Human Trafficking in [South Africa Street Children in [South Africa] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [South Africa] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the first
ten years of the 21st Century
- 2000 to 2009
South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country
for trafficked men, women, and children. Children are largely trafficked within
the country from poor rural areas to urban centers like Johannesburg, Cape
Town, Durban, and Bloemfontein – girls trafficked for the purposes of
commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude; boys trafficked for
forced street vending, food service, begging, crime, and agriculture; and
both boys and girls trafficked for “muti” (the
removal of their organs for traditional medicine). The tradition of “ukuthewala,” the forced marriage of girls as young as 12
to adult men, is still practiced in remote villages in the Eastern Cape. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Every month thousands of children
are smuggled by greedy opportunists and syndicates across our international
and provincial borders. Once on the other side, they are sold as domestic
workers, for criminal activities, or for hard labour
on farms. And many of the young girls are forced into prostitution. Human
traffickers aim to exploit 2010 www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090219110210333C792118 TRUSTED - They were approached by people
they knew, and therefore trusted, to leave their homes. En route, they were
raped and had their documents confiscated. Some were sold to mine workers in
SA, and others were destined for brothels.
The undercover investigation team making the video posed as
prospective "clients," asking one trafficker: "How many women
can you get us?" "Depends how many you need," was
the response. When asked what a woman
cost, he replied "R1 000, and maybe R150 for the border official." "How do you make sure the women don't
run away when they find they aren't going to be waitressing,
but doing sex work?" the interviewer asked. "Sometimes we rape them. We call it
'washing the hands'," the trafficker said. ***
ARCHIVES *** IOM's national 24-hour toll-free
telephone helpline 0800 555 999 was
set up in August 2004 to encourage members of the public to report known or
suspected cases of sex-trafficking and to inform victims in South Africa that
they can seek help. U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports that child prostitution is increasing. There have been reports that some cities
are becoming destinations for tourists seeking sex with minors. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
country was a destination, transit, and point of origin for the trafficking
of persons, including children, from other countries in Africa, Asia, and The extent of trafficking
operations was unknown, but the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) reported there were 12 major routes for trafficking operations,
including Southern Africa, Asia, and Trafficked women and children who
worked in the sex industry often lived with other trafficked victims in
segregated areas; were frequently under constant surveillance; usually had no
money or identifying documents; were often indebted to the agents who
arranged their travel; often worked long hours, in some cases up to 18 hours
each day, on weekends, and when ill; and sometimes were fined by their
trafficker for infractions of strict rules. Young men trafficked for forced
agricultural labor often were subjected to violence
and food rationing. In most cases traffickers lured
women with promises of employment, marriage, or educational opportunities
abroad. Traffickers often lured the children of poor families with promises
of jobs, education, or a better way of life. Victims, who could be kidnapped
or forced to follow their traffickers, were subjected to threats of violence,
withholding of documents, and debt bondage to ensure compliance. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2000 [26] While the Committee notes
that the Child Care Act (1996) provides for the regulation of adoptions, it
is concerned at the lack of monitoring with respect to both domestic and
inter-country adoptions as well as the widespread practice of informal
adoptions within the State party. The Committee is also concerned at the
inadequate legislation, policies and institutions to regulate inter-country
adoptions. [40] The Committee notes the
efforts of the State party to address the situation of the sale, trafficking
and abduction of children, including the adoption of the Hague Convention on
Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, into domestic legislation.
However, the Committee is concerned about the increasing incidence of sale
and trafficking of children, particularly girls, and the lack of adequate
measures to enforce legislative guarantees and to prevent and combat this
phenomenon. Human
traffickers aim to exploit 2010 www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090219110210333C792118 TRUSTED - They were approached by people
they knew, and therefore trusted, to leave their homes. En route, they were
raped and had their documents confiscated. Some were sold to mine workers in SA,
and others were destined for brothels.
