Opinion / Columnist
Is South Africa doing enough to combat human trafficking?
04 May 2016 at 16:31hrs | Views
Johannesburg - Thousands of people are trafficked across continents every year by people smugglers and organised crime syndicates.Human trafficking has become a billion dollar industry and governments are struggling to contain the thriving trade.In some cases,powerful and influential people are involved in the crime.
Trafficking in humans is a serious crimes and a violation of human rights.Almost every country is affected by human trafficking directly or indirectly.South Africa is one of the countries that has seen an increase in human trafficking by gangs and people smugglers some of them working with local gangs.
The country,according to a United Nations report of 2005, is both a transit and direct destination for victims of trafficking. South Africa's lack of official data base on human trafficking has hampered the fight to stop the trade.That has also presented a problem for the police.Like international poachers,human traffickers are always a step ahead of law enforcement agencies.
They are well connected and have a good network of informants in their target countries.This is according to a former Zimbabwen police detective who was once deployed at Beitbridge town,bordering Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Beitbridge is also the busiest border post in Southern,Eastern and Central Africa.In an interviewrecently,the former detective who preferred to be identified as Andrew said he was part of a task force to combat human trafficking in Southern Africa.He said human trafficking has become a big problem in three countries in the region-Mozambique,Malawi and Zimbabwe.He said the main destination for most of those trafficked in those three countries was South Africa.
The former detective gave as an example,Zimbabwean human smugglers known as Omalayitsha who have become notorious in the trade.Omalayitsha are blamed for trafficking thousands of Zimbabweans and other African immigrants into South Africa every month.
It's not easy to get accurate figures of those that have become victims of trafficking because it is a closed and secretive industry.The majority of those brought into South Africa, according to the former detective were willing participants.But some,especially women and young girls are abducted by gangs for commercial sex exploitation in South Africa.
South African girls too,are said to be trafficked for commercial sex and domestic servitude,according to a report by Wikipedia.
As a signatory to the protocol to prevent and suppress the trade in human trafficking the South African government is required to address the trade as a serious crime.In 2003 president Jacob Zuma signed the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill into law but that has not stopped thousands of foreigners from being trafficked into the country from different continents.
One man who was a victim of trafficking by Zimbabwean people smugglers told me that some of the human traffickers worked closely with some farmers in Limpopo province who paid them for delivering free labour in the form of Mozambicans and Zimbabweans.
"I know for a fact that some foreigners who are trafficked by the gangs are sold to corrupt farmers in Limpopo.They work for nothing because when its time for them to get paid, the farmers report them to police as illegal immigrants and get them deported back to their countries,"said the Zimbabwean who now works in Johannesburg.
Once the trafficked boys are deported back to their countries,the smugglers supply the farmers with new free labour.The people making money in this evil trade are the human smugglers.The South African Police Service(SAPS) has a human trafficking desk located within its organised crime unit known as the Hawks.But there have been no known cases of human traffickers having been arrested and prosecuted.
"Some police chiefs in Southern Africa are not happy with their counterparts in South Africa who are not doing enough to combat the operations of the human traffickers,"said the former Zimbabwean detective.
Anti-human trafficking campaigners are not happy too with the way the government has handled cases of people smuggled into South Africa especially women and girls. One anti-human trafficking campaigner in Johannesburg warned women to be careful when they see tempting advertisements on the internet offering them jobs in Europe,Australia and China.
She said a lot of South African women have found themselves working as sex slaves in Asia after being flown to those countries by gangs who pay for their travel expenses and organise passports for those without documents.
With domestic servitude cases, the person is forced to wake up early, keep a house clean, cook and look after children without payment. Sometimes their masters don't give them food and sleep on the floor.
The gangs can place an advert in local papers or internet looking for beautiful young women to work as waiters in Chinese restaurants.Many respond because they are desperate.They are then taken to a house where all the arrangements are made for them to be flown outside the country to begin their new life as commercial sex workers-not waiters as promised by the gangs.
They will be working in brothels not in restaurants.Thats how ruthless the gangs are when it comes to their trade.The United Nations says it hopes to raise awareness among policy makers and law enforcement agencies.In 2007,according to the UN, 127 countries were involved in trafficking,98 were used as transit and 137 as destinations.
There is also an increasing number of men being trafficked on the false pretences of offering them jobs in other countries.Trafficked women are often turned into sex slaves and work for the crime bosses in big cities.
Cape Town was once mentioned as one of the cities that has become a big problem in trafficked women and children.Children are among those targetted by people smugglers and organised crime syndicates.The trafficking of children forced the Department of Home Affairs to tighten visa requirements for foreigners bringing children into the country.
The tough regulations also apply to South Africans wishing to take their children outside the country.The government had refused to accept unabridged birth certificates for locals travelling with children to other countries.
Foreigners coming into South Africa needed fathers to give permission to their wives to take the children across the border.That permission was required in writing with the long birth certificates attached.
