Police at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) have arrested three Chinese nationals, two men and a woman, who were attempting to traffic two Malawian girls to China.
According to sources at the Airport, the incident happened on Friday when a Chinese lady Miss Chen and two Chinese men identified as Zyang Yan Qing and Zhon Yanhu were leaving the country through KIA with a claim that the two married the Malawian girls.
“The female Chinese lady was arrested for being suspected to have offered money between K500, 000 to K2, 000, 000 to the parents of the girls in order to accept the marriage of their children with Chinese men and take them to China,” sources said.
They said that the girls in the first place were convinced by fellow Malawians working as translators and interpreters to Chinese to accept the marriage.
They also said Chen is suspected to have been involved in the human trafficking for some time based on what one of the girls revealed about the processes.
Some Police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity told Mlawi24 that the arrest of the Chinese revealed some syndicates on how these Chinese nationals acquired marriage certificates, National identity cards and passports for the victims.
They said the suspects were arrested and were found with marriage certificates obtained dubiously from Lilongwe District Council.
It was also reported that one of the victims revealed that she was forced to sign on the certificate while at the house of Chen in Lilongwe and denied to have acquired certificate procedurally.
It was further established that the suspects, with assistance from Malawian translators and interpreters had connections with officials from National Registration Bureau (NRB) and Department of Immigration and Citizenship where they bribe to access National Identity Cards and Passports within 7 days dubiously while citizens are struggling to get the IDs and Passports years after application.
One of the victims’ relatives tipped security officials at the airport about the issue the same day the suspects wanted to fly out of Malawi.
The manner in which marriage certificates and National IDs were issued brought suspicion that the suspects wanted to traffic the young girls to China where they could be exploited as the case in Oman.
Police are yet to issue a statement on the matter.
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