The undercover investigation team making the video posed as
prospective "clients," asking one trafficker: "How many women
can you get us?" "Depends
how many you need," was the response.
When asked what a woman cost, he replied "R1 000, and maybe R150
for the border official."
"How do you make sure the women don't run away when they find
they aren't going to be waitressing, but doing sex
work?" the interviewer asked.
"Sometimes we rape them. We call it 'washing the hands',"
the trafficker said. Human
trafficking expands in KZN www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080915105033971C236617
BELIEF - The Daily News has learned of
several cases in this province of girls from other countries - The workshop heard about one case
where a girl had almost paid back her trafficker, only to find she was then
sold to another trafficker. "They
are regarded as property," said Mia Immelback,
of the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM), who is helping the Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme. War against trafficking - SA must enact laws to nail
perpetrators www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=724885 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Despite the best efforts of South
African courts to clamp down on practices related to human trafficking, they
are limited by current legislation, so it is important to promulgate
comprehensive trafficking legislation. Legalise prostitution for 2010 www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20071207081907688C824306 Prostitution needs to be legalised in Alleged
child trafficker walks free www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20071201113403688C942287 Lured by promises of work and a
new life in the big city, children as young as 13 are being brought to Judges
asked to clamp down on trafficking www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20071019043927178C735488 "Malawian women are sold by
Nigerian syndicates... to Human
trafficking as terrible as slavery www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20071019133658452C914450 Langa also said about 1 000
Mozambican girls and women were trafficked annually in SA. He said they were lured with promises of
lucrative jobs or picked up at taxi ranks while searching for a lift. "After crossing the border, many women
are subjected to an 'initiation' rape at transit houses near the border. "The girls are then sold as 'wives' to
men on the mines in the West Rand for around R650 or to SA brothels for
R1 000." Women
and children trafficked at SA border www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20070918091953940C408642 EXTENSIVE - "It is not uncommon in SA
for women and children to be trafficked within the borders and sold to brothels
in different cities," she said.
She described the trafficking chain as "extensive and highly organised".
Victims, said Toughey, are passed from
person to person. "In the case of cross border
trafficking, girls are kept in appalling conditions, smuggled into the
country in the backs of trucks, in taxis, cars and in some cases even on foot
or in containers as stowaways on ships. They are beaten and abused and often
do not speak any South African language". Tara, a former prostitute, said
more and more young girls under the age of 10 were arriving in the city from
rural areas. The South African Law
Reform commission is currently drafting legislation criminalising
the trafficking of humans. UN urges action on 'scary' levels of trafficking in
southern www.haaba.com/news-story/un-urges-action-scary-levels-trafficking-southern-africa At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
‘None of the countries in southern
Africa has specific anti-human trafficking legislation in place,' Thomas Zindl-Cronin of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
told reporters in Human
trafficking in the sex industry www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20070731162748492C825698 Preliminary research suggests that
human trafficking in the sex industry in Gould was speaking on the early
indications of research by the ISS and the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy
Taskforce (Sweat) to determine the nature and extent of human trafficking in SA
hotbed of human trafficking www.mg.co.za/article/2007-06-05-sa-hotbed-of-human-trafficking www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310412&area=/insight/monitor/ For 15-year-old Faith,
the impact was devastating. Struggling to make ends meet in New study shames human traffickers www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143968455 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) says Kenyans were also trafficked to Its report, ‘Trafficking in
Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were favourite targets for well-organised
trafficking rings, which operate freely for lack of solid laws against the
vice. Human,
drug trafficking at border on the rise "We are currently not
pre-occupied with people who enter illegally into Organisations working with trafficked women say
more than 1000 Mozambican women are trafficked each year, mostly to Every month thousands of children
are smuggled by greedy opportunists and syndicates across our international
