Zimbabwean women forced into cross border prostitution.

According to the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper, since the government’s crackdown on cross border trading, women have been forced to turn instead to cross border prostitution. In the past women have traded groundnuts, sweet potatoes and other items, but since “Operation Murambatswina” tried to end this practise in order to stop foreign exchange leakages, women have been forced into the sex trade. This has coincided with a number of poor harvests which have left traders with little to sell and increasing opposition from the government. Many women have been crossing the border to spend time as prostitutes in Botswana.
”The type of accommodation they use is evidence enough that these people are making a lot of money. They are dealing with businessmen and other well-to-do people,” said one cross border trader.
The problem arises, however, that when women are crossing borders while attempting to avoid the attention of the authorities, they become increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. If they are abused they will be unable to turn to government officials to help them, and so they will be forced to keep quiet. In addition to this, if there is an increase in cross border prostitution between Zimbabwe and Botswana it could lead to traffickers capitalising on this and trafficking women into unwilling prostitution