(MENAFN- The Post)
MASERU – A woman who was blocked from travelling to the Middle East following suspicions that she was being trafficked is furious with the Ministry of Home Affairs which she accuses of malice.
Nthatisi Molapo, 28, told thepost yesterday that the Home Affairs principal secretary Tumelo Raboletsi had no right to block her.
Molapo said she had secured a job as a private teacher but the government, instead of supporting her,“has denied me a job abroad after failing to provide me with one at home”.
She said she was“very much mad at the principal secretary”.
“Why did Raboletsi take my passport? It is mine, I want it back,” Molapo said.
She complained that her visa will soon lapse if she does not report herself in the Middle Eastern country.
“My air ticket and Covid certificates will also expire soon,” she said.
Molapo, who said she grew up as an orphan, said Raboletsi and his officers do not know her and“they were never there when I was struggling to make ends meet”.
“They claim that they are protecting me. Who has been protecting me all along?”
Molapo said she tried to explain to the officers that she was not being trafficked but had only found a job opportunity abroad and her pleas fell on deaf ears.
“Elections are approaching so they want to campaign using my name that they protected me against being trafficked,” she said.
“It is normal that politicians put politics before anything else. They are not creating job opportunities for us and when we find jobs on our own, they stop us.”
She said Raboletsi“will have to return my passport as soon as possible”.
But in a strange twist to the case, the Home Affairs Ministry was adamant that it had rescued Molapo who was nearly trafficked to the Middle East.
The ministry says it suspects the syndicate is being run by Zimbabweans, Egyptians and Omanis.
Officials at the Moshoeshoe I International Airport raised alarm with the Home Affairs Ministry and blocked her from leaving the airport.
In a statement, the ministry said Molapo's trafficking was facilitated by a group of three individuals.
Raboletsi told this paper that Molapo thinks she is being denied a lifetime opportunity.
“We are helping her, but she is very much mad at us for doing so,” Raboletsi said.
“She said we are cruel for stopping her to travel to greener pastures, she does not see the risks at all.”
He said Molapo was recruited by an Islamic school near the bus stop area in Maseru.
Raboletsi said while Molapo was attending school there, she was approached by one Islamic man who said he wanted to hire her to go to Oman and teach his children English.
He also said Molapo was helped by one Zimbabwean citizen who acted as a middleman between the woman and an Egyptian agent who was to facilitate the trip to Oman.
Raboletsi said Molapo had told them that she was visiting her boyfriend in Oman.
But when the Zimbabwean was asked questions, he said Molapo had found a job as a domestic worker in Oman.
Raboletsi said investigations by the police had later revealed that there was also an Egyptian man who was to meet her at OR Tambo International Airport to take her to Oman.
“The guy said they had not yet secured a job for her, the lady was going to look for a job while staying at a hotel,” Raboletsi said.
He said immediately they saw that“the lady was blind and could not see that she was being trafficked”.
The Egyptian, Raboletsi said, had clearly said there was no job for Molapo.
He said when they were asked questions, the Zimbabwean and the Egyptian“were distancing themselves from this and it raised more and more suspicions, they were panicking”.
Raboletsi said it is their job to stop the trafficking in persons even before it happens adding that they will continue to do their job.
Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli said in a statement on Tuesday that the police had opened a new branch to fight human trafficking.
He said 32 officers from different districts were trained to deal with issues of human trafficking.
“Due to unemployment, many people are falling victim to the same trick,” he said.
Nkheli Liphoto
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