and provincial borders. Once on the other side, they are sold as domestic
workers, for criminal activities, or for hard labour
on farms. And many of the young girls
are forced into prostitution. Cops
probed in human trafficking case www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20061224102948268C944414 Police are investigating the role
of fellow officers in an alleged human trafficking case involving 26 Thai
women who were arrested in a dramatic raid on Durban's After Dark
"gentlemen's club" last weekend. The probe has also been widened to
include the murder of a young Thai woman, whose battered body was found near
the N3 at Camperdown last month. The woman had been in the country illegally
and was believed to have been working as a prostitute in a brothel in the They are promised a better life in
The report said women and children
were brought into the county by syndicates, individual agents, Nigerian drug
lords, Congolese businesspeople, Angolan crime groups, South African farmers,
and Chinese triads. Women trafficked from Human trafficking a grave concern in SA "But certainly women and
children are being trafficked from She explained that most women were
lured by false promises to work in restaurants or with promises of
scholarship, school and study. She expressed concern at the lack of legisaltion that dealt with trafficking as a crime but
indicated that there was now progress in redressing this problem area. Human
trafficking: 4 Asians held www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20061013081102561C758589 A Bangladeshi man allegedly posing
as a department of home affairs official was among four people arrested on
Thursday as part of a police investigation into a human-trafficking gang. The arrests once again highlighted
the plight of thousands of people trafficked into Women
sold into prostitution by gamblers www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20051022085052137C959347 Women married to compulsive gamblers
are being raped or forced into prostitution by loan sharks after being used
as collateral by their addicted husbands.
And the lack of action by the KZN Gambling Board, among others, is
exacerbating the problem. City
a 'human trafficking centre' www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=49&fArticleId=2852753 Speaking at the launch, at the
Slave Lodge in the city, Jonathan Lucas of the UN office said Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane said the city remained a "targeted port
of entry" by child traffickers, creating "a major
problem". He said the Women
Must Expose Sex-Trafficking Cartels www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=500&fArticleId=2438880 The 18 women, according to police,
had been locked in a house by the home owner and not allowed to leave the
premises. The women are now receiving counseling before they face being
deported. But the extent of human
trafficking is not limited to women, with children often being the
victims. Edwards said that in It costs R50 000 a head to
move people between certain countries, a witness said in a Johannesburg High
Court murder trial that involved allegations of "human
trafficking". This was said by
Ali Tarssawari, who turned State witness after
having been in the dock for allegedly trying to cover up the execution-style
murder of Mozambican immigrant Fatima Momade and
her daughter, Nazia, 11. He said this fee related to two Pakistanis
who were "moved" from Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 2 Status:
Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Tutu
calls for child registration In South
Africa Linked in the Global Human Trafficking Human trafficking, particularly of
women and children, in South Africa is not slowing down while the country’s
government has not yet implemented legislation recognising
this vicious flesh trade as a crime.
With legislation, activists like Vanessa Anthony, a researcher and counsellor with child rights non-governmental organisation, Molo Songololo, can see justice for the victims she deals
with. Anthony says it recently ‘’took
eight years to jail a man who kidnapped, gang-raped and exploited girls as
young as 13’’. Counter-Trafficking
Information Campaign in South Africa As part of its Southern African
Counter-Trafficking Programme (SACTAP), the IOM
office for All posters feature IOM's national
24-hour toll-free telephone helpline 0800
555 999, which was set up in August 2004 to encourage members of the
public to report known or suspected cases of sex-trafficking and to inform
victims in South Africa that they can seek help. FORGOTTEN
SCHOOLS: Right to Basic Education for Children on Farms in South Africa The government faces enormous
challenges in attempting to protect the rights of those living in remote
rural areas, particularly the right of children living on commercial farms to
education. The present government has inherited a situation where a
child may have to endure long journeys on foot, be unable to meet schools
fees or pay for a school uniform. All these needs create a burden on
the child and parent(s). The South African government has
inherited an education system in rural areas based on racial, social and
economic inequalities. Through the 1996 constitution and the
