe. She even informed her family that she had met with the individual. But shortly thereafter, Reitumetse’s mobile line could no longer be reached.
She had disappeared and the Facebook account she had communicated with earlier, had been deleted. Her family frantically made several posts on Facebook, asking for help in finding her.
It would later turn out that Reitumetse, had been kidnapped and forcefully taken to Quthing district’s Teele bridge, where her kidnapper would attempt smuggling her into the neighbouring South Africa by crossing the river illegally.
The perpetrator was arrested on the night of 25 August 2024, a Sunday, at the Tele Border at Quthing.
He had allegedly left Reitumetse unattended for a minute to test the temperature of the river’s water, so that they could cross to the other side. It was that minute that saved Reitumetse’s life.
The moment her kidnapper looked away, Reitumetse ran away, crying and calling out for help. Luckily there were police patrolling the riverside and guarding against illegal crossings. They heard cries and immediately rescued her. They also realised that Reitumetse was the same girl whose family had reported her missing the previous day, on Saturday. Her father had also made several Facebook posts seeking help in finding his daughter.
Reitumetse’s story is telling. The high rate of unemployment in the country and the accompanying poverty are the main birthers of crimes, including human trafficking, stock theft and murders.
According to the African Development Bank Group, Lesotho’s unemployment rate is over 24.51 percent.
As per the report, the high rate of poverty rendered people desperate. As such, they searched for any jobs so they could feed their families. Sadly, because of the desperation, most Basotho welcomed any job offers thrown at them.
That in turn, made them vulnerable to traffickers who consequently took advantage of the situation, pretending to give them lucrative job offers to lure them.
Additionally, the report noted, youths were easy trafficking targets as they spent most of their time on social media, where traffickers advertised “lucrative jobs and scholarships”.
Speaking to the Sunday Express recently, Senior Inspector Matlotlo Mphohla of the Crime Prevention Unit of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS), said victims were trafficked into South Africa, where they were sold into sex slavery and prostitution.
“Our country has this crisis of unemployment which births poverty. That in turn makes our people vulnerable, thus, easily lured into traps,” S/Ins Mphohla said.
“Most of the time, perpetrators lure their victims on social media platforms, where they would advertise jobs, with high rates of payments whereas in fact, there are no jobs.
“They do not only use jobs to lure their victims but they also offers of scholarships to study abroad. They would say you have won a paid-up scholarship that includes airfare, accommodation and other things.”
According to S/Ins Mphohla, victims were mostly lured by their relatives whom, because of their poor living conditions, promised them (victims) jobs in South Africa. When they arrived in that country, victims were forced into prostitution.
“Another thing is that Basotho/ Lesotho nationals residing in South Africa, come into the country to recruit people for jobs. They take their victims with them, some of whom are their relatives,” he said.
“They take them, promising to give them jobs in South Africa, only to find that they are turned into sex slaves. That is the highest crime of all. We have mountains of report of victims being forced into prostitution.
“It happens mostly to women, yes. But there are men who are victims, it’s about 5 percent of males, maybe less. Most trafficked people are women from the age of 16 to 40. This is because they want people who are still sexually active.”
S/Ins Mphohla further counselled that to counter human trafficking, people should not “expect to be all employed”.
Instead, young people should create a living for themselves. That, he noted, would “start with them not being reluctant to venture into agriculture or even street vending to survive”.
He again blamed Lesotho’s education system, which he said did not help the youth to think outside the box. It instead encouraged them to “vest their hopes for a better future in nothing else but employment”.
“Our people should not expect to be employed, our education system creates people who are only prepared to sit and work in offices. People should think outside the box,” he said.
“They must establish projects, especially in the agricultural sector. Yes, the government can provide jobs, but we need to aggressively venture into agriculture. Agriculture has the highest profits ever although most people are reluctant to explore that sector.
“Even being on the streets as a vendor is profitable. Our education system portrays those who ply their trade on the streets as poor. It’s just a notion. The reality of it is that people can make a decent living by trying their own ventures. But now our children are reluctant to explore other avenues. We need to create jobs.”
Also throwing her hat into the ring, was Federation of Women Lawyers Lesotho (FIDA)’s Project Manager for Combating Human Trafficking, Lebohang Ntlele, who disclosed that some children were even being trafficked by their parents.
She said FIDA-Lesotho was currently running a project named, Combating Human Trafficking in Lesotho, aimed at averting human trafficking by raising awareness and by training frontliners.
The project is currently running in Butha-Buthe, Maseru, Quthing and Mafeteng.
“Most cases that we come across are not necessarily human trafficking but abductions and kidnappings. It is in rare cases where you find a victim of human trafficking opening up,” Ms Ntlele said.
“In instances where you find victims, they refuse to accept that they have been trafficked. They are not comfortable communicating such issues.
“The reason is because most victims are trafficked by people they live with, their cousins or relatives. It becomes difficult for them to open up.”
She continued that they had realised that most Basotho did not understand what human trafficking was and the elements it entailed.
“People don’t understand or do not have sufficient knowledge about what human trafficking is. There is still a lot of work to do,” Ms Ntlele said.
According to Ms Ntlele, the internet was the driving force of human trafficking, as predators scouted for their victims online due to its large pull.
“Most people are not working, and poverty is the main driver. Most women are not working, and they are the ones who look after children; hence they become vulnerable and accept every job offer in South Africa,” she said.
“The youths are mostly vulnerable for becoming victims of always using the internet. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, most businesses started operating online and so did the traffickers, where they scouted their victims on the internet.
“They have a wide pool. It is their catalogue, and they are not easily detected by the law enforcement unlike in the past, where the traffickers preyed on their victims at nightclubs.”
The theme for the 2024 World Day Against Human Trafficking commemorated on the 30th of July, spoke to the importance of sensitizing youngsters about human trafficking. It was coined “leave no child behind against human trafficking.”
The United Nations also released its own message on the same, on the 26th of July, stating that, “…. children account for one-third of trafficking victims, suffering unspeakable abuse – whether they are forced into labour, sold off as brides, recruited as soldiers, or coerced into criminal activities.”
The UN continued to note that rising inequalities and globalization, had fuelled complex trafficking networks that challenged traditional legal frameworks, creating new forms of slavery.
Meanwhile, a June 2024 United States report on human trafficking, stated that young girls from Lesotho were trafficked and forced into domestic and sex work in South Africa.
“In Lesotho, traffickers exploit Basotho children, especially orphans, into forced labour, domestic servitude, animal herding and in sex trafficking. Young girls are employed in domestic work and in exchange for room and boarding, are vulnerable to forced labour and abuse.
“Basotho women and girls seeking work migrate to South Africa, where traffickers detain some in prison-like conditions, and exploit others in sex trafficking, notably in Welkom and Klerksdorp.
“Some parents send children to South Africa to work as domestic workers, and they are exploited and forced into labour. Basotho traffickers target factory workers in Maseru, with offers of lucrative employment in South Africa, and force them to work in factories in Newcastle and Mandeni, South Africa.”
