VZCZCXYZ2769
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLG #0131/01 0651435
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 051435Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY LILONGWE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5087
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC 0527

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000131 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP - RYOUSEY 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR AF/RSA - LMUNCY AND AF/S - EPELLETREAU 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR G, INL, DRL, PRM, AF/RSA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB EAID MI
SUBJECT: 2008 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT - MALAWI 
 
REF: A) STATE 2731 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY. The government of Malawi remains committed in its fight 
against trafficking but continues to suffer from a lack of 
resources.  The GOM has a strong working relationship with 
International Organizations (IOs) and NGOs and continued to provide 
social, counseling, and rehabilitation services to victims.  The 
GOM-UNICEF "Lekani" awareness campaign against harmful practices 
provided national reach in raising awareness of trafficking, child 
labor, and sexual exploitation. Reporting structures throughout 
government and between government and NGOs remain weak, however, 
making data collection and assessment of efforts difficult. 
Additionally, government dependence on donors, IOs, and NGOs for 
funding and implementation of anti-trafficking efforts sometimes 
limits the government's discretion on which projects to support and 
in which districts to place resources. 
 
¶2.  The country's efforts to combat trafficking were affected this 
year both by the prolonged illness and subsequent death of the 
Minister for Women and Child Development, and numerous political 
impasses that limited the sessions of the National Assembly.  As 
such, the Child Care, Protection, and Justice Bill, which will be 
the first law to specifically prohibit a form of trafficking in 
Malawi, is still awaiting parliamentary approval.  Additionally, 
overall lack of financial resources and delays in government 
disbursements delayed the Malawi Law Commission's plans to draft a 
comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, and Malawi continued to use the 
penal code to prosecute trafficking crimes.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Post provides the following information in response to reftel A 
request.  Answers are keyed to reftel paragraphs. 
 
¶3.  Paragraph 27. Overview of Malawi's Activities to Eliminate 
Trafficking in Persons: 
 
¶A.  Malawi is a country of origin, transit, and destination for 
internationally trafficked men, women, and children.  Women and 
children are the most vulnerable group for trafficking exploitation. 
 Numbers for each group are unknown.  Most are trafficked from 
Malawi to South Africa, Zambia, and Mozambique for both labor and 
sexual exploitation.  There was one report of a man trafficked to 
Uganda by an aid worker for labor.  Additionally, children and women 
from Zambia, Mozambique, and possibly Tanzania are trafficked to 
Malawi for labor and probably sexual exploitation.  Incidences of 
trafficking within the country's borders are likely higher than 
international trafficking.   There is little data available to 
accurately quantify the magnitude of the trafficking problem in 
Malawi. 
 
Sources of information include various ministries, government 
officials, NGOs, and church groups.  Much of the information is 
anecdotal but is generally considered reliable. Few groups have 
statistics and those that do are usually limited to a single 
district or smaller area for a limited timeframe.  There are 
discussions in the Ministry of Women and Child Development on how to 
consolidate multiple district-level, child-focused committees into 
one child protection committee to facilitate better information 
sharing and data collection. 
 
The Ministry of Labor, in conjunction with NGOs and ILO, completed a 
National Action Plan on child labor but the report has not yet been 
released.  The Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF 
completed a baseline survey on child protection covering child labor 
and child trafficking in November 2007.  The Ministry of Women and 
Child Development, UNICEF, ILO, and the Child Trafficking Network 
commissioned a study on child trafficking in November 2007 but it 
will not be completed until June 2008. 
 
¶B.  Impoverished rural populations are the primary targets for 
traffickers, and this includes children, women, and some men. 
Orphans, particularly those cared for by extended family members 
with their own children, are extremely vulnerable to trafficking. 
Poverty and lack of education are common factors among all forms of 
trafficking.  Children are most commonly trafficked internally to 
work as domestics, to work as cattle herders, to work in 
agriculture, and to do menial work in various small businesses.  The 
Ministry of Women and Child Development and several NGOs also report 
incidences of young girls moving from rural areas to urban or other 
rural areas to work as commercial sex workers. 
 
