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Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
The United States has commended Zimbabwe for registering significant achievements in dealing with human trafficking crimes.
This was said by United States political officer at the US embassy Ms Krista Fisher while presenting a Trafficking in Persons report on Zimbabwe that was released on Tuesday by the US secretary of State Mr Rex Tillerson.
Mrs Fisher said Zimbabwe had been upgraded from Tier Three to Tier Two Watch list, a category of countries that are taking significant efforts to reduce human trafficking.
The best rating is Tier One.
“These achievements included increased efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged trafficking crimes,” said Mrs Fisher. “The Government (of Zimbabwe) coordinated with Kuwait to repatriate and refer to care female trafficking victims.”
The report commended Zimbabwe for launching a national action plan and implementing several key activities in the plan.
“The Anti-Trafficking Inter-Ministerial committee developed terms of reference to guide front line respondents in a victim centred approach and established two provincial taskforces to implement the national action plan at the provincial level,” reads the report.
“The Government funded and conducted awareness campaigns and trained journalists on responsible reporting of trafficking cases.”
The report called Government to improve its human trafficking law to be consistent with international legislation.
This, the US State Department said, would ensure that offenders would be convicted.
“The Government did not monitor transnational borders adequately where corruption and official complicity can facilitate with impunity,” reads the report.
The report recommended the training of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and judges.
It was also observed that the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Act defined trafficking in persons as a movement based crime and did not adequately define “exploitation .
The report also noted that Zimbabwe’s Labour Relations Amendment Act providing for two years imprisonment for forced labour was not adequately stringent.
The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act that provided two years imprisonment to cases of sex trafficking was not deterrent enough, read the report.
Pledging female for forced marriage to compensate death of a relative or settle any debt or obligation is punishable under the Act by two years imprisonment.
“These penalties are not commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious cries such as rape,” read the report.
Online Reporter