SOMETIME last week, police in Lusaka carried out an operation that led to the rescue of five women who had been lured to the city and confined in a house in Chalala. The story received very little public attention, but it should have alarmed every citizen, parent, and policymaker. What happened to those women bears the unmistakable signs of human trafficking, and if law enforcement agencies treat this case as an isolated incident, they risk allowing a much broader, more organised criminal network to operate freely under the radar. Human trafficking has evolved into one of the world’s most sophisticated forms of organised crime. In the past, traffickers relied on physical recruitment, visiting rural communities or posing as legitimate labour...