The slaves of 2010

by Editor · Published September 16, 2009 · Updated March 6, 2012

Trafficking in people is the fastest growing source of profit for sophisticated and ruthless criminal enterprises worldwide, according to the US National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The problem is acute in Southern Africa, especially as South Africa prepares host the football World Cup in 2010.

According to anti-human trafficking activists, some 14,000 prostitutes were imported to Germany to coincide with the World Cup there in 2006. It is safe to say that a large number of them did not volunteer for the sex trade, but were duped or forced into it. The same will be true of many women and children whose bodies will be traded in South Africa next winter.

A recent conference in Port Elizabeth hosted by the Soroptimist Society, an international women�s rights group, was told that traffickers are in particular gearing up for the paedophile market in 2010.

Most of the children who will be abused are from impoverished areas of South Africa, especially the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North-West Province, Limpopo and the Northern Cape. The conference was told that many children are sold by family members for up to R5000. But speakers added that some enslaved children will come from more affluent homes, involving all race groups.

Thandi Hadebe, a project director with Jesuit Relief Service, told visiting US bishops in South Africa this month that traffickers and pimps are targetting Zimbabwean girls in Limpopo for purposes of prostituting them. She also said that some Zimbabwean parents �pay people to bring their daughters to join them in South Africa and they never see them again�.

We are rightly shocked when confronted with the reality of human trafficking, a modern form of slavery. We may also feel powerless to address the problem.

Experts in the field are counselling a two-pronged approach: education on issues of human trafficking, and advocacy for more stringent laws and their robust enforcement.

South Africa�s police will doubtless prioritise general security during the World Cup, and rightly so. However, government and the police must be urged to allocate additional resources to addressing forced sex work, in particular where children are involved. At the very least, visitors who are paying for sex with minors must be apprehended, charged and prosecuted.

As yet, the South African government has failed to legislate on human trafficking � indeed, South African law does not even have a legal definition for the crime. In last year�s annual �Trafficking in Persons Report�, the US State Department included South Africa � for the fourth year running � in its list of countries that are failing to increase their efforts to combat human trafficking.

There is some hope: earlier this year, the government announced that new, comprehensive legislation to fight human trafficking is in the pipeline. There is little time to lose before such legislation is tabled in parliament and passed.

In the interim, those who trade in people for sexual purposes must be investigated and charged under the Sexual Offences Amendment Act (and, in the case of minors, the Children�s Act).

Human trafficking takes place in the shadows of society. The cloak of secrecy enables the criminals to commit their evil acts.

The general public, especially those at risk of being enslaved and brutalised, must be educated about the realities of human trafficking. This should take the form of concerted campaigns, but individuals can contribute by informing themselves about the crime and placing it on the national agenda.

In particular with 2010 in mind, the state and its citizens must act now with common purpose to turn the spotlight on the crime of trade in human beings.