Home Affairs Minister Peter Mukhito has warned that human trafficking in Malawi has gone digital, with criminal networks using social media and fake job adverts to lure thousands of jobseekers into exploitation abroad.
Speaking in Lilongwe on Thursday during commemorations of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Mukhito called the crime “one of the cruelest and most dehumanising”.
“Traffickers are adapting. Malawians must adapt faster,” he said, calling for stronger cyber capabilities, public vigilance and cross-border cooperation. Global digital human trafficking has become modern-day slavery, with criminal networks using Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok to hunt victims worldwide.
In poor countries such as Malawi, traffickers exploit unemployment by advertising fake overseas jobs with huge salaries.
Desperate youth pay fees and travel, only to be trapped in forced labour, debt bondage and abuse abroad. Smartphones have replaced street recruiters. Poverty and digital access now combine to turn online job scams into a global chain of exploitation and human commodification.
The threat is no longer small-scale, according to Inspector General of Police Richard Luhanga.
He said police recorded 16 trafficking case
s this year, but admitted the true number is likely much higher because many victims do not realise they have been trafficked until it is too late.
Digital platforms are now the main recruitment tool. Luhanga cited the recent rescue of two Malawians from Myanmar, where they were allegedly imprisoned and forced to work in scam compounds, and ongoing repatriations from Mozambique of Malawians trafficked to South Africa.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme officer Alina Zalewski said Malawi sits on one of Africa’s busiest irregular migration routes.
Between 10 000 and 20 000 migrants use the southern corridor through Malawi each year, with Dzaleka Refugee Camp functioning as a key transit point, Zalewski said.
Malawi is now both a source, transit and destination country, she added.
The vice’s implications go beyond individual suffering. Economically, trafficking drains Malawi of its youth labour force at a time of high unemployment.
Families lose money paid to traffickers, while victims who could remit from legitimate jobs abroad end up indebted or exploited.
The country’s reputation also suffers, making it harder for Malawians to access genuine overseas employment.
On security, authorities warn that trafficking networks are increasingly linked to transnational organised crime—including fraud, money laundering and smuggling.
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