In the Maputo district of Ndlavela, everyone knew that the women’s prison next door had become a hell on earth: inmates were dragged out of their cells and forced into street prostitution under threat from corrupt guards. The victims, who were sold as “rabbits” or “pigeons” by the guards, left the prison through the front gate in broad daylight, and were taken to strangers’ cars or to boarding houses and homes in the vicinity. However, in three of these cases, the women did not meet with potential clients expecting to be abused, but researchers at the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to fighting corruption inherent in the Mozambican state, uncovered the scheme. this Wednesday.

“The first contact still took a while until we were allowed into the net,” explains Borges Nhamire, one of the researchers, who pretended to be a sex-seeking client equipped with a hidden camera. “But everything has been easy since then,” he stresses on i. “The guards said, ‘Come on, let’s go, don’t you have a car? “Come by car, come here, we will deliver the girls to you there, no problem.” They promised that they had not had a relationship for several months, they sold it, saying, “You will have a super novelty, they are almost virgins” and the like, – continues Nhamire with notorious disgust in his voice.

It’s not for less. At first glance, the Ndlavela Women’s Prison even seemed like a model re-education prison, where 97 inmates, divided into eight cells, spend most of their time sewing, gardening and raising chickens, with access to culture. , learn English and other foreign languages ​​or complete your studies. But behind this lies a whole criminal underworld of sexual exploitation schemes, where those who refuse to sell their bodies can lose benefits or face severe beatings.

CIP investigators told the victims that the youngest, thinnest and rightest prisoners, who received higher prices abroad, suffered the most. The women were sold at prices ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 methique (40 to 400 euros). Clients ranged from people with disabilities, who mostly abused them in cars, to businessmen and military officers who took them to homes with swimming pools, victims told CIP. The most wanted were even dragged out of the prison walls three or four days a week. “I only rest when I have my period,” one of them said in front of a hidden camera.

“This scheme has existed for at least ten years,” Namire assures. “We were able to interview former inmates who had been absent for years, we went out to look for them, and they told us that during the time they were there, this had already happened. In addition to reports from people who have seen it for a long time, ”he continues. “This network has become a real brothel. Unfortunately, almost everyone who has been there has suffered from this. “

Operating results ” Perhaps most surprising is the ease with which the guards were able to retrieve the prisoners. The first time the CIP investigators went to look for women, after negotiations – “it is a little more expensive to take the women to your house, because you have money for fuel, it will take longer,” the guards explained via WhatsApp. which seemed to be talking about a piece of meat, the withdrawal method “was a little more complicated,” says Nhamire. “They pretended to be going to the hospital, put them in a prison car, and when they arrived at the garden of Maputo Central Hospital, about ten kilometers from Ndlavela, they put the women in our car.”

“We took the women into the house, sat down, talked, had lunch and interviewed them for two hours. We came up with a story about how we were compassionate, how sorry we were, and that we didn’t even want to have sex anymore. Thus, we were able to obtain information about their lives and what is happening there. “

They had heard chilling stories of young men being raped by prison guards whenever they wanted – one of them said that when she refused sex, she was beaten to the point of being hospitalized – and that they did not. to receive any money when they came to clients, they all went to their kidnappers. At best, they got a tip.

In the second case, the investigators figured out that friends from South Africa had returned to the country who wanted to brighten up the visit. It was Good Friday, a corrupt security guard warned that it would be expensive to take the women home, that there would be a shift change, that it would be necessary to pay for both the shift the women left for and the shift they left. returned: “there is something that is distributed to everyone.” They advised me to settle in a boarding house next to the pre-trial detention center.

“We were scared because we wanted to be in our own space, which we could control, where we could be safe. The guards are armed, ”admits Namire. “But we agreed that we had such an opportunity.”

However, the scale of this lucrative network of forced prostitution became increasingly apparent. “The guard asked us for 30,000 metikai. We said that just spending a few hours with the girls is a lot of money, ”the investigator recalls. “He replied, ‘But I will only keep five thousand for myself.” The rest of the money is for operational results. ” This means that when you return with the money you have to pay, from the head of the residence to the officer at the place of residence, the head of the camera, the head of the pavilion, and so on. “

In the end, this does not mean that the operation took place in the middle of the night. Between the pavilion where the prisoners are located in the south, and the gate located in the north, you must cross the courtyard, overlooked by watchtowers, through the administrative territory and a long corridor full of guards. And, according to the CIP report, nowhere does it seem strange to see the coming and going of young prisoners, who are often selected with the help of older prisoners. Sometimes the guards have the nerve to escort inmates to clients in uniforms and AK-47 assault rifles, while others watch the surroundings in plain clothes, women will not try to escape the nightmare.

Impunity The horror at Ndlavela prison is another tragic consequence of systemic corruption in Mozambique, which is consistently at the bottom of the Transparency International rankings. On the other hand, it would be inconceivable, “but knowing the reality of this country, there is simply money in Mozambique and everything happens,” Nhamire laments.

“You can get out here, drive two thousand kilometers without a driver’s license, but you will pass all the checkpoints if you have the money to pay the police,” he explains. “And so in Cabo Delgado, the rebels are crossing the border, entering and exiting, because you just have to bribe at the checkpoint. This is a jungle of corruption. “

In fact, the entire scheme of sexual exploitation in Ndlavela appears to have started as one of many “unofficial fees” levied by the Mozambican authorities, former victims told Nhamira. “It was born because some inmates paid to spend the night at home with their families and husbands,” she says. “The guards saw this as an opportunity to close a deal. “So, if they can go visit your husband, they can also go and visit my clients,” that was the reason. “

As always, the brunt of this impunity falls on the most vulnerable, such as the women imprisoned in Ndlavela. “These women are not members of criminal networks, they are involved in murders and the like, nothing like that,” the investigator emphasizes. Perhaps, if they were, the guards would think twice before using them in this way.

In practice, these women are most often imprisoned for petty crimes such as theft, drug dealing – “women are often used as mules to transport drugs from Brazil to Mozambique or sell drugs in the neighborhood. They were often accomplices of their boyfriends, hiding money or drugs from them, ”says Nhamire,“ or domestic violence. In recent cases, often “women were even the main victims of violence,” the researcher said. “At some point they get bored, they explode, take a stick next to them and throw it at their husband. And that’s it, put them in jail. “

In fact, many of these women did not even tell their families that they were in prison. “It was one of the things we were asked to do,” says Nhamire. “Please, we cannot be exposed, in my area they think that I work in South Africa, I am about three years old, I want to leave for good behavior, then I will return,” he was told. … “This makes it much more difficult to file complaints. Because they want this moment in prison to be erased from their lives, ”he continues. “We also saw the case of one inmate who had the courage to tell her husband about what was happening to her. And he decided to leave. “

After years of indifference – “the residents of the area knew, the people working in the prison knew, the management knew, all the guards knew,” Nkhamira repeats over and over again, “there is little hope for justice. After the CIP report was released, Helena Kida, Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, has already visited the prison and ordered the suspension of leadership, setting up a commission of inquiry with the Criminal Investigation Service, the Ministry of State, and the National Commission. Human Rights and the Women’s Association of Legal Professions. But Nhamire also wanted parliament to be involved with MPs from different parties, not just Frelimo, believing that “the government would be more concerned with protecting its image than trying to resolve the situation.” The fact is that “in Mozambique, investigations are carried out after inquiries,” the researcher notes. “But this is a land of unfinished investigations. We don’t have much hope. “