Zimbabwe (Tier 2 Watch List) The Government of Zimbabwe does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period. Zimbabwe was granted a waiver, in accordance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards.
Therefore, Zimbabwe remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year. Efforts included investigating more cases; identifying, referring, and assisting more trafficking victims; and cooperating with international counterparts in operations and trainings. However, the government did not amend its anti-trafficking law to criminalize all forms of trafficking. Reports of official complicity in trafficking crimes persisted. The government’s funding constraints limited its ability to coordinate, hindering overall efforts. Prosecution
The government of Zimbabwe maintained prosecution efforts. Zimbabwean law criminalized some forms of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Inconsistent with international law, the 2014 trafficking in persons act defined trafficking in persons as a movement-based crime and did not adequately define “exploitation.” The act criminalized the involuntary transport of a person and the voluntary transport for an unlawful purpose into, outside, or within Zimbabwe.
The focus on transport and the inadequate definition of “exploitation” left Zimbabwe without comprehensive prohibitions of trafficking crimes. The law prescribed penalties of 10 years to life imprisonment, which were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking crimes, commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes, such as rape. Zimbabwe’s labor relations amendment act criminalized forced labor and prescribed penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both, which were sufficiently stringent.
The criminal law (codification and reform) act criminalized procuring a person for unlawful sexual conduct, inside or outside of Zimbabwe, and prescribed penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment; these penalties were not sufficiently stringent when applied to cases of sex trafficking. There were no new amendments, laws, or sentencing guidelines related to trafficking in persons adopted. During the reporting period, the government reported investigating 14 trafficking cases and prosecuting one suspect, but it did not report any convictions; this compared with an investigation of one case, prosecution of two suspects, and four convictions reported in 2024. Court backlogs and a continued lack of judicial capacity hindered anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.
The police’s criminal investigation department had responsibility for investigation of grave crimes, including trafficking. Observers noted funding restraints limited the appropriate investigation, prosecution, and conviction of traffickers, especially in rural areas, where local police sometimes investigated trafficking crimes. The government cooperated with foreign governments on trafficking investigations, including participating in an operation during which officials intercepted migrants from Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and in Zimbabwe while enroute to South Africa. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees for alleged complicity in human trafficking crimes, including no additional actions on cases reported in previous years; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. Some officials accepted bribes to not inspect farms or businesses using exploitative labor practices. Immigration officials reportedly accepted bribes to facilitate unauthorized entry for criminal groups involved in trafficking crimes. Violent gangs allegedly bribed police and politicians to operate artisanal and defunct gold mines in which they used forced labor. The government conducted anti-trafficking training for law enforcement officials. The criminal investigation division conducted workshops in which 665 detectives were trained to improve their capacity to detect and investigate trafficking cases. Protection
The government maintained victim protection efforts.
During the reporting period, the government identified 21 victims and referred 12 victims to care; this compares with 34 identified in the previous year. Once a victim was identified by law enforcement, they were referred to the ministry of public service, labor, and social welfare for placement in care. The government had SOPs and an NRM which officials continued to utilize, although some NGOs reported inconsistent implementation. The government reported assisting 21 victims. The government allocated approximately ZWL 100 million (approximately $155,000) for victim services directly and to NGOs operating shelters. NGOs and partners continued to fund essentials, including food, medical care, and counseling for victims. The government relied on NGOs and foreign donors to provide or fund most trafficking victim services; however, organizations struggled to operate without adequate and consistent financial support, and some could only provide short-term care. The government operated two shelters in Harare and Bulawayo.
There were approximately three to five major NGO-run shelters in urban centers that accepted trafficking victims, most of which were specialized for women and children. There remained a critical shortage of shelter space specifically for adult male forced labor victims. The government reported providing victims with transportation fees and accommodation manned by uniformed police officers and security companies during investigations and trials. Although Zimbabwean law protected victim confidentiality, victim identities were still reported in the media. The government did not report if any trafficking victims participated in criminal justice proceedings during the reporting period. The government reported that victims could seek restitution. The government maintained a victim compensation fund but did not provide any compensation to trafficking victims during the reporting period.
The government funded the voluntary repatriation of its citizens trafficked abroad, notably women trafficked to Oman and Kuwait, and assisted in the repatriation of over 100 victims using state funds. Upon arrival, officials from the department of social welfare and the anti-trafficking inter-ministerial committee typically met victims and referred them to essential services through social welfare’s provincial and district offices. There were no high-profile public reports or allegations of systematic misconduct or physical mistreatment by staff in NGO or government shelters during the reporting period; however, the government received reports of unsafe or substandard conditions in government-operated centers due to extreme overcrowding, lack of consistent electricity and water, and insufficient food supplies. Prevention
The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking.
