Senate president, Mabel Chinomona, has said ignorance plays a pivotal role in the trafficking of women and children hence the need for women to seek credible and adequate information before resolving to travel.
Her remarks come against the backdrop of a rise in global cases of human trafficking.
Addressing delegates attending the 34th Forum of Women Parliamentarians (the Root Causes of Human Trafficking and Ensuring Survivor-Centered Anti-Trafficking Legislation and its Enforcement) during the ongoing 145th Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in Kigali Rwanda Chinomona said:
Women should be encouraged to seek adequate information before they embark on such perilous journeys. Through our representative function, as legislators, we also have a responsibility to share information with our constituents about these human trafficking schemes, so that young girls and women do not fall victim.
Chinomona, who doubles as Zanu PF Women’s League secretary for administration, said 72 Zimbabwean women were yet to be rescued after they were lured to the diaspora on the pretext of getting highly rewarding employment.
She added:
The global scourge of women being trafficked emanates from the lure of attractive jobs outside the country. In most cases these turn out to be fake. Most of the time women find out too late their predicament after falling prey to these machinations.
Majority of women are lured by promises of attractive, well-paying jobs offered by agents of criminal networks without realising the full nature of their future employment or the conditions in which they will work.
In fact, most job opportunities for women migrants are in unregulated sectors such as farming, domestic and care work as well as the sex industry.
Lack of adequate information to women plays a pivotal role in the trafficking of women and children.
Chinomona said women have less access to information on migration or job opportunities, and recruitment channels and often have less preparation than men to cope with the working and living conditions in the countries of destination.