Traffickers for domestic and agricultural labor are often former 
villagers who have moved to urban areas.  The returnees offer 
lucrative jobs to children or their guardians and promise to send 
the salaries to the guardians while providing clothing, food, 
shelter, and education to the child. Often the trafficker is 
heralded as a hero by villagers who believe the child will be better 
off leaving the village.  Village headmen and other traditional 
authorities are also used by traffickers who convince the 
traditional leader to help recruit children using similar false 
stories about providing amenities to the children that they often 
lack in the village. Adult victims are offered lucrative jobs either 
in other regions of Malawi or in South Africa. 
 
Adults who run brothels or otherwise act as facilitators for 
commercial sex lure new underage recruits into prostitution with 
promises of nice clothing and lodging.  Once the young woman or girl 
arrives at the new location she is charged high rental fees for 
these items and instructed how to work as a prostitute to pay off 
the debt.  Anecdotal evidence still indicates there may be some 
prostitutes from Zambia and Tanzania working in border areas; 
however these cannot be confirmed as victims of trafficking. 
Persons have been trafficked internally for labor and reportedly 
also to South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia.  There was a claim 
that an aid worker trafficked a man to Uganda under the pretense 
that he would attend vocational school but instead was forced into 
labor. 
 
There is evidence that Malawi is also a destination for 
international trafficking.  A child labor rehabilitation shelter run 
by the Salvation Army in Mchinji, near the Zambian border, confirmed 
they have taken in children from both Mozambique and Zambia that 
were trafficked for agricultural labor in Malawi. 
 
Victims are generally moved using legitimate travel documents when 
necessary or moved across porous borders without passing through 
immigration checkpoints. While there is some evidence of 
organization among traffickers, especially in the transport of 
people to South Africa, no employment, travel, or marriage agencies 
have been openly implicated in trafficking. 
 
¶C. A wide variety of GOM agencies are involved in anti-trafficking 
efforts.  The Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry 
of Home Affairs and Internal Security (which includes police and 
immigration services) and the Ministry of Labor, along with the 
Malawi Law Commission, The Malawi Human Rights Commission, and the 
Director of Public Prosecution have the most significant roles.  The 
Ministry of Women and Child Development is the lead agency in 
combating trafficking in persons. 
 
There are two committees that primarily monitor human trafficking in 
Malawi:  the National Steering Committee on Orphans and Vulnerable 
Children, and the National Steering Committee on Child Labor.  These 
committees are of overlapping composition, and trafficking issues 
are included in both. 
 
Most districts have a district child labor committee, a district 
orphan and vulnerable child (OVC) committee, and a district 
committee on child rights, all of which could deal with trafficking 
issues.  As with the national steering committees, there is a lot of 
overlap yet also limited data sharing.  There is no guarantee a case 
reported to a district labor inspector would also be brought to the 
attention of the district social worker or the police victim support 
unit.  The amount of initiative district committees take varies 
widely and is often dependent on the individuals working in the 
district or access to NGO or IO-sponsored projects in the district. 
There is a recommendation from the Ministry of Women and Child 
Development to combine the three district committees into one 
district child protection committee to assist in the reporting of 
cases and collection of data. 
 
¶D. The practical limitations on the GOM's ability to address TIP are 
many.  Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries and suffers 
severely from the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  Thirty years of dictatorship 
gave way in 1994 to democratic rule, albeit plagued by corruption. 
Funding for nearly all public institutions -- police, hospitals, and 
basic infrastructure -- is inadequate.  The current government's 
fight against corruption was slowed during much of the reporting 
period due to the protracted absence of a director of the 
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) but the November appointment of a new 
director has re-energized the fight against corruption. 
 
Malawi depends heavily on donor nations, international 
organizations, and multi-national NGOs for funding of most 
anti-trafficking programs, which sometimes limits the government's 
discretion on which projects to support and in which districts to 
place resources.  Some projects are delegated to local NGOs due to 
lack of capacity in government; unclear reporting structures can 
limit data collection and sharing of results.  The government's 
resources to aid victims are extremely limited, though some 
assistance is provided through various social programs.   Most 
assistance programs are funded by international or faith-based 
organizations working through domestic NGOs. 
 
