MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 27 people have been arrested in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, for human trafficking offenses, police said, in what would have been a well-coordinated network that includes even more criminals.
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Police spokesperson Sadiq Aden Doodishe told reporters that 27 people, including two women, have since been arrested and are all awaiting trial for human trafficking offenses.
The arrests, he added, were made between June 8 and to date, with suspects recording various statements about the cases. A good number of traffickers are believed to be on the run given the cases reported at various stations across the country.
He said the suspects were responsible for smuggling young people out of the country, but did not give details of the ring. Most of the young people are transported out of the country to the Middle East for odd jobs and some are said to be recruited into terrorist groups, the spokesperson added.
The human trafficking union has been operating the capital for some time, the police acting on denunciation, have successfully arrested the operators. “Our officers are investigating their cases and they will soon be brought to justice to face charges,” Doodishe said.
Last year, Northeastern State authorities said they had rescued more than 300 children who had been taken from their families in the hope of being given rewarding jobs and ended up in the hands of human traffickers who used the children. for, among other things, organ harvesting.
In addition, Mogadishu police rescued children aged seven months to 12 years after they broke up a network of traffickers and arrested eleven people, including eight women. The incident took place in September 2019.
Most people trafficked out of the country are exposed to inhuman treatment and sometimes find themselves stranded in host countries. A number of cases have been reported in Libya and the Middle East involving Somali citizens trafficked out of the country.
Somalia faces a myriad of challenges and human traffickers have often taken advantage of them to commit such crimes. Among other things, Somalia is keen to fight terrorism and adopt a political order that would minimize conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.
AXADLETM