Statistics are hard to get but the LexisNexis Human Trafficking Awareness Index released in Johannesburg in 2013 painted a grim picture of the evils of human trafficking.
The database showed that 540 people - 67 of them children - were potentially trafficked into and within South Africa in 2011, 96 for sexual exploitation, 271 for forced labour, 90 for organ trafficking, four for forced marriages (ukuthwala) and two as drug mules.
Trafficking in humans is a serious crimes and a violation of human rights.Almost every country is affected by human trafficking directly or indirectly.South Africa is one of the countries that has seen an increase in human trafficking by gangs and people smugglers some of them working with local gangs.
The country,according to a United Nations report of 2005, is both a transit and direct destination for victims of trafficking. South Africa's lack of official data base on human trafficking has hampered the fight to stop the trade.That has also presented a problem for the police.Like international poachers,human traffickers are always a step ahead of law enforcement agencies.
They are well connected and have a good network of informants in their target countries.This is according to a former Zimbabwen police detective who was once deployed at Beitbridge town,bordering Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Beitbridge is also the busiest border post in Southern,Eastern and Central Africa.In an interviewrecently,the former detective who preferred to be identified as Andrew said he was part of a task force to combat human trafficking in Southern Africa.He said human trafficking has become a big problem in three countries in the region-Mozambique,Malawi and Zimbabwe.He said the main destination for most of those trafficked in those three countries was South Africa.
The former detective gave as an example,Zimbabwean human smugglers known as Omalayitsha who have become notorious in the trade.Omalayitsha are blamed for trafficking thousands of Zimbabweans and other African immigrants into South Africa every month.
It's not easy to get accurate figures of those that have become victims of trafficking because it is a closed and secretive industry.The majority of those brought into South Africa, according to the former detective were willing participants.But some,especially women and young girls are abducted by gangs for commercial sex exploitation in South Africa.
South African girls too,are said to be trafficked for commercial sex and domestic servitude,according to a report by Wikipedia.
As a signatory to the protocol to prevent and suppress the trade in human trafficking the South African government is required to address the trade as a serious crime.In 2003 president Jacob Zuma signed the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill into law but that has not stopped thousands of foreigners from being trafficked into the country from different continents.
One man who was a victim of trafficking by Zimbabwean people smugglers told me that some of the human traffickers worked closely with some farmers in Limpopo province who paid them for delivering free labour in the form of Mozambicans and Zimbabweans.
"I know for a fact that some foreigners who are trafficked by the gangs are sold to corrupt farmers in Limpopo.They work for nothing because when its time for them to get paid, the farmers report them to police as illegal immigrants and get them deported back to their countries,"said the Zimbabwean who now works in Johannesburg.
"Some police chiefs in Southern Africa are not happy with their counterparts in South Africa who are not doing enough to combat the operations of the human traffickers,"said the former Zimbabwean detective.
Anti-human trafficking campaigners are not happy too with the way the government has handled cases of people smuggled into South Africa especially women and girls. One anti-human trafficking campaigner in Johannesburg warned women to be careful when they see tempting advertisements on the internet offering them jobs in Europe,Australia and China.
She said a lot of South African women have found themselves working as sex slaves in Asia after being flown to those countries by gangs who pay for their travel expenses and organise passports for those without documents.
With domestic servitude cases, the person is forced to wake up early, keep a house clean, cook and look after children without payment. Sometimes their masters don't give them food and sleep on the floor.
The gangs can place an advert in local papers or internet looking for beautiful young women to work as waiters in Chinese restaurants.Many respond because they are desperate.They are then taken to a house where all the arrangements are made for them to be flown outside the country to begin their new life as commercial sex workers-not waiters as promised by the gangs.
They will be working in brothels not in restaurants.Thats how ruthless the gangs are when it comes to their trade.The United Nations says it hopes to raise awareness among policy makers and law enforcement agencies.In 2007,according to the UN, 127 countries were involved in trafficking,98 were used as transit and 137 as destinations.
There is also an increasing number of men being trafficked on the false pretences of offering them jobs in other countries.Trafficked women are often turned into sex slaves and work for the crime bosses in big cities.
Cape Town was once mentioned as one of the cities that has become a big problem in trafficked women and children.Children are among those targetted by people smugglers and organised crime syndicates.The trafficking of children forced the Department of Home Affairs to tighten visa requirements for foreigners bringing children into the country.
The tough regulations also apply to South Africans wishing to take their children outside the country.The government had refused to accept unabridged birth certificates for locals travelling with children to other countries.
Foreigners coming into South Africa needed fathers to give permission to their wives to take the children across the border.That permission was required in writing with the long birth certificates attached.
Statistics are hard to get but the LexisNexis Human Trafficking Awareness Index released in Johannesburg in 2013 painted a grim picture of the evils of human trafficking.
The database showed that 540 people - 67 of them children - were potentially trafficked into and within South Africa in 2011, 96 for sexual exploitation, 271 for forced labour, 90 for organ trafficking, four for forced marriages (ukuthwala) and two as drug mules.
Source - Thabo Kunene
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