¶E. Systematic monitoring of human trafficking is still not 
developed.  Due to the broad range of agencies involved at the 
central and local government levels, there is a not single point of 
contact for trafficking-related issues in a community or at the 
national level.  While some data is collected at the district level, 
there are inadequate reporting structures to compile data at the 
national level. 
 
The Ministry of Justice released the First Periodic Report of Malawi 
on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 
in late 2006 which addressed anti-trafficking efforts.  There are a 
few efforts currently underway to collect and disseminate data on 
trafficking and anti-trafficking efforts (see Section 3A).  A draft 
review on Community Child Protection Workers in Malawi by the 
Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF has been 
completed but has not been publicly released. 
 
¶4.  Paragraph 28. Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers: 
 
¶A.  Malawi does not have a law specifically forbidding trafficking 
in persons.  The constitution prohibits slavery and servitude, and 
forbids any form of forced, tied, or bonded labor.  According to the 
Malawi Law Commission, in spite of the fact that the Constitution 
cannot directly be used to prosecute offenders, reference to the 
constitution has in the past been essential in prosecuting certain 
cases related to trafficking. 
 
The penal code contains specific offenses which may be used to 
prosecute traffickers: Section 140 prohibits the "procuration (or 
attempts to procure) any woman or girl to become, either in Malawi 
or elsewhere, a common prostitute or to leave Malawi with the intent 
that she may become an inmate of or frequent a brothel in Malawi or 
elsewhere."  Section 141 prohibits the procurement and defilement of 
a woman or girl by threats, fraud, or administering of drugs. 
Section 143 criminalizes any person who detains any woman or girl 
against her will "that she may be unlawfully and carnally known by 
any man."  Living off of the proceeds of prostitution and operating 
a brothel are illegal according to Sections 145-147. 
 
Sections 257-269 concern offenses against liberty including 
kidnapping, abduction, and abduction in order to subject a person to 
grievous harm or slavery.  Section 267 prohibits the buying or 
selling of any person as a slave and section 268 specifically 
identifies trafficking in slaves as a felony.  Section 268 is most 
often used to prosecute a person involved in trafficking. 
 
In 2007, child labor and kidnapping laws were used to convict child 
traffickers although exact conviction numbers were unavailable. None 
received prison sentences.  In the past, the majority of these cases 
involved trafficking of children for agricultural labor exploitation 
and cattle herding.  Traffickers are usually required to pay fines; 
however, some who claimed ignorance of the law were merely warned 
and released.  For example, in June a man convicted of trafficking 
12 girls within Malawi to work as commercial sex workers was 
sentenced to 4 years in prison but upon claiming he did not know 
trafficking was a crime, he was allowed to pay a find of 18,500 MK 
(132 USD) instead. 
 
Existing laws can be used for the prosecution of TIP, but the lack 
of specific legislation criminalizing TIP makes prosecution more 
challenging.  In the absence of actual trafficking laws and broad 
knowledge of how to manage trafficking cases, cases are handled 
differently according to the prosecutors and judges involved.  Those 
who have participated in TIP training -- and therefore have some 
understanding of how to investigate and try TIP cases -- tend to 
mete out stiffer sentences. 
 
The Child Care, Protection and Justice Bill, which defines child 
trafficking and sets life imprisonment penalties for convicted 
traffickers, remains in cabinet and was not passed by Parliament 
during the reporting period.  At the end of the reporting period, 
the Malawi Law Commission had just begun drafting additional 
legislation to specifically criminalize trafficking of all types. 
 
¶B.  Penalties for trafficking for sexual exploitation as delineated 
under the existing penal code vary according to the different 
articles, but are largely unspecified.  Abduction of a woman with 
intent to have sexual intercourse or with the intention to marry her 
off is punishable by up to seven years in prison.  Child sexual 
exploitation can be charged under indecent assault of young girls 
and boys, which carries up to a 15 year prison sentence.  There was 
no data available about the number of arrests, convictions, or 
penalties for trafficking people for sexual exploitation during the 
reporting period. 
 
