"So" (He remains silent for a few seconds until he manages to speak again.). “Then my child was born and”(He remains silent again for a few seconds and begins to cry without making any noise.). Mrs. Maria, who is at your side, finish the sentence for her: “The man's wife killed his child at birth.. "Don't cry", He says to the young woman while touching her arm.. Beatriz Manhaca, the 19 years, is one of the countless victims of child trafficking that Mozambique and South Africa suffer. She only cried the moment she narrated the death of her baby even though the whole life she narrated seemed like a fucking punishment.
The man's wife killed his child at birth. don't cry
“As I was leaving school, a man approached me and told me to get in his car.”. He brought me to live in Mozambique illegally, I lived in South Africa. “I was seven years old.”, explains Beatriz. “When he got home he told his wife that I was a daughter he had had in South Africa and I started living with them.”. And 2007, with 12 years, The man told me to accompany him to the river. I did and he asked me to take off my clothes.. I started to cry and he told me to shut up and that if I spoke he would kill me.. “He slept with me”, reports.
She then became pregnant due to the constant abuse and after the previously narrated murder of her newborn son by her master's wife., the grandfather of the house, the father of the man who had kidnapped her six years earlier, He decided to give him some money to escape.. He did it and after a life full of incredible difficulties (summary) He finally arrived at the only reception center that exists in Mozambique for “trafficked children” where their parents in South Africa have been located., that they left her for dead, and in a few days he will return 12 years later to his home.
His parents have been located in South Africa, that they left her for dead, and in a few days he will return 12 years later to his home
The shelter for trafficked children is lost in the middle of nowhere, “so that the mafias cannot locate us”, Isidro explains, its young director. "In 2010 Some traffickers found the place and came to threaten the children they had trafficked and escaped.. We have guards, but they are not even armed. “We are always in contact with the Police”.
All the children and boys from among 4 and 24 years that manage to escape from hell, of having been sold to become labor slaves, traffic their organs or become prostitutes. The cases are constant, those who are known, that many disappear crossing a river, abandoned in the middle of the street or sacrificed for any ritual. Many are sold by their own families. but the story, before arriving at this shelter home where today there are thirteen children waiting to return home, It starts a few miles away., in a geographical border where human misery drains.
Sold to become labor slaves, traffic their organs or become prostitutes
The Scalabrinian sisters live on the same border between Mozambique and South Africa, Ressano Garcia, a small surveillance post to stop child trafficking. Sister Lisette, Brazilian, He leads a group that has young volunteers who report and raise awareness to stop this lucrative human sale and purchase.. Recently, on two plates (small local buses) the sale of 27 children who were trying to enter South Africa illegally.
All the young people who help in the reporting work are threatened by local mafias, especially for the conductors of the sheets, who are dedicated to bringing children from all over the country, and the passers-by, who ensure that children cross a river that divides the border between both countries at night.
The sales process is as follows: “Generally there is a relative or acquaintance who returns from vacation to Mozambique and explains that they can take the children to school or to do a job”, Arsenio account, one of the young people involved in the project led by the Scalabrinians. The poor relatives accept, They pay money for the child to go to school, sometimes from very far away, to what promises to be a better life.
The mafias force them to work 18 hours in a row and they will only receive food if they manage to earn a minimum amount from sales
When they arrive at Ressano García the children wait until they cross, in many cases already working as labor slaves. “You can see many children now on the street selling anything. The mafias force them to work 18 hours in a row and they will only receive food if they manage to earn a minimum amount from sales, otherwise they don't even eat", explains Arsenio. “Sometimes the child goes without food because he broke one of the things he was supposed to sell.”, specifies Joaquina, another member of the group. A punishment that children up to five years old can receive. They are there, anyone sees them.
The cost of this trip is varied, just like the one for sale, without anyone knowing how to tell us a fixed but approximate amount. "For example, transportation of children is usually 200 Rands (about 16 EUR) to reach Ressano García and then others would be paid 300 Rands (24 EUR) to get to Johannesburg. There are other occasions where we have known that people pay in kind with bags of rice or potatoes.. Buyer pays”, explains Sister Lisette.
The children's market is also à la carte on many occasions.. “A request is received from a girl under the age of 10 years and it is sought and taken”, have. Generally there are three reasons that cause the purchase or taking: prostitution or sexual abuse (the biggest case of selling girls is for this objective), labor slavery and organ trafficking and use of child body parts for black magic.
