20100611
Africanews

As the FIFA world cup kicks off in South Africa, Malawi's government has intensified border checks during the 2010 World cup to cub child trafficking to the host nation. This comes amid reports that there are more women and children being trafficked to the rain bow nation as a result of the world cup which is being held on an African soil for the first time.

Malawi’s minister of gender and children development Patricia Kaliati told journalist in Lilongwe on Tuesday that government will carry out anti child campaign to check the movement of children and women during the FIFA world cup tournament starting from June 11 to July 11.

“We realize that during this event more children could be trafficked to South Africa because they will be looking for different opportunities hence we need to tighten our security in the boarders to avoid losing more children due to the problem” she said.

The campaign under the theme “ protecting children on the move” will be launched on June 16 as the world commemorate the day of African child aims at creating awareness on the evils of child trafficking realizing that there is high risk of human trafficking as a result of opportunities created by the event .

Among the districts which the campaign will start are those that connect direct route to South Africa which include, Mchinji, Mwanza and Dedza.

About two million visitors are expected to flock to SA to watch the world cup and there are high risks that some will be in forced labour such as prostitution during the event.