Human traffickers in Malawi often prey on children and women with low education and social economic status with many originating from broken or violent homes.
Traffickers exert extremely brutal and manipulative control over their victims, from both a physical and a psychological perspective.
These women who are trafficked suffer from the typical circumstances of sexual violence, and the deliberately malicious “treatment” inflicted on them by the traffickers contribute to intensifying the severity of the impact of the experience.
The consequences of the trafficking experience for its survivors, and especially for the women being trafficked for sexual purposes, are horrendous. The psychological status of women is seriously affected. Most victims of trafficking are also at high risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
In Malawi, most trafficking victims are exploited within the country, generally transported from the southern part of the country to the central and northern regions for forced labour in agriculture (tobacco farming and animal herding) and brick making. Many cases of child labour external to the family involve fraudulent recruitment and physical or sexual abuse, indicative of forced labour. Traffickers lure victims from their families in rural areas under the guise of employment opportunities, clothing, or lodging for which they are sometimes charged exorbitant fees, resulting in prostitution coerced through debts.
Traffickers’ subject teenage boys to forced labour on farms and young girls to sexual exploitation in nightclubs or bars. Children are also subjected to forced labour through begging, small businesses, and in the fishing industry. Some are coerced to commit crimes. Adult tenant farmers are also vulnerable to labour exploitation, as they incur debts to landowners and may not receive payment during poor harvests. Recently, Malawi has also experienced abduction and trafficking of people with albinism for harvesting body parts purportedly on demand in neighbouring countries, in particular, Mozambique and Tanzania. Malawian victims of sex and labour trafficking have been reported in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Tanzania. Recently, victims of labour exploitation have also been reported in Kuwait. Reports suggest that young girls are drugged, gang-raped, and exploited in the commercial sex industry. Some girls recruited for domestic service are instead forced to marry and are subsequently subjected to child sex trafficking by their “husbands”.
Profiles of victims of TIP show intriguing trends. Victims of trafficking who are exploited in Malawi are from poor backgrounds and with low education. The women tend to be unmarried, separated, divorced, abandoned or widowed. Child victims are mostly school drop-outs, orphans, or children lacking proper parental care. This shows that those targeted by traffickers are mainly from positions of vulnerability. However, a small percentage of those trafficked outside the country have some formal education that enable them communicate in English.
The trafficking cycle cannot be broken if proper care, assistance and protection is not accorded to victims of trafficking. Insufficient protection and support reinforces victimization and only further subject victims to further victimization.
Due to lack resources and shortage shelters, the Government of Malawi requested assistance and partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to establish shelters flexible enough to adapt to needs of different target groups such as men, women, and children and meet individual needs.
The Government considered shelter for victims and witnesses as the most urgent need since any other form of assistance and support could only be adequately provided if the victims were properly housed. Provision of shelters is at the core of the care, protection and assistance mechanism for victims and witnesses of Trafficking in Person.
Shortage of shelters in Malawi is forcing law enforcement officers (police, immigration and labor) to keep trafficking in person (TIP) victims in victim support units located at police station whereas in extreme cases victims are kept in police cells and prisons alongside offenders. This clearly violates human rights of victims and undermines the requirement that victims of trafficking in person (TIP) must be provided with care, protection and assistance that complies with human rights standards.
The challenge of shelters is compounded by the fact that Government does not have a national programme to assist victims of trafficking and the ministry responsible for Homeland Security alongside the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare do not have capacity to provide care, assistance and protection to TIP victims through management of shelters.
Shelter Construction
The proposed shelter to be constructed shall be in a form of 8 house with 4 bedrooms each in Blantyre and Lilongwe. Each site shall also have three staff houses. The campus shall be surrounded with a security wall. The Shelters have been designed in such a way to provide basic living standards and fulfil, at a minimum, the basic needs of Victims of trafficking in person. The 8 shelters will be constructed to cutter age-appropriate accommodation and also provide special access to special needs/disabilities. The shelter separate children from adults, except in cases when children are with parents and/or guardians or siblings. Child Victim shall where possible, be housed with other children of their own age and gender. Effort will be made to house family members together in the best interests of the child. The Shelters will maintain a secure perimeter with, 24-hour security provision.
Service to be provided
The shelter shall provide the following but not limited to services:
• supportive and safe environment, clothing, nutrition, sleeping/resting space, including, sufficient space and light, personal bed, secure place to keep clothes and personal belongings, space for preparing food/eating, wash facilities and ablutions;
• Court escort, legal advice and services;
• medical examinations, psychosocial counselling,;
• recreational space, including dedicated space for children;
• educational or skills building opportunities; and
• Economic empowerment is a basic condition for independence and is essential for full and sustainable reintegration. Based on their existing skills and qualifications, VoTs may be provided with trainings and courses that will help their professional development, improve their independence and employment prospects, and minimize their risk of being re-trafficked. When appropriate, VoTs may be offered opportunities for self-employment, including assistance starting micro-enterprises and small-scale businesses.
Estimated Budget
Total estimated budget for project is USD 1,200,000.00 as follows: Intermediate Objective 1: Capital Investment for the Construction of two 6 staff houses and 2 hostels $940,000; Intermediate Objective 2: $100,000 and Contingency Funds total of $60,000 for 3% of total budget.