South Africa police rescue 26 Ethiopians held captive naked in Johannesburg

South African police said on Friday that they had rescued 26 undocumented Ethiopian nationals who were being held captive without clothes in a suburban house in Johannesburg by suspected human traffickers.

Up to 30 other men may have already escaped through a smashed window before police swooped in on the house late on Thursday and could be hiding in the area, the police priority crimes unit said.

According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the house in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Colonel Philani Nkwalase said.

Last August, police found more than 80 undocumented Ethiopians locked in a house in the same suburb in inhumane conditions and without adequate food and personal hygiene facilities.

Late on Thursday, residents of the area alerted police about a suspected break-in under way at the house, where a window was shattered and its burglar bars were broken, Nkwalase said.

“Upon arrival, they found 15 naked individuals, suspected to be Ethiopian nationals, held captive inside the house,” he said.

A further 11 men were taken to hospital with injuries apparently caused when they tried to escape, including deep cuts.

Three other Ethiopian nationals were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and the illegal possession of a pistol.

Although most of the captives did not speak English, initial information received from them indicated that they were only given clothes when they were taken out of the house, Nkwalase told AFP.

Based on their information, it was “not far-fetched” to assume that 60 men had been held in the house, he said. Police did not yet have details of the men, including their ages and identities.

It was also not clear how long they had been there and, when they were taken out, where they were taken to and for what purpose, he said.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised nation, attracts millions of migrants, many of them undocumented and from other African countries such as Malawi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.