FOURTEEN more women trafficked to Kuwait touched down at Harare International Airport last night after they escaped to the Zimbabwean embassy in the Gulf country.
By Garikai Tunhira
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs chairperson Kindness Paradza told NewsDay yesterday that more women were approaching the Zimbabwean embassy in Kuwait to seek assistance for their return.
“Fourteen have landed today (yesterday). Four more have arrived at the embassy so they can be assisted to return back home,” he said.
Fifteen women were repatriated two weeks ago, and up to date, 162 women have been assisted by government and well-wishers to return.
Government is footing the travel bills through the Department of Social Services. But Paradza said he was not in the picture on how much government had forked out so far.
He said all the returning women told similar stories that they were shuttled out of Zimbabwe in groups to countries such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
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“Among those that arrived today were four who said they travelled together on their way to Kuwait,” he said.
“The problem is lack of communication with most of those women. When they arrived at their respective destinations, their mobile phones and passports were confiscated from them. So it’s very difficult now to trace and communicate with them.”
Paradza said government was making a follow-up with the Zimbabwean embassy in Egypt to locate women trafficked to that country.
Over 200 women are reported to have left for Kuwait in the past years on the promises of rich pickings, but were to be enslaved once they arrived there.