Kenya cited as centre of major human trafficking

Kenya’s Immigration Department Director-General Gordon Odemo Kihalangwa (left) and International Organisation for Migration Country Operation Officer Michael Pillinger speak to journalists on March 31, 2015 at the launch of a report on migration at a Nairobi hotel. 

In Summary

Illegal immigrants from Somalia enter Kenya through Liboi, then travel to Daadab and Garissa, and later to Nairobi.

Nairobi. Kenya is a major regional hub for human trafficking, serving as a source, destination and transit country for victims, including girls and boys who are sold into sex tourism, according to a new report.

The price for girls aged between 10 and 15 years, who are sold for sex with tourists in Mombasa, is $600, it adds.

Older Kenyan victims mostly end up in the Middle East, where they are at risk of being exploited in brothels and massage parlours, as well as being subjected to forced labour, the report also says.

‘The report, Migration in Kenya: A Country Profile 2015, is the first of its kind and was sanctioned by the government through the Directorate of Immigration.

“Girls are particularly vulnerable to trafficking for sex tourism. Reports reveal that young girls and women are trafficked into sex tourism in Mombasa. Young boys are trafficked into sex tourism as well, whereas others engage in sex tourism as a means to an end,” it says.

The document, launched in Nairobi on Tuesday by Director-General of Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa, identifies 12 routes used by international trafficking cartels through which victims from neighbouring countries end up in destinations as far away as South Africa, Europe, the US and Canada.

The report says: “The most recently identified routes of migration and trafficking are to the Middle East, where Kenyans are at risk of exploitation in domestic servitude, massage parlours or brothels or of being forced into manual labour.” Illegal immigrants from Somalia enter Kenya through Liboi, then travel to Daadab and Garissa, and later to Nairobi, from where some catch planes to the US and Canada. Others travel to Malta and Italy, either from Sudan or Nairobi, having moved from Mogadishu.

Maj-Gen (rtd) Kihalangwa said many of them managed to acquire Kenyan travel documents through corruption.

From Ethiopia, illegal immigrants enter the country through Moyale, then travel to Marsabit, Isiolo or Nanyuki before arriving in Nairobi, the migration report further says.

From the capital, they end up in South Africa or Botswana via road.

The migration profile is a central collection of the data of persons who enter and leave Kenya, including refugees, tourists, asylum seekers, job seekers and expatriates. (NMG).