Fight human trafficking before 2010

Human trafficking is our eras equivalent of old-time slavery. People mostly women and children are tricked, coerced, sold or abducted to work in bondage in foreign lands. Like the slaves of the past, many never see their homeland and their families again.

According to the United Nations, human trafficking is beginning to eclipse the international drug trade as the most lucrative of organised crimes.

Alarmingly, much of human trafficking some sources quote figures of as many as 4 million people worldwide a year profits from the sexual exploitation of women and children, who are forced to work as prostitutes and in other sectors of the sex industry.

While it can be argued that prostitution rarely is a profession a woman would pursue without some desperation, conventional sex workers do have certain rights and choices. Trafficked sex slaves have neither choices nor rights.

In many countries, including South Africa, these violently abused women face jail and deportation often back into the clutches of the people who were responsible for their plight in first place once they have been freed or freed themselves from their captors.

The question of human trafficking for sexual exploitation came into focus before the football World Cup in Germany this year. At the time, many concerned groups, including the Church, warned that 100000 young women, mainly from poor countries in Eastern Europe, were expected to be “imported” to work in German brothels and sex clubs.

With South Africa preparing for the same event in 2010, the call on government by Doctors for Life to plan now in instituting measures to combat such trafficking is timely.

Indeed, with South Africas underworld an illicit importer and exporter of people, rigorous action is required. The government presently is in the process of drafting legislation that would criminalise human trafficking, with convicted offenders facing up to 20 years imprisonment.

While the criminalisation of trade in humans is as welcome as it is overdue, mere legislation is not enough (nor, arguably, is a proposed maximum of 20 years jail an effective deterrent or reflective of real justice in the context of a crime that often is accompanied not only by abduction but also by assault and repeated rape).

South Africa certainly must beware of the errors made in countries that introduced such legislation, but which then proved difficult to enforce.

A concerted and adequately funded effort involving law enforcement, the judiciary and civil society is obligatory.

The fight against human trafficking must include the aggressive pursuit of those engaged in the crime as well as protection of and support for the victims, instead of their further victimisation.

But it must also incorporate pre-emptive measures. A well-planned community education programme to advise people of the dangers of human trafficking, for example, is essential.

Doctors for Life argue that aggressively outlawing all forms of prostitution is another crucial measure though others may argue that this would drive the problem even further underground.

Nonetheless, their statement and workshops such as those we report on this week are valuable and important contributions to a dialogue that must gather pace. It is necessary that South Africans begin fighting the monstrous crime of trading in humans now.