Truckers UNiTE against human trafficking
The Transport Sector Retirement Fund (TSRF) and Salt Employee Benefits (Salt EB) recently joined forces to implement a national Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative to help combat this fastgrowing crime.
The campaign “Truckers UNiTE Against Human Trafficking” is aimed at creating awareness among truckers, members of the transport sector, and South Africans in general, according to Nadine Blom, brand and communications lead at Salt EB.
“The Truckers Against Trafficking initiative originated in the US and has grown into a far reaching awareness campaign impacting greatly on the American trucking industry.
“The TSRF and Salt EB decided to collaborate with Truckers Against Trafficking in the US in order to learn from their best practices and to make a material difference in the global fight against trafficking in persons.
“The members of TSRF, many of whom are on the road, can play a crucial role in fighting this horrific crime. The slogan of the campaign is ‘Our eyes on the highways’,” says Blom.
The first phase of the project entailed launching an awareness video clip to TSRF members via their mobile phones. The second phase involves the distribution of Human Trafficking Awareness Flyers to members electronically, as well as at truck stops.
Awareness posters will also be distributed at truck stops. The third phase of the project aims to obtain buy-in from employers with regards to human trafficking awareness training for employees, in order to empower members to successfully identify and assist trafficking victims who are forced to work as prostitutes on the highways.
Blom says modern-day slavery or human trafficking is a criminalised form of international organised crime and refers to people being bought and sold for exploitative purposes.
“Trafficking in persons is a very profitable crime with an annual market of $32-billion, mainly due to the fact that it is a high-profit crime involving relatively low risk implications.
“Transnational organised crime structures use advanced forms of technology to recruit victims and facilitate trafficking globally.
“Supply factors that include political conflict, natural disasters, the demand for sex and child sex, poverty and vulnerability, lack of awareness and education, food insecurity, lack of employment opportunities, cultural perceptions, and the displacement of people have all contributed to the vast escalation of this problem.
“Whereas drugs can be sold only once, humans can be ‘recycled’ for various purposes and human lives have become nothing more than disposable commodities.
“Treated as merchandise, humans are sold and resold all over the world for various purposes such as prostitution, pornography, carrying drugs, organ harvesting, child brides, domestic servitude, labour in mines, sweatshop labour, internet brides, for the purpose of funding terrorism, for forced labour purposes, child labour and child combatants.
“Victims include South African nationals as well as foreign individuals and are often recruited by crime syndicates with promises of a better life, opportunities and employment.”
According to the Global Slavery Index (2017), 45-million people are currently enslaved across the globe. Human trafficking is becoming a growing concern in South Africa as illustrated by the recent escalation in child abductions.
Blom says traffickers recruit vulnerable children, teens, women and individuals via various platforms,