TANZANIA – Counter-Trafficking Information Campaign Launched – The IOM office in Dar el Salaam has launched a nationwide campaign to inform the general public of the dangers of human trafficking and to enlist further support from national leaders and public opinion makers.
As part of the 3 month campaign entitled “Uwe sauti Yao” (Be their voice), Public Services Announcements for TV and radio are currently being aired on fourteen TV and radio stations on mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
Posters, brochures, calendars, stickers, T-shirts and caps are also being distributed at bus stands and at other high visibility areas in all major cities and throughout an extensive network of youth centres, schools, government and civil society partners and NGOs.
On Sunday 16 December, a concert bringing together leading Tanzanian performers, including Banana Zorro, Professor J, Enika, Muhogo Mchungu and Flora Mbasha, will take place at Ubungo Plaza in Dar es Salaam.
“We’re delighted that this truly unique event has received the full support Tanzania’s most famous hip hop and gospel singers,” says IOM’s Chief of Mission Par Liljert. “Just like the media, artists have a crucial role to play to ensure people do not fall prey to ruthless trafficking networks.”
Trafficking in Tanzania is both internal and international, but most cases identified so far are of internal trafficking. Girls and boys are routinely trafficked from rural areas to urban areas where they are abused and exploited in domestic worker, commercial agriculture, fishing and mining industries, and in child prostitution.
Women and children are also trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation to neighbouring countries and as far afield as the Middle East and Europe. Tanzania is also becoming a transit country for victims of trafficking from the Horn of Africa who are taken to South Africa.
Over the past two years, IOM Tanzania has assisted more than 120 victims of trafficking, with support of the United States Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).
This campaign is fully supported and funded by the Government of Tanzania through the National Aids Control Programme.
