Garissa police crack down on 'human trafficking' in northern Kenya

Monday, September 30, 2013

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Kenyan police in the border town of Garissa have discovered human trafficking syndicate involved in trafficking of refugees from Somalia through the Liboi border to Nairobi.

Garissa County Criminal Investigation Officer (CID) Musa Yego said on Sunday they have arrested one person who was behind the racket involved in issuing the aliens with identification cards that would in turn enable them to evade the police road blocks in various road blocks mounted along the way.

"We have been trying to track this person who has been involved in this business for a while now, through the help of residents but we managed to arrest him in the nick of time before he could carry out his evil activities," Yego said.

Yego said the suspect of Somali origin and who hails from Garissa County in northern Kenyan region near the border with Somalia was arrested by police on his way to Liboi with 32 Kenyan identity cards belonging to different people.

Yego said the suspect was to issue the documents to refugees who wait for him at the border point and who could in turn use them to travel to various destinations without being easily noticed by security officials.

The local CID commander said that they have launched investigation into the matter with a view of arresting all those involved in it.

He told journalists in Garissa on Sunday that they would look to establish how the suspect acquired the identification cards he was arrested with.

"He will have to tell us how he got them. If he stole them from the owners we will charge him for being in possession of other people identification cards," said Yego, adding that the owners will be charged if found to be colluding with the suspected human trafficker by issuing their ID cards to do the illegal business.

Yego, who was flanked by his county police commander counterpart Charles Kinyua, warned those involved in the syndicate that their days were numbered.

"They have made a lot of money in this illegal business at the expense of our national security.

"It’s the same people who are sneaked in the county illegally who later cause us all this insecurity problems.

"Thank God we have now identified the person behind this," said Yego.

Human trafficking across borders have provided steady revenue stream to organized gangs who extort a fee from migrants willing to enter countries illegally.

Refugee rights organizations and aid agencies have blamed poverty in Africa for the rising cases of human trafficking.

They said that the huge supply of labor both skilled and unskilled makes them vulnerable to criminal syndicates.

According to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), up to 20,000 Somali and Ethiopian immigrants are smuggled into Kenya annually with the South Africa as their final destination.

However, globally approximately 600,000 to 800,000 persons are trafficked annually with 80 percent of victims being female.

Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) Information Officer Andrew Maina said recently that studies indicate that at least 50 girls between the age of 10 and 15 are sold every week to serve as sex workers in the main towns of Kenya.

International police organization, Interpol in August arrested 38 suspects of human trafficking in Ethiopia, 28 human trafficking victims rescued and 15 suspects arrested in Uganda in Interpol- backed security operations across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Interpol said the operation which targeted human, drugs and arms traffickers across Eastern and Southern Africa also resulted in the identification of hundreds of illegal immigrants.

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