Maputo, 10 May (AIM) – The South African authorities have rescued eight Mozambican minors who had been trafficked into South Africa, in January this year, by a Chinese factory in Gauteng province.
According to the spokesperson of the Gauteng department of social development, Themba Gadebe, cited by the South African paper “The Sowetan”, the boys were found at a Chinese factory in Nigel, Ekurhuleni, during a police raid three months ago, and now the authorities are finalizing details around the repatriation of these boys.
The factory was found to have been employing children and undocumented foreign nationals.
“The children, who are between 13 and 17 years old, were placed at the Mary Moodley Child and Youth Care Centre in Benoni. A case of child labour, poor working conditions and employing undocumented minors was opened against the owner of an electrical supply company in Nigel”, said Gadebe.
He said social workers interviewed the boys who told them that they were from Xai-Xai city, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza.
“They reported that they came to South Africa on January 15 in minibus with about 14 other boys from their village after being recruited by the Nigel company driver in Mozambique. The taxi driver was reported to have come from the same village and asked for young men and families interested in working in South Africa. He told the recruits and family members that there was no need for passports or documents”, he said.
“According to the trafficked victims, inside the minibus, there were other children of the same age wearing expensive sneakers and iPhones, convincing them to come with them”, he explained.
Gadebe said that this week, the department went back to the Children’s Court in Nigel to seek permission from the court to release the boys from their place of safety.
“[This will] allow [us] to repatriate them and hand them over to their counterparts in Mozambique, who will then reunite the children with their parents. This was made possible after the Mozambican consulate issued them with temporary travel documents”.
“The children will be handed over to social workers at the Komatipoort border post”, Gadebe said.
One of the boys said: “at last, I am happy that I am going back to my family because the man who brought us here lied to us. Everything he promised us was a lie. It is not like we are starving where we are coming from. Our intention was to work while studying, and we were going to buy ourselves Air Force sneakers and iPhones, but to our surprise, we were locked in a hall where we worked day and night”.
(AIM)
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