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Tanzania named key path for human trafficking

Saturday April 21 2018
chained

Civil society organisations wear chains during a demonstration against the slave trade and human trafficking in Libya on December 12, 2017. Porous borderlines between Kenya and Tanzania have been identified as the key entry points for Ethiopian and Somali immigrants. AFP PHOTO | GULSHAN KHAN

By APOLINARI TAIRO

Tanzania has been ranked the leading transit corridor for illegal immigrants from Central and Eastern Africa sneaking to Southern Africa to seek economic fortunes.

Immigration officials in Dar es Salaam had raised an alarm over the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants sneaking into Tanzania through porous border points from with, Rwanda and Burundi.

South Africa and Mozambique have been identified final as the destinations for immigrants from East and Central Africa.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Tanzania chapter said last week that there have been growing numbers of people sneaking into Tanzania on their way to South Africa and Mozambique.

IOM representative in Tanzania Enna Lutengano said that human trafficking cases have reached alarming levels in Tanzania after illegal immigrants were intercepted on way to Southern African states.
It is estimated that over 12,000 illegal immigrants pass through Tanzania to southern African countries every year, mostly from Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda.

Porous borders
Immigration reports show that 1,840 Ethiopian and Somali immigrants have been intercepted in Tanzania since January this year. Porous borderlines between Kenya and Tanzania have been identified as the key entry points for Ethiopian and Somali immigrants.

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Tanzania shares 769 km of borderline with Kenya covering Mara, Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions in the north, similarly, 396 km with Uganda, 217 km with Rwanda and 451 km with Burundi.

The borderline between Kenya and Tanzania in Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Tanga regions is the most know entry points for illegal immigrants.

Namanga, Holili and Tarakea and Horohoro have hundreds of unmanned entry points while informal ports are used by speed boats along Tanga’s Indian Ocean coastline to ferry immigrants from Somalia through Mombasa.

Horohoro point is the official border post in Tanga, but several unmanned entry points are used by dhows and speed boats on the Indian Ocean.

Pangani town is blamed for offloading illegal immigrants, Immigration Department report said.

Tanzania government is now re-demarcating its territorial borders to minimise illegal entries through porous borders.

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