"Over the past three weeks City Press visited Maputo twice to infiltrate the syndicate. On our first visit the syndicate paraded six Chinese women (four had already been sold) and three Mozambican women for sale for between R5000 and R10000. When we returned last week only one Mozambican woman was still for sale. The others had already been brought to South Africa. The syndicate members said they could find more Mozambicans in a few days and that two Chinese women were arriving in the country that Saturday. We provided this information, with more details, to the police during a meeting with a top Home Affairs official. Three Chinese men and a Chinese woman were arrested at the airport on Saturday morning as they entered the country. A second woman was collected by a local man and they managed to evade the police. The four arrested are all allegedly linked to the trafficking syndicate. This week another Mozambican, a bank official, was also arrested for alleged links to the syndicate. All eight suspects are in custody and are being questioned."
Location
Mozambique · Maputo, Mozambique · 2010
(location generalized to protect survivors) Response & intervention
Acting on information supplied to it by City Press, a Mozambican police task team pounced on three syndicate members while they were trying to sell journalists an 18-year-old Mozambican woman. Because of this several women were prevented from being trafficked, unfortunately many others had already been sold into South Africa and have since disapeared
A few women were rescued before being brought into South Africa. No information has been given on whether they received aftercare or prevention to help protect these victims from being deceived again. Hundreds of women were trafficked into South Africa and are still living as victims around the country.
City Press Journalists received tips and then infiltrated the trafficking ring by posing as buyers from a Johannesburg brothel. They used hidden cameras to record conversations with the traffickers regarding buying victims. While they were there six Chinese women and three Mozambican women were paraded by as merchandise. By the time the journalists had returned, all but one of those women had been sold.
Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don't have a verifiable source on file yet — use “Report a problem” below to add one.