Forty-four minors, aged between 16 and 21, are incarcerated at the Boane Penitentiary for Juvenile Recovery, in Maputo province. Most of them areá has been indicted for theft of property.

"At the moment we have 44 children in conflict with the law. They are in our special establishment," said the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Mateus Saize.

According to him, there have been times when the number of minors in prison has reached 200.

"But thanks to our work and the enforcement of sentences, this number is already out of our control. They're already on their way," he said.

An internal analysis revealed that the majority of the minors in the establishment come from neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city and province of Maputo, whose families are on low incomes, where they have suffered violence.

Saize advocates humane treatment in the facility to reintegrate minors into society.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the book "A portrait of children and minors deprived of their liberty", co-authored by Lourenço Sigaúque and Tina Lorizzo.