Rwandan police on Saturday said they had alerted Interpol’s China section to a possible human trafficking ring targeting young Rwandans, mainly girls.
“There are signs pointing to the trafficking of young people, especially girls” to China, Rwandan police spokesman Theos Badege said.
They had informed the Chinese authorities and launched an investigation, he added.
Rwandan police were already holding three Rwandan men suspected of attempting human trafficking to China and to the Czech Republic, Badege said.
Two men were arrested after five young women were picked up at the Ugandan border, a police statement said last week.
“A man called Walter approached us and said there were jobs in China’s supermarkets and hotels,” the statement quoted one of the young women as saying. “He said he was willing to help us get there by helping pay for our travel documents and air tickets.”
A third man was arrested at the Kigali airport as he prepared to fly two young men and a young woman to the Czech Republic by way of Ethiopia, the statement added.
The suspect told police that he had intended to travel with the three to help out in several flower shows he was staging in Europe.
Badege warned Rwandans to treat promises from strangers of an education or a better life with skepticism.
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