By A Correspondent| A ZimEye source has alerted us to a case involving approximately 15 girls from Zimbabwe and South Africa who were recently trafficked to Thailand after being misled with promises of high paying jobs in Dubai.
Their passports have been confiscated and are locked away, making escape impossible.
According to the source, one of the victims, a South African girl named Hlengiwe Ndhlovu, video-called her parents using a South African number and shared her location, which turned out to be in Thailand. The location she sent can be found here. During the call, her parents noticed her visibly swollen face, likely due to abuse from her captors.
“Hi ZimEye, how are you? I have a case of girls who were taken from South Africa under the pretense of going to Dubai but are now in Cambodia. This came to light yesterday after one of the girls video-called her parents with a swollen face and sent her location. She left in May. Their passports were taken away and they are locked in and unable to leave,” the ZimEye source reported.
ZimEye has tracked Hlengiwe’s father, Sonnyboy Ndhlovu who confirmed that her daughter is in Thailand and last spoke to her on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Ndhlovu said he tried calling her daughter on the mobile number she used but could not reach her and was getting worried.
“I couldn’t get hold of her and I’m getting worried,” he told ZimEye.
He said he has since reported the matter to South African police and Interpol who are now seized with the matter.
Zimbabwe is grappling with human trafficking, exacerbated by economic hardships. Recently, a woman named Caroline Zinyanga was sentenced to 90 years in prison for trafficking nine girls to Oman. Additionally, a police officer named Forward Mashonganyika and another individual, Tendai Muswe, were convicted of human trafficking after luring Zimbabwean job seekers to Oman, where they were subjected to slave labor and sexual exploitation.
The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report describes Zimbabwe as “one of the Sub-Saharan African nations grappling with a serious undercurrent of human trafficking.” The report highlights that Zimbabwe has become a source, destination, and transit point for human trafficking. Traffickers exploit Zimbabwean women in domestic servitude, forced labor, and sex trafficking in Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Uganda, often under the guise of legitimate employment.