2010 to draw human trafficking
2009-07-09 22:05
Pretoria - The 2010 World Cup will see an increase in human trafficking and prostitution in South Africa, US ambassador Luis CdeBaca, warned on Thursday.
"With the 2010 we might see an uptake of prostitution and brothels moving closer to the sites... pimping of children is also on the cards," he said at a Pretoria briefing on human trafficking.
He said 12.3 million people across the world had been victims of trafficking, according to a 2008 report released in June this year.
"Most of the victims were lured by traffickers offering jobs, once in a foreign country they were abused and left with no protection."
He said destitute men, women and children were kept as slaves, or worked as domestic workers or farm labourers, and at times were forced into prostitution to earn money for their traffickers. He said law enforcement agencies need to work with civil society to combat human trafficking.
"Police concentrate on prostitution and not trafficking... these women were first victims of trafficking and forced into prostitution."
SA govt 'must do more'
CdeBaca said South Africa had to do more to combat trafficking.
"Labour trafficking does not receive as much government attention as does sex trafficking."
CdeBaca mentioned another form of slavery - when governments enlist people for national service for a long period.
"We are not talking teachers or doctors... you have a case where governments enlist people to work as waiters in restaurants as national service," he said citing Eritrea as an example.
According to the US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report June 2008, South Africa is a source, transit and destination country for trafficked men, women and children.
SA girls, boys trafficked in country
The report noted that South African girls were trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, while boys were trafficked internally for use in street vending, food service and agriculture.
"Anecdotal evidence suggests that South African children are forced to provide unpaid labour for land owners in return for their family occupying land or accommodation, or maintaining labour tenancy rights," read the report.
According to the report, women and girls from other African countries were trafficked to South Africa for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and other jobs in the service sector.
Occasionally, these women were trafficked onward to Europe for sexual exploitation.
Thai, Chinese and Eastern European women were trafficked to South Africa for debt-bonded commercial sexual exploitation.
Young men and boys from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi were trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often labouring for months in South Africa without pay before employers had them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.
Organised criminal groups, including Nigerian, Chinese and Eastern European syndicates, and local gangs facilitated trafficking into and within South Africa, particularly for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.
- SAPA