Reports indicate that vulnerable Namibian children were recruited for forced prostitution in Angola and South Africa, typically by truck drivers.
Victims were lured by traffickers to urban centers and commercial farms with promises of legitimate work for good wages they may never receive.
Victims were forced to work long hours to carry out hazardous tasks, and may have been beaten or raped by traffickers or third parties.
The Ministry of Labor removed 17 children found working on farms in Kavango in hazardous conditions and returned them to their parents.
In 2009, the MGECW created a national database on gender based violence that will include statistics on trafficking and child labor victims.
The MGECW provided social workers to work in partnership with the police, who counsel or otherwise assist victims of violent crimes, including human trafficking.
The government subsidized some shelter facilities for victims of gender-based violence and the worst forms of child labor, which may have unknowingly aided trafficked women and children.
Officials began renovating 13 government-owned buildings, one in each region, to be used as shelters for women and child victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking, but these facilities would most likely not provide services for men.
Fewer WACPU and MGECW officials received training to identify victims of trafficking in the reporting period than in previous years.
During the year, the Ministry of Home Affairs forged a partnership with UNICEF to open offices at hospitals and deploy mobile units throughout the country to provide birth certificates for newborns and identity documents for orphans and vulnerable children.