Zimbabwe’s Kuwait trafficking victims assault agent
By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
Kindness Paradza, the chairperson of the foreign affairs parliamentary portfolio committee, has revealed that women who were seduced into sex slavery in Kuwait beat up a Zimbabwean agent at the centre of the trafficking scandal.
According to Paradza, the female agent, Norest Maruma, was identified by some of the victims when she joined them in a shelter in Kuwait.
Maruma is believed to have connived with her Ghanaian lover to lure the women to Kuwait where they were promised well-paying jobs.
Scores of women fell for the trap believing that they had landed opportunities to escape Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis.
Maruma has been transferred to the Zimbabwean embassy in the Gulf nation and will soon be deported back home where she will be arrested upon arrival.
She is expected to provide more evidence in the identification of the people behind the trafficking syndicate.
“A Zimbabwean woman who was working in cahoots with these Kuwait agents is currently at our embassy. We want her to come. So, Kuwait authorities are monitoring her so that she can be repatriated to be in custody,” said Paradza.
When the Zimbabwean female victims at the shelter saw her, they reportedly mobbed and assaulted her, accusing her of cheating them into slavery in the foreign country.
“What happened was that when she arrived at the shelter, she met the girls whom she had facilitated their travel to Kuwait, and upon identification of the agent, they started assaulting and insulting her.
“She was beaten thoroughly only to be saved by some Ghanaian women,’ said Paradza and the incident was recorded on video.
Fifteen victims arrived home from Kuwait last Thursday evening.
Paradza added that Government had already set aside a fund through the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to cater for the women’s travelling expenses.
More Zimbabwean women are feared to be holed up in several Asian countries where they are being used as sex slaves.
Millions of Zimbabweans are said to have crossed into neighbouring countries and beyond to escape the country’s biting social, economic and political woes since 2000. Nehanda Radio
