64 Ethiopian Migrants Found Dead in Cargo Container in Mozambique

Tete, Mozambique is a popular transit point for migrants along the Southern Route from Ethiopia and Somalia to South Africa. (Wikimedia Commons)

Immigration authorities in Mozambique discovered 64 dead migrants and 14 survivors in the cargo container of a truck on March 24. The cargo container was found in Mozambique’s northwestern province of Tete, which borders Malawi and Zimbabwe. 

Mozambique officials found the 78 migrants after hearing sounds coming from inside the container. Officials suspect that the 64 died from asphyxiation, which was heightened by the temperature (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit). The 14 survivors are being treated for severe dehydration and exhaustion, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). None of the migrants carried any form of identification or travel documents, but the Ethiopian embassy in South Africa said it was able to identify the victims and would assist the survivors in returning home. 

The survivors informed local authorities that they were heading to South Africa. Amelia Direito, the spokeswoman for Tete migration services, said that law enforcement arrested the Mozambican truck driver and his assistant, who had been promised 30,000 meticais ( $500) to transport the migrants. 

“Mozambique’s northwest Tete province is a popular transit point for victims of human traffickers who aspire to travel to South Africa,” according to the Ethiopian embassy in Mozambique. More than 4 million African migrants and approximately 300,000 asylum seekers and refugees live in South Africa. 

Experts say that the number of migrants heading to South Africa for better economic opportunities has increased in recent years. “Governments need to work together to ensure that human traffickers responsible for those deaths be brought to justice. Victims of human trafficking should be treated as victims rather than criminals, because that’s what these governments tend to do,” said David Matsinhe, a Johannesburg-based researcher for Amnesty International. Matsinhe alludes to how young African migrants who are caught traveling illegally along the Southern Route, the area from Ethiopia and Somalia down to South Africa, are sent back to their native countries and imprisoned.

Caroline Njuki, the regional migration coordinator for the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, a regional bloc that includes Kenya and Ethiopia, expressed the need for heightened media attention on intra-African migration: “Every day on the news we hear about migration to Europe. The Southern Route is highly neglected, and it’s just a matter of time before it really becomes a problem.”