A Zimbabwean woman who left a three-month old baby to go to Kuwait cannot breastfeed the baby now because she was sucked by men out there, Mufakose legislator and former Labour Minister Paurina Mpariwa told Parliament on Tuesday.
She said the women who were recruited under the guise that they would be offered lucrative jobs in the Middle Eastern country were abused so much that “you cannot even look at them”.
“Their private parts are swollen. One of the girls left a three months old baby but she cannot breastfeed because she was sucked by men out there,” Mpariwa said.
“Some of them can no longer walk properly. They have scars and do not even know what happened to them. They were injured by elderly people. If you are scratched by a wire on your skin, you do forget that you have that scratch. It means they will have those scars until death.”
The former Labour Minister said very few people even know where Kuwait is but these women were lured by agents including Zimbabweans. These people who capitalised on the unemployment plight in Zimbabwe must therefore be brought to book.
“People do not go to Kuwait by bus, unless I am mistaken. If they go there by plane, how then do they leave? I do not think you fly there directly but you have to pass through other countries before getting there. As women, we should not allow ourselves to be treated like that. Even those who are working in South Africa are not being treated properly. Some of them do not have qualifications but others do have them. If we are taken as a country that turns a blind eye to such things, we will have problems,” Mpariwa said.
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Full contribution:
*HON. MPARIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Hon. Nyamupinga and the seconder Hon. Nyanhongo for bringing up this motion. I think you remember last week, we tried to talk about it and today we want to really talk about this. If you look at people when they go to Botswana, if you throw a stone, you find that you hit a Zimbabwean, if you grow to South Africa, you throw a stone you hit a Zimbabwean because they are working there. Even in London, I am told that there is now a joke that if you open a door they call out in Shona that there is someone inside. Maybe that is so because we are people who know how to work, we are hard workers-but we should not find ourselves in slavery because of this.
I am saying this because in 2014, in this very House, we ratified the issue that people should not be ill treated, they should not just work and not be paid. I am saying this because we are a country, we have our own resources and if people could manage to get access to them, they would not go to such places as Kuwait. Hon. Speaker, may I be protected because I hear there is a lot of noise going on. This is a very important motion; otherwise we will go back and sit on the floor.
Hon. Speaker, if you look at this country called Kuwait, some of us do not even know where it is. People are suffering and that is why we hear of this place called Kuwait. There are no jobs. We have to do something about the issue of unemployment. People should be able to work and get remunerated properly; not to get bread because they have worked. If we do not address the issue of unemployment, we end up getting into slavery. Kuwait has an embassy in Zimbabwe and its people studied this country and realised that we are suffering. That is why they are doing this.
The people did not just go to Kuwait; they did not know about Section 20 on their visas. There is an agency that is benefiting from those people. There are Zimbabweans who are working hand in hand with people from Kuwait. We want to know the people who are running these agencies. We need to name and shame them and they should be charged. They must be brought to book.
The women and girls who went to Kuwait, some of them you cannot even look at them. Their private parts are swollen. One of the girls left a three months old baby but she cannot breastfeed because she was sucked by men out there. Some of them can no longer walk properly. They have scars and do not even know what happened to them. They were injured by elderly people. If you are scratched by a wire on your skin, you do forget that you have that scratch. It means they will have those scars until death.
Mr. Speaker, the laws of this country do not allow people to just leave the country. People do not go to Kuwait by bus, unless I am mistaken. If they go there by plane, how then do they leave? I do not think you fly there directly but you have to pass through other countries before getting there. As women, we should not allow ourselves to be treated like that. Even those who are working in South Africa are not being treated properly. Some of them do not have qualifications but others do have them. If we are taken as a country that turns a blind eye to such things, we will have problems.
Hon Speaker, Chapter 9:25 of the Trafficking in Persons that was passed in this House in 2014 should be looked into. Those who would be found guilty of this offence should be charged accordingly. People from Kuwait heard what happened last week and all the noise that took place. Did they ever ask for forgiveness? Did we do any wrong? I think we are the people in charge of ourselves. If people from Kuwait have not asked for forgiveness up to now, it means they are doing a lot. We were told by those girls who came back that they were not the only ones. There are others out there and some of them are in other countries. Is there any way that we can find out where those other children went to and how many they are. Those agencies know where they took our children to. Mr. Speaker, it is very sad for everyone in this House. We should support this motion and its recommendations. There are people who say that they can get jobs on the internet and things like that should not be allowed.
There is a boy who is my neighbour. He gave me his curriculum vitae and I was surprised because he is a graduate selling airtime. We want the informal sector to start working properly like the formal sector because that is where our graduates can go to. We must generate revenue so that we start treating our own people with dignity. We are being taken into slavery and people are made to do sexual acts with dogs; we are not happy about that.
I am happy that the Vice President has come into the House and he will hear this. Maybe he will take these issues to Cabinet. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
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