Maputo - The insufficient number of guards at Mozambican borders has resulted in the increase of human, arms and drug trafficking, Vista News reported on Tuesday.

This is according to the governor of Maputo, Telmina Pereira.

In an interview with Vista News she said there were difficulties in the efficient control of the South African and Swazi borders with Mozambique.

The insufficient number of guards patrolling the vast border had resulted in people and wild animals opening up points on the border fence facilitating illegal crossing points between the countries.

"We have a vast border between the two countries and some people have a tendency of crossing in undesignated points.

"We are currently not pre-occupied with people who enter illegally into South Africa or Swaziland to buy two or three kilograms of rice, but those who use the illegal points for criminal activities," she said.

Apart from facilitating human trafficking, she said these points also assisted criminals to traffic drugs and illegal arms between the countries.

Organisations working with trafficked women say more than 1000 Mozambican women are trafficked each year, mostly to South Africa.

Mozambique's porous borders with its neighbours had also been used for criminal activities, which among others included the entry of contraband goods and vehicles stolen from South Africa and Swaziland.

The governor said some cattle was recently stolen from South Africa and when recovered in the Mozambican town of Namaacha, it was established that the cattle had crossed through undesignated crossing points.

She said, however, that police officers from the three countries had intensified their efforts in combating crime along the border area. - Sapa