Legislators have called on the Government to scale up campaigns at the grassroots level to educate young people about the dangers of human trafficking and protect them from modern-day slavery such as prostitution, drug dealing, and forced labour.

The lawmakers made the call, yesterday, during a consultative meeting organised by Parliament to assess the Government’s efforts in fighting against human trafficking, gender-based violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse in the country.

Since 2014, the Government has been under pressure to halt the emerging threat of human trafficking as Rwandans travel more and are enticed to move around the region and worldwide looking for work and other opportunities.

Although the crime is not being practiced at an alarming rate, both the MPs and senior government officials made it clear yesterday that sustained campaigns are needed to ensure that the risks for young people to fall into the traffickers’ traps are kept in check.

"Human trafficking is a problem that concerns us all. It’s important for all of us to understand this issue so we can fight its grave consequences for our youth and the country. We won’t fail to address this problem if we all pay attention to it,” said Speaker Donatille Mukabalisa.

In 2014, the Rwanda National Police (RNP), said 13 cases of human trafficking had been registered over the previous five years since 2008, with some of them involving human smugglers who used Rwanda as a transit for victims heading to other countries.

But recent figures suggest that more cases for the crime have been registered recently, with the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel Gasana, announcing at Parliament that 74 cases of trafficking in human beings were received in 15 months alone, from 2015 to March 2016.

Gasana said the country’s laws should be enforced to the maximum to ensure that people are protected against the crime of human trafficking and related crimes such as gender-based violence and drug abuse.

"We can keep talking but we also have to monitor and ensure that what we say is actually implemented,” the IGP said, calling for action from all stakeholders, including the civil society and families across the country.

"The most important thing is to link theory to practice. This is a serious matter that requires serious commitment from everyone to be addressed,” he added.

The UN defines trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

The exploitation forms often include prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

‘Not Rwandan culture’

Many MPs and government officials, including ministers, said at yesterday’s meeting that the practice of human trafficking is not a tradition in Rwanda’s history and should be resisted despite the current globalisation trend.

"We need to revive our traditional Rwandan values to protect every Rwandan wherever they are,” said Local Government minister Francis Kaboneka.

MP Théogène Munyangeyo and other legislators advised the Government to commission research about the current state of human trafficking, its causes, and how it can be prevented.

"We need constant research to understand these issues because there are social transformations that need to be understood in order to deal with related problems,” Munyangeyo said.

Fast-tracking the enactment of a special law to punish human trafficking and using the current laws against gender-based violence and drug abuse to the maximum, along with constant campaigns against the vices, were some of the major recommendations from yesterday’s meeting.

"We cannot give up in front of such terrible vices. We have the responsibility to uproot them,” said Senate president Bernard Makuza.

The UN says trafficking in persons remains "one of the grave challenges facing the international community”, with some 2.5 million people trapped in modern-day slavery around the world.

Rwanda’s police officials say that good cooperation and timely communication with regional and international police organs remain key to fighting human trafficking given the transnational nature of the crime.

Police advise any person who feels that their loved ones or themselves have been trapped in human trafficking to immediately contact Interpol.

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