Mozambique: Domestic worker arrested for alleged abduction of employer’s baby, passed as her own

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Mozambique: Domestic worker arrested for alleged abduction of employer’s baby, passed as her own

2:15 CAT | 28 Jun 2023

Screen grab: TVM

Mozambican police have detained a domestic worker suspected of using her employer’s baby in a fraudulent scheme, a source from the security force told Lusa on Tuesday.

“We are facing a case of fraudulent abduction of a minor, with other criminal aspects,” said Manica province police spokesman Mateus Mindu.

The 21-year-old suspect on Saturday took the 6-month-old girl about 160 kilometres from Chimoio to introduce her as her own to her ex-husband’s family, who demanded to see their alleged daughter in order to continue paying child support.

The domestic worker, Mindu explained, suffered a miscarriage in the middle of last year, and then sought a job at the home of a pregnant woman whose delivery date would be close to her own.

After the child’s birth, the suspect began to receive a pension from her husband, who lived in Machipanda, about 80 kilometres from Chimoio.

Whenever the ex-husband went to town, the suspect found a way to show him the baby, without arousing suspicion.

“She felt cornered when she was required to travel with the child to prove her existence” to her ex-husband’s family, Mindu said.

The woman was arrested the day after disappearing with the baby.

“The child is in good health. She is already back with the family and the accused is in police custody,” Mindu added, stressing that the police continue to investigate the suspect in connection with other cases of trafficking in the province.

In 2020, the police reactivated the alert on human trafficking in Manica province after foiling three cases of attempted child trafficking in one week.

Eight years earlier, the province was placed on “red alert” after a disturbing rise in cases, almost all linked to illicit enrichment rituals.

Watch the TVM report.