Mozambique prisoners forced into prostitution, study reveals

Prison guards have been accused of forcing inmates at the Women's Prison in Ndlavela, Maputo Province, into prostitution, The Public and Integrity Centre, a Mozambican Non-Governmental Organisation has said.

The main prison in the southern African country hosts women aged between 18 and 65 years old who are charged with different crimes and are serving various sentences

In 2019, it hosted 125 inmates distributed in eight cells, with a capacity of 20 people each.

The Public and Integrity Centre, an NGO, made the pronouncement as it published a study and a released a video in which it denounces instances of prison guards forcing inmates into prostitution.

The NGO claimed that female inmates are removed from their cells at night and handed over to clients.

“The jailers look for clients, set prices and choose the inmates who, in the dead of night, are removed from the cells and are handed over to clients”, the NGO said.

The prostitution scheme in Ndlavela Women’s Prison, it claims, is known to everyone in that area.

"It is not a guard of opportunity. It is an established scheme that has been working for years," CIP Researcher Borges Nhamirre said when presenting the study.  

“Prison guards charge between €200 to € 400 euros for two inmates.”

"It is a network; it is a system that is well organised and marked with impunity” Conceição Osório from the Women and Law in Southern Africa said.