Maputo, 7 Mar (AIM) – The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has called on internet users to avoid showing off their private lives on social media to avoid falling into traps of criminals, who work in coordination with international human trafficking networks.
Lately, there are various reports of people disappearing mysteriously, especially young women and children. But then they are found dead, with their body parts removed, which means that human organ traffickers have been kidnapping people in order to submit them to forced organ harvesting.
According to Ângela Massango, of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the criminals resort to social media in order to entice their victims, after investigating their private lives in detail.
“Many cases of human trafficking begin precisely on social media, because people’s accounts often show their private lives. These are vulnerabilities which criminals take advantage of, and they discover our fragility”, she said, interviewed by Radio Mozambique.
Massango believes that poverty, low levels of education and unemployment are the main factors that contribute to human trafficking, which is often related to organized and transnational crime networks, as well as to superstitious practices.
“There are many situations in which trafficking takes place from one region to another. We have recorded several situations of trafficking within the country”, she said.
According to Massango, cases of organ harvesting in Mozambique are more for superstitious purposes.
“There is a belief that some practices, when carried out with human body parts, can bring prosperity and wealth”, she said.
She explained that the PGR has been working with its partners in order to stop and combat the phenomenon, “and in addition to our repressive side, we have a preventive side.”
“One of the objective elements of this crime of human trafficking is transport. That’s why we believe that bus drivers also need to have basic knowledge of this issue so that they can identify the signs, and potential victims of human trafficking”, she said.
(AIM)
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