¶C.  As described previously, most of the trafficking cases that have 
been prosecuted in Malawi involve forced child labor.  Penalties for 
child labor violations vary according to the specific charges.  Most 
violators receive a warning for the first offense and are fined for 
subsequent violations.  Child Labor is prohibited under the age of 
14 by the Employment Act of 2000 and is punishable by a fine of 
20,000 MK (140 USD) or up to five years in prison.  Minimum wage 
laws can be used to punish employers who use deceptive offers or 
switch contracts, but penalties usually amount only to payment of 
salary in arrears.  There was no data available about the number of 
arrests, convictions, or penalties for trafficking people for labor, 
and there were no reports of prison sentences for those convicted. 
 
 
¶D.  Penalties for rape include life imprisonment and possible death. 
 (Note: No death sentences have been carried out in Malawi's 
democratic history.)  Rape is a felony. 
 
¶E.  Certain elements of prostitution are illegal; however the penal 
code does not specifically prohibit the prostitution of oneself. 
Suspected prostitutes are sometimes cited for loitering or 
disorderly behavior.  Several sections of the penal code 
specifically criminalize the activities of brothel owners/operators, 
clients, pimps, madams, and prostitute recruiters.  The penal code 
prohibits living off the proceeds of prostitution which could be 
used against traffickers and carries a penalty of imprisonment up to 
three years.  Operating a brothel can be penalized by up to five 
years in prison. Procuring a person for prostitution is also illegal 
with a similar penalty. 
 
¶F.  The government prosecuted cases against human trafficking 
offenders but could not provide the number of investigations, 
prosecutions, convictions, and sentences given to convicted 
offenders.  Arrests of at least five traffickers were covered by the 
media. 
 
The penal code is used to investigate arrest, prosecute, convict and 
sentence traffickers.  Most are investigated under Section 268, 
prohibiting the trafficking of slaves, or sections covering 
abduction or sexual assault.  The Employment Act and the minimum 
wage law can also be used in forced labor and child labor cases. 
 
Labor recruiters who use knowingly fraudulent or deceptive offers or 
impose inappropriately high fees creating a debt bondage condition 
can be prosecuted.  Employers who confiscate workers' passports or 
switch contracts can also be prosecuted using the penal code. 
 
There have been no reports of traffickers being sentenced to jail 
during the reporting period.  The government has difficulty 
providing information on investigations, arrests, convictions, and 
sentences due to the decentralization of magistrates and courts, 
police, and social welfare officers, the lack of uniform reporting 
structures, and the lack of reporting systems able to consolidate 
data at a regional or national level without an extensive manual 
collection effort. 
 
¶G.  The GOM provides specialized training for police, child 
protection officers, social welfare officers, and other officials in 
how to recognize, investigate, and prosecute instances of 
trafficking.  During the reporting period, UNICEF, ILO, Norwegian 
Church Aid, along various local NGOs provided or assisted the GOM 
with training.  The USG OPDAT resident legal advisor also provided 
training on human trafficking to police prosecutors and magistrates. 
 The Ministry of Labor is working to incorporate the child 
protection curriculum into labor inspector training. 
 
¶H.  The government has expressed a willingness to cooperate with 
other governments in the investigation and prosecution of 
trafficking cases, but requests are handled on an ad hoc basis. 
There were no known requests from other governments for cooperation 
in the reporting period. The GOM, through the Ministry of Home 
Affairs and Internal Security, is a member of INTERPOL and SADC's 
Defense and Security Organization which deals with trafficking. 
 
¶I.  GOM officials indicate that persons charged with trafficking in 
other countries could be extradited in cases where such action would 
be appropriate but would be evaluated on a case by case basis. 
Malawian nationals would likely only be extradited in situations 
were the national could not be tried for the crime in Malawi. The 
GOM was not presented with such a case during the reporting period. 
 
 
¶J.  There is no evidence of government involvement in or tolerance 
of trafficking, on a local or institutional level. 
 
¶K.  The Anti-Corruption Bureau received two complaints of government 
corruption relating to trafficking during the reporting period. 
Both are currently under investigation.  Some NGOs have raised 
concerns about the lack of regulations for international adoptions 
and its potential for abuse with regard to trafficking. 
 
