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Sex-slave trade 'flourishing'
24/03/2003 14:48 - (SA)
Pretoria - International human trafficking, especially for sex work, is much more pervasive in southern Africa than previously thought, a study has found.
The region hosts a diverse range of human trafficking activities, from the global operations of the Chinese triads and the Russian mafia, to the local trade of people across borders.
Southern Africa's young women and children are especially vulnerable to traffickers because civil unrest and economic deprivation leave them few opportunities at home, making South Africa and Europe a common solution.
The research study was conducted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) between August 2002 and February 2003.
It found that Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia were the source countries for trafficking in southern Africa.
Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe were transit countries for trade activities.
Sexual 'feeding frenzies'
In Lesotho, children from rural areas moved to the capital, Maseru, to escape domestic violence or the affects of HIV/Aids.
The report said that, as street children, they were coerced or forcibly abducted by white Afrikaans-speaking men.
They were taken across the border with the consent of border officials to border towns and asparagus farms in the eastern Free State in South Africa.
"They are held captive in private houses and sexually assaulted in a sadistic manner over several days by small groups of white men in a 'feeding frenzy for fantasies of hatred, humiliation and revenge', according to a pathologist at the University of the Western Cape.
"Victims are then returned to Maseru and deposited on the street," the report says.
Street children in Maseru are also trafficked by long-distance truck drivers who keep them as sex slaves on their routes.
Victims have travelled as far as Cape Town in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Mozambican victims are usually aged between 14 and 24, and are offered jobs as waitresses and sex workers in Johannesburg.
They pay traffickers R500 to smuggle them across the border in minibus taxis at Komatipoort or Ponta do Ouro.
They stay in transit houses along South Africa's border with Mozambique and Swaziland for one night where they are sexually assaulted as an initiation for the sex work that awaits them.
Some are sold to brothels in central Johannesburg for R1 000. Others are sold as slaves on private order, or shopped around to miners on the West Rand, outside Johannesburg, as "wives" for R850.
IOM estimates that at least 1 000 Mozambicans are exploited in this way every year, earning traffickers about R1m annually.
Threatened with 'death by magic'
According to the study, Malawi is characterised by three types of trafficking flows.
Women and girls are recruited by Malawian businesswomen for employment or educational opportunities in Europe.
On arrival in the Netherlands, the victim is sold to a Nigerian madam for US$10 000 (about R82 000) and told she must work as a prostitute to pay off a debt of US$40 000 (about R327 000).
The madam will ask for her panties, hair and nail clippings threatening death by magic if she does not co-operate.
The victim is then sold to other Nigerian agents from Belgium, Germany and Italy, or "rented" to local brothels.
One brothel in the Netherlands brands its sex slaves with an identifying mark.
"If a victim does not perform sexually to the satisfaction of the brothel owner, she is beaten and given sex lessons, or resold," says IOM.
Women and girls are also recruited along major transport routes in Malawi by long distance truck drivers who promise marriage, work or education in South Africa.
Once in South Africa, the victim is held as the trafficker's sex slave in a flat in central Johannesburg. He will bring clients to the flat who pay to have sex with the victim. Malawian businesswomen also traffic victims to brothels in Johannesburg.
Sold to paedophile rings
The study says that of the 80 people deported from South Africa to Malawi each month, at least two are trafficking victims.
Girls and boys alike may be recruited in the holiday resorts along Lake Malawi by European sex tourists who pay money to the child's parents with promises of educational opportunities for the child in Europe.
"The victims are featured in pornographic videos that are transmitted over the internet with the victims' names and contact details included.
"In Europe, the children are sexually exploited in private homes, and are sold to paedophile rings."
The tourists are usually from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
- SAPA
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