Nairobi — When police arrested a Sri Lankan national for overstretching his visit in Kenya on November 28, 2006, they had no idea how well-oiled his human trafficking racket was.

The man, claiming to be a businessman, bragged to his victims of his connections with powerful individuals and how he was receiving special treatment in police custody as he awaited appearance in court on charges of being in the country illegally.

He went on to claim that there was little that could be done to him; that he would soon be out, travel to Sri Lanka and return to continue the racket.

This is the story told by six of his Sri Lankan victims, who had been stranded at a two-room shack at Kiserian trading centre -relying on the generosity of well-wishers and neighbours for basic survival - before they were deported.

Investigations going on

According to police sources, the man has since been released as investigations on his dealings are said to be going on.

The story of the six young men started in Jaffna, eastern Sri Lanka, from where they were lured with promises of hotel jobs in Cyprus. "There are many young people who would jump at the chance of working in Europe. It is better than being unemployed and poor at home," one of the young men, Francis Angelo, told the Sunday Nation.

Each of them fell victim to a man who passed himself as an employment agent. The man, only identified as Hilmy, was known for scouring the villages of eastern and central Sri Lanka in search of gullible youth willing to risk everything they owned for a chance to work in Europe.

Each eager recruit was asked to pay US$10,000 (about Sh720,000) to the agent who would then "process their documents", get them visas to travel to either Cyprus or Australia and even secure them jobs.

In this elaborate racket, those who fall for the trick are taken on a long ride - from Sri Lanka to Singapore by air, to Malaysia by road and back to Colombo, Sri Lanka, with excuses of unexplained delays and postponement of their departure.

Latest victims

The six young Sri Lankans were the latest victims of the con-artists.

A man of Sri Lankan nationality was picked up for questioning by police more than a month ago and investigations are yet to be finalised.

Although detectives claim to be investigating the incident no one, including the man who lured the six into the country and allegedly conned them out of millions of shillings, has been arraigned in court. The man allegedly had fake travel documents.

After the Sunday Nation exclusively reported the plight of the six young men, officers from Ongata Rongai arrested them and locked them up in cells for a day. They were released after their documents were found to be in order. Three days later the Sri Lankan High Commission facilitated the return of two of the six young men.

"We are making arrangements for the four young men to travel back to Sri Lanka. They have return tickets. Two of them have already gone back," the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Mr Mohammed Kaleel Meelaud Keeran, had earlier said.

And true to his word, all the young men have been flown back to Sri Lanka.

The officer in charge of the investigations bureau at the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters, ACP Maurice Amatta, confirmed that police were investigating the man who brought the Sri Lankans into the country.

"We are investigating the matter of money said to have been given to a man who claimed he would get them Cypriot work permits. We gave the young men contacts for the Sri Lankan High Commission to seek further assistance. Their travel documents were valid," Mr Amatta said.

Well organised human trafficking syndicates are luring unsuspecting immigrants into Kenya and conning them out of their money before abandoning them.

Kenyan police and the Immigration department appear helpless in combating the fast-growing business.

The findings of a survey commissioned by CRADLE and supported by the British High Commission in Nairobi and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office revealed that human trafficking has an established network in Kenya.

The US Department of State's report on international trafficking in 2004 described Kenya as a country of origin, destination and transit for victims trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour.

Visitors' visas

It involves immigrants travelling from West Africa, Asian countries, as well as Middle East through Kenya en route to Europe.

Some West Africans get into the country on visitors' visas and travel to neighbouring countries for a two-week stay before coming back on new three-month visitors' passes.

The immigrants include Somalis and Asian nationals - especially Indians, Bangladeshis and Nepalese - who are brought into Kenya for the "entertainment" industry.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime executive director Antonio Maria Costa says no country can claim not to be affected by human trafficking.

"It is extremely difficult to establish how many victims there are world-wide as the level of reporting varies considerably, but the number certainly runs into millions.

"It is difficult to name a country that is not affected in some way."

The report, "Trafficking In Persons: Global Patterns, identifies 127 countries of origin, 98 transit countries and 137 destination countries.

Eastern Africa is ranked second on the continent in human trafficking.

Some perpetrators of human trafficking do it to satisfy the huge appetite for prostitution, illegal adoption and, rarely, sale of body organs.

These are made possible by conflicts and humanitarian disasters and vulnerability of people particularly women and children living in areas of conflict.

Abject poverty and the lure of good life abroad make young girls susceptible to trafficking.

On October 3, this year, 31 immigrants, among them Ms Bhupinder Kaur from India, Kavugho Marie and Josephine Kasuto from the Democratic Republic of Congo, were arraigned in a Nairobi court charged with being in Kenya illegally.

Janet Graham Patricia, a Briton, was in August charged with being in the country illegally and working without a permit.

In Kenya illegally

In February this year, 10 Chinese nationals were also charged in a Nairobi court with being in the country illegally.

In July 2005, the government deported 63 Bangladeshi immigrants who had been smuggled into the country by an international human trafficking ring. The immigrants came in through Liberia, Ethiopia and Egypt.

In January 2004, a Pakistani national, Zahoor Ul Hassani, and Mukhlar Ahamed were sentenced to 10 and four months respectively in jail for being in Kenya illegally.

In April 2002, 186 illegal immigrants who arrived from Ethiopia were deported from the country after they were intercepted while en route to Europe and America.

In the late 1990s, police established that some of the girls brought into the country as Indian dancers were, in fact, lured by well connected pimps and forced into prostitution.

In early 2002, detectives rounded up a group of Indian girls who had been brought into the country and were locked up in a house in Westlands.