¶L.  The Malawi Defense Force indicated it had no reports of 
Malawians participating in peacekeeping or similar missions who 
engaged in or facilitated severe forms of trafficking or who 
exploited victims of trafficking. 
 
¶M.  Past claims of child sex tourism at the lakeshore resurfaced, 
but with no additional evidence, in a research paper released by the 
Malawi Law Commission during its consultative workshop on the 
development of anti-trafficking in persons legislation. The report 
echoed previous anecdotal reports that indicate there may be sex 
tourism occurring in Malawi, primarily along the lakeshore area of 
Lake Malawi.  However the report did not indicate the presence of an 
actual "industry."  Unconfirmed reports indicate that teenage boys 
and girls have, in the past, provided sexual services for visiting 
European tourists. Additionally, a report by ECPAT International 
claimed that child prostitution is abundant in urban areas at hotels 
and outside night clubs and that more than 40% of sex workers were 
girls below the age of 18. 
 
During the reporting year, the GOM was not presented with the 
opportunity to prosecute any cases related to foreign pedophiles, 
though officials consistently prosecute pedophiles under a variety 
of laws.  Since homosexuality is illegal and remains generally 
socially unacceptable in Malawi, prosecutions for this type of 
prostitution and solicitation could include charges of homosexual 
acts. 
 
Anecdotal reports suggest sex tourists come from Europe but this is 
mainly speculation.  The country's child sexual abuse laws still 
reside in the Malawi penal code and do not likely have 
extraterritorial coverage. 
 
¶5.  Paragraph 29. Protection and Assistance to Victims: 
 
¶A.  Foreign trafficking victims often come from neighboring 
Mozambique and Zambia and can speak the local language.  Many will 
claim they are Malawian under the belief that they will be deported 
and it is not until after counseling or at the time of relocation 
that it is revealed the victim is actually from a foreign country. 
Officials said in most cases foreign victims would likely be granted 
temporary residency.  The government has limited funds to deport 
foreign victims and in practice does not do so. 
 
¶B.  Malawi has two rehabilitation centers for children in conflict 
with the law (Blantyre, Zomba), one social rehabilitation drop-in 
center (Lilongwe) for TIP and gender-based violence victims.  All 
offer counseling and rehabilitation services and some legal 
assistance through the NGO, Legal Aid.  Medical cases are referred 
to government hospitals.  The government of Malawi funds these three 
centers with total contributions of approximately 100,000 USD per 
year.  In addition, the Salvation Army operates a child labor victim 
shelter in Mchinji which offers rehabilitation and training.  The 
NGO Youth Net and Counseling (YONECO) operates a rehabilitation 
center in Zomba and the NGO Active Youth Initiative for Social 
Enhancement (AYISE) operates a center in Blantyre.  The Chisomo 
Children's Center in Lilongwe provides rehabilitation services to 
street children, many of whom were trafficked previously.  The 
Police operate 34 victim support units which specialize in handling 
trafficking and gender-based violence crimes and provide limited 
forms of counseling and temporary safety.  In general, foreign 
victims have the same access to care as domestic victims. 
 
¶C.  The government provides support to international and domestic 
NGOs providing services to trafficking victims.  Nearly all funding 
comes from international organizations such as UNICEF and ILO but 
the GOM provides technical and coordination assistance and helps set 
project guidelines.  The GOM works with NGOs to connect their local 
programs with labor inspectors, child protection officers, district 
social welfare officers, the police, and district child protection 
committees to help facilitate projects. 
¶D.  Law enforcement, immigration, and social services personnel have 
been trained to identify victims of trafficking but there is no 
formal system to proactively identify victims of trafficking among 
high-risk person they come in contact.  The government does have a 
referral process to transfer victims detained by law-enforcement 
authorities through its victim support units. 
 
¶E.  The government does not have a mechanism for screening for 
trafficking victims among persons involved in the commercial sex 
trade. 
 
¶F.  The rights of victims are generally respected.  There are no 
reports of victims treated as criminals.  Trafficking victims may be 
initially detained for short durations during initial investigation. 
 
