By Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE is still a part and parcel of countries on the human trafficking list after reportedly failing to to meet the minimum standards of eradicating the illicit practice.
In a statement on the release of the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report, secretary of State Marco Rubio said human trafficking was ahorrific and devastating crime that enriched transnational criminal organisations and immoral, anti-American regimes.
โThe 25th edition of the Trafficking in Persons Report pushes countries to take serious action against forced labour and sex trafficking and ensures that those who fail to act face consequences,โ Rubio said.
โThe Trump administration is dedicated to upholding American values, protecting American workers and defending our communities.โ
According to the report, significant efforts included identifying more trafficking victims, investigating officials allegedly complicity in trafficking crimes, and signing a memorandum of understanding with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to conduct anti-trafficking training for officials.
โHowever, the government did not amend its anti-trafficking law to criminalise all forms of trafficking. Reports of low-level official complicity in trafficking crimes persisted,โ the report said.
โThe government decreased anti-trafficking funding, closed one shelter, and disbanded its six provincial task forces that investigated trafficking and co-ordinated victim services, hindering overall efforts.โ
It said human traffickers exploited domestic and foreign victims in Zimbabwe, and traffickers exploited victims from Zimbabwe abroad.
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โInternal trafficking is prevalent and under-reported. Traffickers exploit Zimbabwean adults and children in sex trafficking and forced labour, including in cattle herding, domestic service and mining,โ the report added.
โChild labour occurs in agriculture, including on tobacco, sugarcane and cotton farms, and on small, unregulated farms, as well as in forestry and fishing.
โObservers reported that unaccompanied children are at risk of exploitation.
โTraffickers force into domestic servitude women and girls from rural areas who move to cities for work.โ
The US said economic hardship increased child sex trafficking and child labour, particularly in agriculture, domestic service, informal trading, begging and artisanal mining.
โObservers reported traffickers exploit children, including those with disabilities, in forced begging.
โSome traditional practices make girls vulnerable to forced labour and sex trafficking, including trading daughters for food or money and for ngozi, a reconciliation process in which a family gives a relative to another family to make amends for a murdered relative,โ it said.
โTraffickers may exploit in forced labour children working as panners and ore couriers in gold and diamond mines. Illegal mining syndicates exploit Zimbabweans in forced labour.
โSome syndicates target vulnerable populations, including illiterate individuals and transport them to mines at night to disorient them and prevent their escape.
โTraffickers also exploit women and children in sex trafficking around mines, sometimes in exchange for money or food. Sex traffickers exploit some children who sell goods or offer cooking and cleaning services to miners.โ
The report indicated that traffickers exploit women and girls in towns bordering South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia in forced labour, including domestic servitude and in sex trafficking in brothels catering to truck drivers.
โSex traffickers recruit girls as young as 11 from areas surrounding Chiredzi,โ it said.
โTraffickers and fraudulent recruiters use false promises of scholarships or employment, particularly in nursing and teaching, including through social media, to lure Zimbabweans into sex trafficking, domestic servitude, forced labour and forced marriage in neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, China and the Middle East.
โIn South Africa, traffickers exploit Zimbabweans in forced labour in agriculture, construction, factories, mines, information technology, domestic work and the hospitality industry.
โZimbabweans abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland, trick some Zimbabweans into travelling abroad under the pretences of tourism or legitimate employment, then force them into domestic servitude.
โTraffickers recruit Zimbabwean girls for marriage then once married force them into domestic work.โ
The report said Zimbabwe was a transit country for trafficking victims and migrants vulnerable to exploitation, including from Somalia, Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia, en route to South Africa.
โZimbabwe is also a destination country for forced labour and sex trafficking. Traffickers subject some Mozambican children to forced labour in street vending, including in Mbare, Harareโs largest informal market.
โMozambican and Malawian children working on relativesโ farms in Zimbabwe who cannot enrol in school are vulnerable to trafficking,โ the report said.
โRefugees and asylum-seekers experience difficulty accessing banking and obtaining identification, which limits employment opportunities and increases their vulnerability to trafficking.โ
It said traffickers force some Chinese nationals to work in restaurants in Zimbabwe.
โConstruction and mining companies owned by Chinese nationals or Chinese parastatal entities in Zimbabwe reportedly employ practices indicative of forced labour, including verbal, physical and sexual abuse, as well as coercion to induce work in unsafe or otherwise undesirable conditions.
โChinese parastatal tobacco enterprises exerted political influence to exempt themselves from labour laws and regulation, including mandates pertaining to child and forced labour.
โMedia and NGOs report that unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa โ including Zimbabwe โ South Asia and South America for vocational training programmes and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites.
โMedia report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are indicators of human trafficking.โ
It said North Koreans working in Zimbabwe displayed indicators of forced labour and may have worked under exploitative conditions.
