Chinese men popular with Zim women

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Amid pomp and fan fare in one of the popular joints in the city center, a group of ladies' eyes are fixed on a drove of Chinese men conversing at table.
 
As the Chinese men continue to be deeply immersed in their conversing and endless puffing of cigarettes not paying  attention to fidgeting of the women obviously baying for attention, the ladies become increasingly impatient and one of them gather enough bravado to confront and try to seduce them.
 
"It is difficult to get to the ladies if the Chinese are around, they seem to effortlessly take all the women and the ladies jostle to them, I do not know what is in them," said one of the patrons complaining.
 

Usually hell break lose when the local men try to disturb sex workers who would be eyeing for the 'rich' Chinese in attendance.
 

"Don't you see that I am eyeing for my "mhene," (a street lingo meaning a rich person), you are now getting into my nerves, you are so poor you can not afford my service," fumed Amanda, a sex worker referring to the man who had budged demanding her 'service.'
 
The Chinese men seem to be enjoying the 'VIP' treatment they are receiving from the local sex workers as most of them have become a permanent phenomenon in popular night out joints in the city.
 

"Some of them are now known by their names and have become regulars here. They are not stingy, they spent hence their popularity with ladies of the night," said Taurai, one bar attendant in the Avenues Area.
 

The Chinese are not only proving popular in the bars and clubs dotted in the city centre but even the information from marriage officials is alluding to that.
 
"We have also witnessed an influx of Chinese men marrying local women. There are many theories emanating from the public trying to explain this, other reasons are so obvious like they would be looking for citizenship but there is more to that," said a marriage officer who requested anonymity.
 

The country is now witnessing children born to Chinese men and local women. Recently, a local newspaper carried a story of a black family with a Chinese child. There might be mysteries surrounding this but it's a living testimony that Chinese men and local women are proving to be a thing.
 

However, there are reports that foreign men who usually hire sex workers end up abusing them and it is difficult to trace them once the crime is committed.
  
The men in some cases are said to be convicted sexual offenders in their respective countries.
 

Amos Hurudzei, a counselor with a local Non Governmental Organisation which helps sexual abuse victims said there are cases where sex workers come to their offices seeking assistance and help after being abused.
   
"These women should know that all that glitters is not gold, the women do not tell others the truth. We had a delicate situation last year when women was abused by a foreign national after being hired. She said instead of having sex with the man, the man instead demanded she should be sucked her breast with a huge frog and when she refused, she was threatened until she complied and the post trauma of her experience was negatively affecting her," said Hurudzei.
 

The counselor said there was a general wrong belief that men from Asian countries do not have HIV/AIDS.
 

"The women think that since HIV prevalence rate in their countries of their origin is generally low, their chance of being infected is non-existent but the truth is they do not know where the men have been living. If the men are willing to practice risk sexual encounters with various women it means that there are high chances of them contracting and infecting other sexual partners," said Hurudzei.
 

In recent years, nationals including Nigerians, Congolese and Chinese have found a home in Zimbabwe.
  
Over the past three years, the Department of Immigration has deported many of them, the majority of whom had entered the country illegally.
  
In June last year, over 87 foreigners from 14 countries, most of them involved in diverse business ventures, were deported.
  
Investigations showed that some of the affected immigrants had entered into marriages of convenience with Zimbabwean nationals while others were involved in illicit deals that included human trafficking.
  
Assistant regional immigration officer Evans Siziba was on record saying most of the deportees came into the country on the pretext of seeking refugee status