ratification of international human rights law pertaining to children’s
rights to education, the government is obliged to protect the right to an
education. Children living on farms have the right to receive an
education freely and in an environment conducive to learning. South Africa:
Caution urged over new human trafficking laws EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM NOT KNOWN - According to the Geneva-based
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), However, Ted Leggett, a researcher
with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), recently questioned the
benefit of promulgating new anti-trafficking legislation. In an ISS article titled, 'The Risks of
Human Trafficking Legislation', Leggett argued that the extent of trafficking
in Commenting on the unverified need
for additional legislation, Leggett noted that "the bottom line is that
virtually everything that is part of trafficking is already illegal, and
simply generating more legislation is unlikely to revolutionise
the situation". He suggested that "no policy decision should be
taken in this area without further research". Sexual abuse of young children in southern Africa www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputDetail.php?id=1152 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] In this chapter the authors argue
that both commercial sexual exploitation if children and trafficking in
children are significant and growing problems in southern 38
000 child prostitutes in SA Human
Trafficking Stretches Across the Region IOM official Jonathan Martens told
a three-day conference which opened in Benoni, near
South Africa's main commercial city of Johannesburg, this week (Jun. 22) that
the women are promised employment, luxury accommodation, and a payment of
between 10,000 and 20,000 dollars. Their passports are confiscated once they
arrive in Martens said South African
traffickers earn around 500 dollars for every woman recruited for
prostitution in A 23-year-old woman identified as
Nicola reported to the IOM that she had met nine other black, white and mixed
race South Africans aged 18 to 21 in South Africa
regional centre for human trafficking Mozambican women are recruited
either through a "passive" or an "active" method by organised groups or minibus-taxi operators. The passive
method targets female passengers already en route to "The women stay in transit
houses along Initiative
to fight human trafficking to be launched An initiative to build
collaboration between government and NGOs to fight human trafficking will be
launched at a conference in The The global coalition will also
release video footage documenting sex tourism in SOUTHERN AFRICA:
Major destination for traffickers in women and children The women and children are either
sexually exploited, used as labour or their organs
are harvested. While poverty has been recognised as the most "visible cause for
trafficking human beings ... another strong determinant is the particular
vulnerability of women and children, which makes them an easy target for
traffickers". Patterns of oppression, discrimination, social and
cultural prejudices, and the prevalence of gender violence put children and
women at greater risk and ensures the flourishing of the trafficking trade. Southern Africa:
Conference On Human Trafficking Opens "I am young - but up here is
old," says an 11-year-old girl working as a prostitute in Cape Town,
pointing to her head - one of many images in hard-hitting footage on the sex
industry, screened at the opening of a conference on human trafficking in
South Africa on Tuesday. A pimp in Cape Town, South
Africa's tourism capital, who supplies eight- to 11-year-olds to sex tourists
mainly from the US, Britain and Japan, commented in the film that children
are sometimes tied with barbed wire and told to perform sexual acts on
adults. The footage was shot by the global
coalition of NGOs. According to the South Africa-based child rights' activist
organisation, Molo Songololo, 25 percent of prostitutes in While the film alleged that child
prostitution in The country's attractive 40 000 child prostitutes - Street children vulnerable to
sex trade www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=2198903 About 40 000 children in South
Africa are involved in child prostitution and the figures are rising as more
and more children are driven from their homes because of poverty, neglect and
abuse. The child prostitutes - all
under the age of 18 - are among 400 000 child labourers
in the country, according to the Network Against Child Labour. Once on the streets, children are vulnerable
to a booming sex trade and trafficking. Seduction, Sale & Slavery:
Trafficking In Women & Children For Sexual Exploitation In www.iom.org.za/Reports/TraffickingReport3rdEd.pdf At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - The major findings may be
summarized as follows: Refugees are both victims and
perpetrators of trafficking to All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery – |
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Human Trafficking in [South Africa Street Children in [South Africa] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [South Africa] [other countries]