Botswana passports are used by criminals to smuggle people into the United Kingdom, a security expert at the Cape Town-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says.

Charles Goredema writes on the ISS website: "Indications to date are that such predictions were accurate. Firstly, it is evident that cross-border human smuggling and human trafficking, which have manifested themselves since the late 90s in the region, have continued unabated.

He says South Africa continues to be a central destination for illegal migrants and victims of trafficking. "Anecdotal cases have recently emerged of criminal groups operating from major cities such as Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth that are engaged in smuggling young men and women into South Africa to seek work or in transit to other countries such as the United Kingdom."

Goredema says Zimbabwe is a regular source of migrants. "It is well-known that the economic implosion has resulted in a massive exodus from Zimbabwe. In many cases, while adults have been able to migrate from there, they have not been able to do so with their children. Exploiting the difficulties that migrant parents encounter in seeking to re-unite with their children, criminals have set themselves up in the business of facilitating such re-unions ...

"The most common cases involve parents that have moved to the United Kingdom. Against the payment of a fee, which ranges from R10 000 to R25 000, criminals smuggle children into South Africa or Botswana. The plan is to move them on to the United Kingdom as soon as an opportunity arises, ostensibly to seek political asylum, but infact to be re-united with their parents."

The schemes are said to utilise false travel documents obtained from the host countries. Occasionally, it takes long for the migrant children to be moved from South Africa and Botswana. "Botswana passports are particularly popular with human smugglers transferring persons to the United Kingdom because holders do not require entry visas.

The smugglers include the costs of securing the passports of convenience in the fee charged," says the ISS expert.

It has come to light that in the intervening period, some migrants and their children have been subjected to various kinds of abuse, including sexual abuse. In some cases, the criminal syndicates fail to arrange the onward migration beyond the host country, resulting in much suffering. In relatively fewer instances, migrant children end up being held in virtual bondage.

The expert says there is also evidence of continuing migration from Somalia into South Africa, through Zambia and Mozambique, but it is not clear whether any of the migrants are victims of human trafficking. Passage through the transit countries is largely secured through corrupt means. Collaboration between the human smugglers and some officers within immigration departments of these countries has been observed in some studies.

Humans are not the only 'contraband': "As a further challenge, cigarette smuggling continues to be a problem in the region," Goredema notes. "South Africa is a major market, as has been observed by the tobacco industry. Routes lead into the country through Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. From various interceptions by customs authorities, the cigarettes appear to originate from China and Zimbabwe. For various reasons, detection of cigarette smuggling tends to be low, and this activity is set to continue in 2009."

He says the trafficking of narcotics into and from South Africa is a continuing challenge, citing recent large interceptions in London of drugs emanating from South Africa and on the southern coast of a ship travelling from Argentina. Goredema says the incidents highlight the enormity of the task of detecting trafficking. The London seizure revealed some of the current methods used to get drugs out of the country into Europe on board passenger flights, using airline crew.