Human trafficking: A crime hidden in plain sight
Nearly 49 out of 100 people are at risk of being trafficked or are vulnerable to human trafficking, says an anti-human trafficking NGO.
|||Cape Town - At least 248 700 people live in conditions of modern-day slavery.
This is according to a Global Slavery Index survey released this year.
A21 Campaign, an anti-human trafficking NGO said via manager Katie Modrau that nearly 49 out of 100 people are at risk of being trafficked or are vulnerable to human trafficking.
More than 150 women were rescued from being sold into slavery in South Africa this year. This announcement comes as authorities clamped down on human trafficking during Women’s Month.
The women were “rescued” in operations across the country in co-ordination with authorities from the US and neighbouring countries.
Although human trafficking was described as a “serious issue” in the Western Cape, it was the North West, Limpopo and the Free State that were hardest hit with men, women and children, predominantly being smuggled into the country from Malawi.
“The nature of human trafficking is that it is a crime hidden in plain sight.
“It presents as something like an immigrant working on a farm, a drug addicted girl prostituting on the streets, a young girl from a bordering country working as a domestic worker for a distant relative or a friend of the family. But underneath, it is a foreigner lured to South Africa on the promise of work, and then exposed to exploitative labour conditions: a girl forced to take drugs in order to keep her on the streets against her will or a girl trapped in domestic servitude,” said Modrau.
Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) spokeswoman Lesego Tlhwale said a woman had come to the centre after being lured into the country with the promise of domestic work.
“She eventually became a sex worker. She did not want to, but was forced to come to terms with the reality of the situation to put food on the table.
“There is a difference between a sex worker and a sex slave - the one is consensual and the latter is forced,” she said.
Modrau said South Africa was considered a source, transit and destination country for human traffickers.
“In our experience, we have mostly worked with South Africans exploited in South Africa, and not in other parts of the world.
“And a large percentage of victims we have worked with are from other nations and exploited here,” she said.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman, Eric Ntabazalila, said human trafficking was seen as a priority in the province.
“A provincial Rapid Response Team was established which is chaired by a deputy director who co-ordinates all human trafficking prosecutions obtained in the province.
“This team is multi-sectoral and comprises members of the Director of Public Prosecutions office, the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Labour, Law Enforcement, Hawks, the Organised Crime Component, Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
“In addition, nodal points (senior public prosecutors), were established at each cluster to deal with all human trafficking matters in their cluster,” he said.
In the most recent incident of human trafficking, two men, Idrisa Yusuf Mussa and Danison Prahima, were arrested for human trafficking in Limpopo.
Police discovered 59 Malawian migrants crammed into the back a truck driven by Mussa and Prahima.
Some of the migrants were suffering from dehydration and others were found with counterfeit passports.
The immigrants were charged with being in the country illegally.
The police in Boitekong in North West were carrying out their patrols when they searched a suspicious delivery truck.
Fifty-seven children - aged between 11 and 21 - were found in the back of the truck, which had no windows for ventilation.
The drivers were arrested for human trafficking.
The investigation into the network responsible is still ongoing here and in Malawi.
Cape Argus