A truck carrying hidden children's organs in boxes of food was stopped at the border
“A truck carrying hidden children's organs in boxes of food was stopped at the border”, they tell us. This is a very specific example of a la carte requests. “South African healers ask a child or part of a child to make some type of concoction”. They talk about the famous muti, a drink made by sangomas (healers) and sorcerers who, in their part of black magic, need parts of the human body to achieve their magical results..
But if the children, who of course lack papers because that is part of the threats they will suffer in their destination, that of having to remain silent because they are illegal, those whose owners also threaten to hand over to the police, they do not pass sheet metal, something more risky for the trafficker, They wait for a traverser to cross them through the mountains and the river. “The traversers charge 150 rands per person”, they tell us in the religious association.
“We talked a lot with them and handed out pamphlets and raised people's awareness to prevent children from passing through.. We have received threats and attempted attacks when we make a lot of noise, but we have also gotten some crossers to agree not to cross minors. Of course sometimes we are scared, “The threats are sometimes from our own neighbors.”, Joaquina tells, Ercilia, Maria, Lisette, Sabano and Arsenio, the six young people who work alongside the sisters to stop this human bleeding.
Suddenly they may begin to cry and narrate the atrocities they have suffered.
Then, when we recover some children who are handed over to us by the South African authorities or who have managed to escape, We have them here for a few days and then send them to the reception center in the Moamba area. How do they come? “Many take a long time to speak or do not say anything. Suddenly they may begin to cry and narrate the atrocities they have suffered.. “Most are in a state of shock.”.
The center of the Moamba area is that center that we mentioned before in which Beatriz told us her tragic story. The director, Isidro, opens the doors of a place that does great work in the midst of many adversities. Mainly they lack money, like everything public in this country, although the Government center has acceptable facilities to receive and redirect children who have suffered unimaginable acts. Somehow this is where the children vomit out all the horror.
When the police rescued them, one of the boys was already missing a finger.
“Last year we had a group of five children who were saved by the South African police. The agents realized that in one week many women were dying, whose corpses appeared without any part of the body.. They began to investigate and discovered that there was a healer who was using human organs. He had also requested children's organs. The mafias then came to Mozambique and took five children from 14 and 17 years living on the street. They convinced them that they were going to South Africa to sell water. The order specified that they had to arrive alive. When the police rescued them, one of the boys was already missing a finger.. They were waiting to be used, “Every organ of theirs was sold for a price.”, says Isidro who sits next to Doña María, an older woman who is a reference for the children who arrive there.
“Recently two girls under the age of 12 years they met in Malelane (a south african town near the border). The baby's sister, who resided there, She took both of them from Mozambique so that her husband could enjoy them sexually.. Then we realized that the parents were aware of everything”, explain.
She took both of them from Mozambique so that her husband could enjoy them sexually
And the fact is that parents, in many cases due to ignorance and innocence and in others voluntarily, are sometimes the ones who sell the children., although it is more common that they are orphaned children and the sale is by relatives who are left in charge.. “The police recently intercepted a license plate carrying nine children that were going to be sold.. It was learned that it was the parents who had sent them after being deceived and thinking that they were going to a school. On other occasions, after our investigation, "We discovered that we cannot return the child to his parents because they were the ones who knowingly sold the minor.", says isidro.
Raising awareness of the police forces of both countries, that have joint work tables, it's key. Recently a man who had sold his two nieces from 15 and 10 years he managed to be arrested and has been sentenced to 17 years in prison after a long investigation of both bodies. In other cases, it is neighbors who help the young victims, like the case of a young woman 20 who is now in the center and who fled to South Africa as a teenager with her boyfriend, who then abandoned her there. “She asked for help from a friend whose parents welcomed her into their home in exchange for her becoming a prostitute.. "It was the neighbors who helped her escape.".
She asked for help from a friend whose parents took her in in exchange for her becoming a prostitute.
There are dozens of stories and they will be renewed tomorrow and the day after tomorrow with some new ones.. And 2013 have passed through this center 79 children, of which 65 They returned to their families. They can consider themselves lucky, They have somehow managed to escape the horror of having previously been a simple commodity that someone bought or took.. Many, most, they never come back. Every year about a thousand children officially disappear in Mozambique. Subtract from that figure the only ones 79 who managed to flee and add up all those who are not even known to have disappeared to get an idea of ??the merchandise that moves this cruel market.
PD. Part of this article was published in the Sunday supplement Crónica de El Mundo. This is the full version of the story.
