UK varsity launches human trafficking scholarship
AS THE world celebrated International Refugees Day yesterday, the University of Hull in England launched the Wiseman Khuzwayo PhD Scholarship in Refugees and Human Trafficking.
It said the scholarship was part of a £3 million (R54m) investment in scholarships that attract students from the US, Africa and Latin America.
Khuzwayo graduated with a law degree from Hull University in 1981 while in exile. “I could not have done a more satisfying job,” Khuzwayo said at the time. “I am also able to practise a bit of my profession by writing for various newspapers and magazines just so as not to be stale.”
The university said slavery remained prevalent in the world, with forced labour existing in the domestic, agricultural, sex, construction and retail industries. The international Labour Organisation estimates there are at least 40 million victims of slavery across the world.
Khuzwayo successfully forced the UK to make him the first black exile to fly out of Lesotho by pointing out the differences in the treatment of his application for asylum against that of fellow white South African journalist Donald Woods. His fellow students at the time have raised £65 000 for funding for the scholarship that will examine links between migration, trafficking and contemporary slavery.
A former student at the university, Mike Craven, said the scholarship was aptly named as Khuzwayo had experienced being a political refugee himself.
“He was a larger than life character who quickly established a very high profile at Hull,” Craven said. “He retained a good sense of humour despite his physical suffering at the hands of the authorities in South Africa.”
Khuzwayo died in May last year after a battle with cancer.