The deaths of 64 migrants in a truck container in Mozambique is a ghastly reminder of smuggling risks

Mozambican immigration inspectors working on the country’s border with Malawi made a grim discovery on 24 March when they found the bodies of 64 Ethiopian migrants in an airtight lorry container, alongside 14 survivors.¹ This ghastly tragedy is a reminder of the risks faced by migrants who use the services of human smugglers, both within Africa and beyond.

This incident was most likely an instance of human smuggling, whereby networks facilitate the irregular cross-border movement of consenting migrants, rather than a case of human trafficking, where networks deceive and coerce victims. The Global Initiative’s Organized Crime Index, Africa 2019, found that both smuggling and trafficking are prevalent in almost every country in Africa.

The migrants died while travelling on a route that is favoured by smugglers bound for South Africa. The most frequently used human-smuggling route out of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa is the so-called eastern route to the Gulf States and the Middle East. Yet migrants are also smuggled in large numbers to Europe and to southern Africa – particularly South Africa.² Ethnic tensions, political persecution and environmental disasters such as drought have forced millions of Ethiopians to flee their homes in recent years.³ Those who follow the southern route primarily report that they are in search of better economic opportunities.⁴

The International Organization for Migration analyzed 390 043 journeys taken by migrants from the East and Horn of Africa between January and June 2019, and found that only 2% used the southern route. The vast majority moved within the region or to the Arabian peninsula.⁵ Fewer migrants pursue this route to the south, but those who do face a certain risk of violence, discrimination, exploitation and abuse. In 2017, analysis from the Danish Refugee Council found that almost all of the several thousand migrants who travel the southern route annually use smugglers to reach their final destination. They found that over the past decade, the route has become more violent and exploitative for migrants, with kidnapping for ransom in particular becoming more normalized.⁶

Figure 9 Of the 78 migrants who crossed into Mozambique on their way to South Africa, only 14 survived

A total of 64 Ethiopian migrants were found suffocated in a container after a truck was stopped at the Mussacana weighbridge in Mozambique. There were 14 survivors, photographed here by officials moments after they were rescued.

© Fungai Caetano

Although shocking, this is not a one-off occurence.⁷ Cargo trucks are a particularly attractive form of transport for smugglers and put migrants at a par­ticularly high risk.⁸ As theft is a high risk for land-based transit, transport companies take great care to secure containers, lorries and information.⁹ Drivers often know very little about their cargo and are provided with minimal information, partly as a security measure. This increases the likelihood that, unbeknown to them, drivers may be transporting smuggled migrants.

The number of similar recent tragedies across Europe and the US demonstrates the tragic consequences that this can bring to bear for migrants. In November 2019, 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a truck in Essex, UK.¹⁰ This followed the deaths of 10 Central American migrants in a lorry in the US in 2017,¹¹ while in 2016, 71 deceased Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan migrants were discovered in a lorry in Austria.¹²

When migrants are discovered in tragic circumstances like those seen in Mozambique, authorities and the public consciousness place blame, in part rightly, on the abusive and callous profiteering by smuggling networks. Rarely, however, do these events call into question the efficacy of customs and border management, which may wittingly or unwittingly motivate smugglers and harm migrants.

In stark contrast to the global media responses to such tragedies when they occur in Europe, international press coverage of the incident in Mozambique has been more muted. Although in part attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dominated headlines, this also reflects global apathy towards such incidents that occur in Africa. This needs to change. 

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