 
¶G.  The GOM uses evidence gained from victims to investigate and 
prosecute TIP-related cases.  Victims are permitted to file civil 
suits against perpetrators, and civil society and NGOs many times 
offer pro-bono legal services to victims involved in civil and 
criminal cases.  Labor inspectors and child protection officers are 
trained to advocate for fair remuneration to employees, especially 
children, in labor disputes and court cases.  Victims may obtain 
restitution although in practice sums have typically been set at the 
minimum rural wage in the case of forced and child labor.  There 
were no reported statistics for the number of victims who assisted 
in investigations or prosecutions during the reporting period. 
 
¶H.  Police protection is afforded to witnesses in any court case, as 
appropriate.  The GOM provides some funding, commensurate with its 
resources and capacity to do so. The 34 police victim support units 
can provide short-term shelter for abused and exploited women and 
children.  Most victims are repatriated to their home village by the 
government or through an NGO.  There were no reported statistics for 
the number of victims assisted or receiving shelter by government or 
 
the NGO community. 
 
¶I.  The GOM has trained 520 community child protection workers 
(CCPW) and placed them in each of the 29 districts of the country. 
Of the 520, 160 were recruited and trained during the reporting 
period. The GOM has set a target of 800 CCPW by the end of 2008. 
Training is funded by the National AIDS Commission through a Global 
Fund grant.  These workers are specially trained to recognize child 
victims of all forms of exploitation, including trafficking, but 
currently work on a voluntary basis.  CCPW receive only 1500 
MK/month (10.7 USD) for expenses and transportation.  The Ministry 
of Women and Child Development and UNICEF have drafted a report on 
the work of CCPWs which cites large territories, lack of networking 
coordination, and inadequate reporting structures as problems.  The 
Ministry of Women and Child Development is advocating conversion of 
all CCPW to civil servants to add legitimacy and motivate workers to 
produce better results. 
 
The Ministry of Labor also has approximately 120 district labor 
inspectors trained in Malawi labor law who can identify trafficked 
children. 
 
During the reporting period, the GOM along with NGO partners 
continued sensitization efforts to educate child protection 
officers, social welfare workers, law enforcement, immigration 
officers, prosecutors, and judges on how best to combat TIP and 
effectively prosecute cases using existing laws.  Repatriation to a 
victim's home district in cases of domestic labor trafficking is 
usually accomplished through interministerial cooperation and 
includes some element of community-based assistance in 
reintegration. 
 
Malawian Embassies abroad actively encourage Malawian expatriates to 
register with the consular section but do not receive training on 
protections and assistance.  Malawian embassies do work with IOs and 
NGOs that bring trafficking cases to their attention.  There were 
reports of trafficking victims assisted by the embassies abroad 
during the reporting period. 
 
¶J. Repatriated victims of trans-national trafficking generally 
arrive from South Africa and the GOM provides some assistance, 
commensurate with resources, to victims.  In most cases, the GOM 
does not have finances to provide adequate assistance and pay for 
repatriation, depending on cooperation from IOs like IOM and NGOs 
for repatriation. 
 
¶K. Some of the international organizations and NGOs working with 
trafficking victims include UNICEF, NORAD, ILO, the Salvation Army, 
PLAN International, World Vision, local and international NGOs, 
church groups, and informal community-based volunteer groups.  Many 
international organizations provide funding, training, and technical 
assistance to the GOM and local NGOs and do not receive funding from 
the GOM.  Funding, personnel, and training constraints render the 
GOM incapable of providing all assistance to victims of trafficking. 
 As such, the GOM works with IOs and NGOs to assist identified TIP 
victims in areas with projects. 
 
¶6.  Paragraph 30. Prevention: 
 
¶A.  The GOM acknowledges that TIP is a problem in the country. 
 
¶B.  The GOM and UNICEF began an extensive child rights information 
campaign called "Lekani" (Stop in the local language of Chichewa) 
that includes anti-trafficking information in June 2007.  The 
campaign includes billboards, bumper stickers, and newspaper ads 
with a distinctive handprint on a red background that provide 
messages against trafficking, early marriage, child labor, 
trafficking, and sexual exploitation.  The campaign also includes a 
radio program broadcast on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (the 
national public broadcaster) on child rights and primary school 
educational materials in the local languages about child rights that 
are distributed to all primary schools.  The campaign is national 
and targets both potential victims and the demand for trafficking. 
 
