Lobatse, Botswana, 2006
Botswana BW
The suspects are believed to be part of an organised smuggling ring that has been trafficking illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan into Botswana. It is understood that the human trafficking operation in Botswana has contracts with small criminal rings and large scale organized criminals in Bangladesh and Pakistan who act as immigrant smuggling brokers to solicit individuals wanting to be smuggled out of their countries. “At the moment we are still trying to establish how they get into the country, where they come from and who helps them,” said Mathews Maduwane(Assistant Commissioner of Police and Deputy Director Criminal Investigations Department), adding that there were indications that some police officers, local labour consultants and Asian investors were part of the human smuggling web, but they had not been charged yet.