SA top source, transit and destination for human trafficking

SOUTH Africa was regarded as the major source, transit and destination country for men, women and children destined for forced labour and sex trafficking.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime South African regional representative, Zhulsyz Akisheva, this was due to the number of people who migrated to the country to “better their lives”.

“Desperation for success makes it easier for traffickers to lure their victims and turn them into sex workers,” she said at a UN Office workshop on the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons held in Pretoria yesterday.

Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery said the traffickers targeted those mostly in need of jobs, especially in the rural areas.

He told those gathered that they often recruited young people, taking their identity documents and forcing them into being sex workers.

Jeffery said most children were recruited from poor rural areas to urban centres, such as Joburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. “At these places, girls are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude, while boys are forced to work as street vendors, food service, begging, criminal activities and agriculture. Many children, including those with disabilities, are exploited in forced begging. Local criminal rings organise child sex trafficking,” he said.

“The US State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons report states that South Africans constitute the largest number of victims within the country.

“And research showed that trafficking in persons was still prevalent and a highly under-reported crime.”

Other findings showed that crime syndicates recruited South African women to Europe and Asia, where they were forced into prostitution, domestic service or drug smuggling.

The deputy minister said, however, that the country had launched a co-operation programme to combat trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants under the UN Office.

The workshop was held to canvass support and attain the harmonisation of training programmes on combating trafficking to ensure an effective and co-ordinated response to stakeholders involved.