 
During the reporting period, the GOM and local NGOs also conducted 
awareness campaigns to address a variety of TIP's root causes, 
including child abuse, inadequate orphan care and life-skills, child 
labor, female illiteracy and low education rates, and gender-based 
violence and discrimination.  NGO programs also raise awareness 
among village headmen, traditional authorities, and other local 
leaders about trafficking in persons. 
 
¶C.  The relationship between the GOM and NGOs, donors, and civil 
society in the context of human trafficking is strong.  Due to very 
limited resources, the GOM must often delegate to NGOs and rely on 
partnerships with such groups in order to implement initiatives. 
The GOM does not place unreasonable bureaucratic requirements on 
groups wishing to implement assistance and development programs. 
GOM officials are routinely made available to help publicize and 
oversee civil society initiatives. 
 
The GOM works with NGOs and civil society through the National 
Technical Working Group on Child Protection and the National 
Technical Working Group on Orphans and Vulnerable Children to advise 
the National Steering Committees and the district assemblies, 
coordinate among stakeholders, monitor child protection programs, 
and facilitate reviews of policy related documents. 
 
¶D. The exit-entry system is entirely paper based with limited 
storage and retention.  There is no active analysis done to 
determine immigration or emigration patterns. All immigration 
officers receive basic training which includes identification of 
trafficking situations. 
 
¶E.  As stated in 3C, there are two national steering committees 
which include representatives from all major government ministries 
that combat trafficking.  Additionally, there are working groups and 
district level structures that also facilitate communication between 
various government ministries, NGOs, and IOs.  Although there is not 
a trafficking in persons working group, The GOM works with NGOs and 
civil society through the National Technical Working Group on Child 
Protection and the National Technical Working Group on Orphans and 
Vulnerable Children both deal in trafficking related issues.  The 
government has an Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate and 
prosecute corruption cases as well as a National Implementation 
Steering Committee responsible for drafting a National 
Anti-Corruption Strategy. 
 
¶F.  The GOM is still developing a national plan of action to address 
child trafficking.  A national plan of action on child labor is 
still in draft form and has not been released.  A national plan of 
action for orphans and vulnerable children was created and is being 
implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.  The 
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Labor, Ministry 
of Education, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Internal Affairs 
and Home Security are involved in drafting the national plans.  IOs 
and NGOs have been consulted and are active in the development 
process. 
 
¶G.  The GOM-UNICEF "Lekani" campaign includes messages against 
sexual exploitation and commercial sex.  It also has community based 
activities that discourage the practice.  The National AIDS 
Commission's National Action Framework on HIV/AIDS prevention 
includes language on the reduction of transactional sex in Malawi 
and reducing both supply and demand is part of the current HIV 
prevention plan.  Information campaigns including Abstinence, Be 
Faithful, and Use Condoms (ABC) messages are part of an expanding 
national response that targets high risk populations including 
commercial sex workers and their clients.  The GOM has recently 
requested assistance from HIV prevention partners to help formulate 
an interdisciplinary prevention strategy that will also target these 
high risk groups. 
 
¶H. Not Applicable 
 
¶I. The Malawi Defense Force currently provides training to its 
nationals deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping mission on human 
rights, child protection, and gender issues that touch on forms of 
trafficking or trafficking victim exploitation.  Additionally, the 
U.S. government's African Contingency Operations and Training 
Assistance (ACOTA) provided training 50 officers selected to go on 
peacekeeping missions that included instruction in human rights, 
gender respect, elimination of sexual exploitation, and child 
protection. 
 
¶7. Post POC for TIP issues is Political Officer John Letvin, phone 
265-1-773-166 x. 3463, IVG 835-3463, fax 265-1-772-316.  Time spent 
on TIP report: principal drafting, Pol Officer, 40 hours; Clearance: 
RSO, 1 hour; DCM, 1 hour; AMB, 1 hour. 
 
EASTHAM