A total of 443 young children were saved from allegedly being trafficked on Saturday thanks to a sting operation at the Beitbridge border post.
Also read: Cape Town woman human trafficked by two men, taken to a house in Milnerton
Border Management Authority (BMA) commissioner Michael Masiapato says the children were discovered in about 42 buses trying to enter South Africa from Zimbabwe. ‘[In] them we found 443 children under the age of eight without any parent or guardian. They were [allegedly] being trafficked into South Africa.’
‘We were able to take them out of those buses and engage with the Zimbabwe officials and we handed them back to Zimbabwe for processing [back] into the country.’
Since April, more than 44 000 people who tried to enter the country illegally have been arrested by border police at various entry points. TimesLIVE reports that a further 2 243 people were arrested in connection with crimes near the ports of entry, and more than 90 000 people were denied entry for other reasons.
Masiapato says safety measures for the festive season include some of the country’s busiest ports of entry, such as OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airport, Beitbridge and Lebombo.
‘During the development of our plan, these realities were taken into consideration, especially regarding the need for the deployment of additional human resources [at these ports].’
‘During the planning phase, we had intensive inter-jurisdictional engagements with our six immediate neighbours — Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini and Botswana — on the synchronisation of processes and other work modalities, such as specialised port operating and closing times during this period.’
Masiapato adds that the home affairs minister approved a request to extend operating hours at other identified ‘critical ports’, including Grobler’s Bridge, Swartkopfontein, Kosi Bay, Mahamba and Jeppes Reef, on certain days.
Also read:
Report: South Africa fails to meet human trafficking elimination standards
Picture: Rene Bernal / Unsplash