Prostitution in Malawi is legal [1] [2] [3] and prevalent around hotels and bars in urban and tourist areas. Human trafficking , [5] HIV [6] and child prostitution [7] [8] are problems in the country. Whilst some street prostitution occurs, because of police harassment its extent is limited. Sex workers and NGOs report harassment and abuse from the police, including violence, theft and forced sex.
Prostitution also occurs around the logging centres of Luwawa, Nthungwa, Raiply and Kalungulu. In previous years many women from Malawi went to work in Zambia 's copperfields as prostitutes. The road leading towards Zambia came to be known as mtengamahule conveyor of prostitutes. The border was subsequently closed to "unmarried women". Section of the Malawi Penal Code prohibits living off the earnings of prostitution. This has been interpreted by the courts to include a sex worker's own earnings, effectively making prostitution illegal.
A group of 14 sex workers were arrested in in the southern city of Mwanza. They were taken to a hospital and forcibly given HIV tests. The results of the tests were later read out in open court. In September , the Zomba High Court ruled that Section of the Penal Code was meant to protect sex workers against exploitation, not criminalise sex workers. In January , three judges of the Malawi High Court declared section 1 c of the Penal Code unconstitutional and invalid.
In the adult prevalence rate was 9. Malawi is a source country for women, and children subjected to sex trafficking. To a lesser extent, it is a destination country for men, women, and children from Zambia, Mozambique , the African Great Lakes region, and the Horn of Africa who are subjected to sex trafficking, and a transit country for people from these countries exploited in South Africa. Traffickers, primarily facilitators or brothel owners, typically lure children from their families in rural areas under pretences of employment opportunities, clothing, or lodging for which they are sometimes charged exorbitant fees, resulting in prostitution coerced through debts.
Traffickers subject young girls to sexual exploitation in nightclubs or bars. Malawian victims of sex trafficking have been identified in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Tanzania.