The anti-trafficking interministerial committee led national efforts, including through its 2023-2028 NAP. The government did not report how often the committee convened. The government conducted public awareness activities in partnership with the Bindura University center for combating human trafficking, the Zimbabwe international trade fair, the Zimbabwe agricultural forum, and church organizations, among others. The government operated an anti-trafficking hotline to assist potential trafficking victims, though NGOs and partners handled some trafficking-in-persons inquiries.
The government did not report making efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. The government partnered with the national association of private employment agencies and an international organization to draft new SOPs for the recruitment and placement of migrant workers to promote fair and ethical recruitment. These were finalized and adopted in January 2026. The government prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees in order to protect job seekers from exploitation and reduce barriers to employment.
The government did not report on its effort to hold agencies civilly and criminally liable for fraudulent recruitment. Labor inspectors failed to conduct routine site visits and received no specific training on how to identify or report human trafficking crimes. The government provided anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. The government provided anti-trafficking training to its troops prior to their deployment as peacekeepers. Trafficking Profile
This section describes the nature and scope of trafficking based on recent government and civil society reporting.
Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Zimbabwe, and traffickers exploit victims from Zimbabwe abroad. Internal trafficking is prevalent and underreported. Traffickers act individually or as organized criminal groups masquerading as employment agencies; in other cases, traffickers are trusted people such as parents, relatives, and friends. Zimbabweans are mostly recruited on false employment opportunities in other countries such as South Africa, Botswana, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Cyprus, Oman, Sierra Leone, Libya, and China.
Traffickers exploit Zimbabwean adults and children in sex trafficking and forced labor, including in cattle herding, domestic service, and mining. Child labor occurs in agriculture, including on tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton farms, and on small, unregulated farms, as well as in forestry and fishing. Economic hardship increased child sex trafficking and child labor, particularly in agriculture, domestic service, informal trading, begging, and artisanal mining.
Some traditional practices make girls vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking, including trading daughters for food, money, or ngozi, a reconciliation process in which a family gives a relative to another family to make amends for a murdered relative. Contacts reported concerns of forced labor of children working as panners and ore couriers in gold and diamond mines. Illegal mining syndicates exploit Zimbabweans in forced labor. Women and children are exploited in sex trafficking around mines and labor sites, sometimes in exchange for money or food.
Traffickers exploit women and girls in towns bordering South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia in forced labor, including domestic servitude, and in sex trafficking in brothels catering to truck drivers. Traffickers exploit Zimbabwean nationals in forced labor in online scam operations in Laos, Burma, and Cambodia. Opportunistic online recruiters often use social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook to recruit their targeted victims for illegitimate employment opportunities, such as online scam operations in Southeast Asia, often with a recruitment debt that coerce labor from the victim in order to repay it.
Traffickers and fraudulent recruiters use false promises of scholarships or employment, particularly in nursing and teaching, to lure Zimbabweans into sex trafficking, domestic servitude, forced labor, and forced marriage in neighboring countries, particularly South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, China, and the Middle East. In South Africa, traffickers continue to exploit Zimbabweans in forced labor in agriculture, construction, factories, mines, information technology, domestic work, and the hospitality industry. Zimbabwe is a transit country for trafficking victims and migrants vulnerable to exploitation, including from Somalia, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zambia, en route to South Africa.
Zimbabwe is also a destination country for forced labor and sex trafficking. Traffickers subject some Mozambican children to forced labor in street vending. Undocumented Mozambican and Malawian children working on relatives’ farms in Zimbabwe cannot enroll in school, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Refugees and asylum-seekers experience difficulty accessing banking and obtaining identification, which limits employment opportunities and increases their vulnerability to trafficking.
Chinese state-owned enterprises have significant percentages of Chinese nationals as part of their workforce, at several large and medium-sized infrastructure and mining projects around the country. Construction and mining companies owned by Chinese nationals or Chinese parastatal entities in Zimbabwe reportedly employ practices indicative of forced labor, including verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as coercion to induce work in unsafe or otherwise undesirable conditions.
There were 16 Cuban regime affiliated workers in Zimbabwe, whom the Cuban regime may have forced to work. The government had a bilateral agreement with Cuba for workers, preserving the regime as intermediary, and leaving professionals vulnerable to wage confiscation and arbitrary punishments. Russian officials and illicit recruiters fraudulently recruit women ages 18-22 from Africa — including Zimbabwe — for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites.
Media report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are severe indicators of human trafficking. Contacts had no insight into the presence of North Korean workers who may have been forced to work in Zimbabwe.
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