by Francis Muroki, Kenya, January 1998
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT
Getting into trouble with the local
authorities when abroad can be a dicey business.
It's even worse when you happen to be
an African visiting Brazil and are caught drug trafficking!
My contact picked me up outside the Sheraton Hotel in Sao Paolo, and promptly apologised for being 15 minutes late due to the heavy traffic. We were on our way to visit one of the prisons in this enormous city, where African women, including some Kenyans, are being held for drug trafficking. On our way to the prison, we had to pick up Father Julio, a Catholic priest who is a prison chaplain. Without him, the prison authorities would not let us in.
Two weeks earlier, I had asked Father Julio who is a priest of the Archdiocese of Sao Paolo, to get permission for me to visit Kenyans and other Africans jailed in Brazilian prisons. Father Julio made all the necessary preliminary arrangements, but both he and my contact were adamant that I had to have sufficient identification with me.
We arrived at the prison and presented ourselves at the entrance gate. I produced my press card and all the details were entered into the prison register of visitors. My camera and note book seemed to present no problem to the authorities, and once the formalities had been completed, we were taken to the cell area where the girls were waiting for us. I was introduced to the inmates. There was a Kenyan, a Mozambican, a Ghanaian, a Malian and three South Africans. They had received sentences ranging from four to nine years, without the possibility of remission or the option of a fine, for drug trafficking. Except for one of the South African girls who had only been there five months, the rest had already served at least one year of their sentences. All of them had been arrested at Sao Paolo Airport attempting to smuggle drugs out to South Africa and other countries. (The Customs are extremely strict at this airport, especially towards visitors from Africa).
We were able to stay with the girls for about two hours. I heard that the girls pick up the drugs in Rio de Janeiro where they are given the name of contacts by the drug barons. They asked me not to reveal their identities but to make their plight known to the authorities at home.
The African girls said they are singled out for particularly harsh treatment by the prison authorities. Brazilian prisoners receive a remission for every year served in jail. They also do some work for which they are paid, and once they have completed their sentence, they receive all the money earned, so they can make a fresh start in life. These privileges are not accorded to the African girls.
There are also communication problems. Some of the Africans have tried to learn a little Portuguese but they do have difficulties communicating with the prison authorities.
A major problem is how the girls are to get home once they are released, because they will all eventually be deported. When they were arrested they lost everything, including their airline tickets and their money. So what happens? In normal circumstances, they should be handed over to their respective embassies to be returned home. But many African countries have no diplomatic representation in South American countries. South Africa does have an embassy in Brasilia and a consulate in Sao Paolo. The remainder have foreign missions taking care of their interests.
Kenya, for instance, is represented by the various British Embassies in South America, but British Embassy officials seem to have no interest in Kenyan nationals who fall foul of the law in Brazil. The three South African girls do occasionally receive a visit from consular officials, "but", say the girls, "they bring us newspapers in Afrikaans, which we can't read".
These African girls caught drug trafficking didn't try to excuse themselves. They recognised they had done wrong and through us, appealed to their fellow citizens to avoid any contact with drug traffickers. "We are going through the most terrible time in our lives, and we don't want any of our fellow countrymen to experience the same".
Back home in Kenya, I visited the parents of the Kenyan girl. They said they don't hear much from her. All they know, is that she is in police custody in Brazil and will soon be released and returned home. They have been waiting for the last two years and are taking care of her twelve-year-old son. At first they thought their daughter had gone to Brazil to buy clothes.
These poor people were shocked when I told them what had really happened.
END
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement