By Carlos Pussik
In Mozambique, human rights are recognized and protected by the Constitution, which guarantees fundamental rights such as life, liberty, equality, and security. However, there are challenges in the effective implementation of these rights, including concerns about police violence, restrictions on freedom of expression, access to information, and human trafficking and organ trafficking.
Despite some efforts to combat phenomena related to human rights violations as a whole, the challenges are enormous and concerning, as Mozambique almost always ranks among the worst positions regarding human rights both in Africa and worldwide; the statistics and indicators are discouraging.
By way of example, in the last week of July, a report was released at the level of Africa, where Mozambique ranks third as the country that most murders human rights defenders. In response to this report, Adriano Nuvunga from the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) reacted as follows: “Mozambique is not protecting human rights defenders; the Mozambican state is not only the main violator of human rights, but also of the fear that exists in the city of Maputo and throughout the country. Protests, even when authorized and even without needing authorization, activists are found with bullets fired at them to kill them, and that is what concerns us today, as we came here to denounce the environment of intimidation and the continuous and systematic attacks perpetrated by the Mozambican state, which should protect and defend activists but instead attacks them…”.
Scholarships abroad, high-paying jobs, promises of life changes for young people, and the obscurantism of easy wealth (in the case of human organs) configure various forms of recruitment for victims, not excluding the entry of foreigners into the country for sexual exploitation, as seen a few days ago with the rescue of six Vietnamese nationals, aged between 25 and 35, trafficked for sexual exploitation on the night of July 31, 2025, by the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC).
Mysterious Scholarships for Russia
As we outline the various tentacles of recruitment for the crime of human trafficking, cases of young individuals prominently feature funding for scholarships for training or academic qualifications abroad, and in several instances, many young people are recruited without the knowledge of government authorities, some of whom, with some luck, do end up graduating, but in other cases, they have been taken for other purposes. So far, we have no exact numbers, but based on our investigation, at least three young Mozambican women went to Russia.
Instead of going to study, Antonieta José Majope* ended up in Tatarstan, in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, in a factory manufacturing weapons and war drones in Russia, according to a relative of hers in the outskirts of Matola.
Antonieta* had only one contact with her father, where she reported her difficult situation and the false promise she was subjected to, but she never had contact with her daughter again and suspects that he took her cell phone. In the conversation with Mr. Majope, we asked if he had taken the case to the authorities, to which he replied that he had spoken to an agent who told him it would have no solution because he had no details about the daughter and nothing could be done, “that made me give up talking about the matter to the police.”
On the same occasion, Majope* admitted regret for having secretly taken his daughter to Russia, but on the other hand, he said he accepted it because “I saw it as a unique opportunity for my daughter to study abroad with everything paid, since in our reality only children of people connected to Frelimo have opportunities for these kinds of positions,” he lamented, leaving everything in God’s hands.
To the more attentive, they surely saw a report made by the Facebook page promoting Alabuga Start where young people from various backgrounds are recruited for studies or jobs and end up living another reality in the Promised Land. Without blaming the Mozambican authorities, but also they are not exempt from being able to do a little more about combating this evil, we are faced with unknown cases among countless unreported ones in the press or in other means for the knowledge of the authorities and the general public.
Current situation
Mozambique recorded five cases of human trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation by June. The Public Ministry (MP) reported that, in the first half of this year, five criminal cases of internal human trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation were registered in the provinces of Maputo, Niassa, Tete, and Sofala.
The information was shared on July 28, 2025, in Maputo, by the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Amabélia Chuquela, during the Academic Forum on Human Trafficking. According to Chuquela, during the same period, two criminal cases of trafficking with international connections were registered, currently being processed at the Central Office for the Fight Against Organized and Transnational Crime (GCCCOT).
“Merely for illustrative purposes, in the first half of 2025, we recorded five cases of internal human trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation in the provinces of Maputo, Niassa, Tete, and Sofala, with four of them already having had an indictment issued and one still under investigation,” he clarified. Human trafficking constitutes a serious violation of human rights, and each year, thousands of people – especially women, children, and youth – fall victim to this crime, being sexually or labor exploited, subjected to organ removal, forced begging, forced marriages, or criminal activities. Mozambique is not immune to this phenomenon. Transnational (GCCCOT).
According to the Global Report on Human Trafficking for 2024, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), women and girls continue to represent the largest group of identified victims worldwide, accounting for 61 percent of recorded cases in 2022. The majority continues to be trafficked for sexual exploitation purposes, a pattern that has persisted for several years.
According to the Deputy Attorney General, strengthening the training and empowerment of professionals is essential for the prevention, identification, and assistance to victims, as well as raising public awareness through debates, seminars, and informative campaigns. “The fight against human trafficking also requires societal awareness to form citizens capable of identifying signs of grooming, reporting, and providing necessary support to victims.”
In turn, the UNODC representative in Mozambique, António de Vivo, reiterated the organization’s commitment to continue supporting the country in the fight against this transnational crime. “In the coming months, the UNODC will continue to intensify its institutional support through the implementation of strategic actions aimed at strengthening the technical and operational capacity of the actors involved in combating human trafficking in Mozambique,” he stated.