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Human trafficking

The human trafficking industry generates USD32bn in yearly profits, making it the third most profitable crime, next to weapons and drug trafficking (IOL: A global alliance against forced labour 2005)


Although the global scale of human trafficking is difficult to quantify, as many as 800,000 people may be trafficked across international borders annually, with many more trafficked within the borders of their own countries.


Organised criminal groups are earning billions of dollars in profits from trafficking and exploiting people, many of whom suffer severe violations to their human rights.


Common abuses experienced by trafficked persons include rape, torture, debt bondage, unlawful confinement, and threats against their family or other persons close to them as well as other forms of physical, sexual and psychological violence.


The demand for cheap labour, sexual services and certain criminal activities are root causes of trafficking. Poverty of opportunity and resources, as well as a lack of social power are other contributing factors.


On Monday, 8 June 2009, 1st for Women teamed up with 94.7, 702 and the IOM (International Organization for Migration) to highlight the plight of women and children who have been trafficked into and out of South Africa.


1st for Women donated R1.7 million to the IOM. Our funding will be used to assist survivors of trafficking.


Below please find real-life scenarios of trafficking cases that the IOM has assisted with in the past:


SCENARIO A


Sara is a 20-year-old woman from Country A. She is unmarried, and has two small children whom she supports by selling vegetables. One day, she is approached by a friend who says that she can find her a job as a nanny in Country B where she can make ten times her current monthly earnings. The friend also promises to make all her travel arrangements, and pay for her trip if Sara agrees to repay her once she starts her new job in Country B. Deciding that the extra income will benefit her family, Sara leaves her children in the care of her mother and begins her journey by bus in the company of her friend. Sara has no passport, but her friend assures her that she will not need one since she has friends at the border.


After travelling for one day, the friend leaves Sara in the care of a boat captain whom she says will take her the rest of the way to Country B. Sara is surprised to see the man give her friend a large role of bills since she expected that her friend would have to pay him for Sara’s transportation. She does not ask any questions about the transaction, assuming it to be an unrelated business deal that her friend has worked out on the side.


The boat captain is friendly, but asks that Sara travel in the boat’s closed cabin under the deck so as to avoid problems entering the country. It is dark, hot, and very uncomfortable, but Sara agrees since she has no passport, and can only rely on his advice and goodwill. That night, however, after a full day’s travel, he stops the boat in an isolated cove, unlocks the cabin, and rapes her. Sara is then forced back into the cabin, which is again locked behind her. It is a long trip, and Sara’s journey comes to an end at a dock. There the boat captain is met by four men who give him a lot of money. Sara is told that she is now in Country B. After waiting for a few hours under a tree, a 4 X 4 vehicle arrives, and Sara is ordered to get in the back of the vehicle. Other young women are already seated there, and all of them appear to have been beaten. Sara is afraid, no longer believing that she is to be given the job she was promised, but when she refuses, the men threaten her with a gun.


Sara and the other women are taken to a private house in an urban area. Over a period of several weeks, the women are physically and sexually abused by the four men, and they are not permitted to leave the premises. Sara is told that if she escapes, the police will put her in prison for being in Country B without a passport, and then she will never see her children again. She is also told that if she even tries to escape, her children will be located and hurt. Eventually, other men begin stopping by the house, and Sara and is forced to have sex with them, for which her four captors are paid. Sara is eventually sold to a brothel, where she is forced to continue working as a prostitute. Her earnings are taken by the brothel owner.


Scenario B

Sarah is a 19 year old girl from a rural village in the Eastern Cape. She lives with her parents who are both unemployed but try to do piece work when they can find it. She has two sisters, both still of a school going age, but attendance has been sporadic as all the family members have to work when they can to provide for the family. Sarah last attended school full time in Grade 5 when her father was still working. Employment in the area is scarce and when a family friend – Aunt Joyce - approached the family suggesting Sarah come and work for her in Johannesburg the family jumped at the opportunity. Sarah dreamed of going to the city and being in a position to help her family – especially if the money she could earn would help her sisters to finish high school. She left for Johannesburg with Aunt Joyce shortly after her 19th birthday in July 2006.


The trip to Johannesburg, in Aunt Joyce’s new car, was long but Sarah was excited as she was seeing parts of the country she had never been before. They arrived in Johannesburg late in the afternoon. Aunt Joyce told Sarah that they were stopping at a restaurant as she had to pick up her husband. When they arrived Sarah went inside with Aunt Joyce and immediately felt uncomfortable as the place did not look at all as she had imagined a big city restaurant would. Aunt Joyce ordered a coke for Sarah and told her to sit at one of the tables while she went and fetched her husband. Sarah never saw her again.


After sitting at the table for some time, and having finished her coke, Sarah became scared and asked one of the men behind the bar to please take her to Aunt Joyce. He told her to follow him and took her into a back room. Once in the room he told her to wait and left, locking the door behind him. A few hours later Sarah heard a key in the door and four men came into the room – all four raped Sarah.


Sarah does not know how long she was kept in this room but knows it was for some days. More men entered to the room and Sarah was raped many more times. She was eventually let out and told that she would work in the bar as a prostitute as Aunt Joyce had sold her to the owner. In return she would be provided with accommodation and food. The owner of the bar, only known as Steve, told her that if she tried to leave he would find her family and hurt her sisters. To prove how serious he was he showed her pictures of her sisters and she remembered Aunt Joyce telling her to bring pictures with her so she would not miss them too much. Sarah realised at this point that Aunt Joyce must have given him her things and was never coming back for her. She was scared but promised herself she would not do anything that would put her family in any danger. She started working that night.


Sarah worked at the bar for 2 years before the owner was arrested for drug dealing and she was told by the police that she is free to go. She didn’t know where to go as she had not seen nor spoken to her family since she had left and was not sure if they would welcome her back. One of the police officers told her about an NGO assisting young women in her position and offered to take her there. She agreed and was referred by the NGO to IOM for assistance.


Sarah has been reunited with her family and has since started a small business venture – farming vegetables and selling it in the local market.


If you happened to miss the radio coverage regarding our trafficking initiative, please click on the links below:


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About the IOM


The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been working to counter the trafficking in persons since 1994. In this time, the Organisation has implemented almost 500 projects in 85 countries, and has provided assistance to approximately 15,000 trafficked persons. IOM's primary aims are to prevent trafficking in persons, and to protect victims of the trade while offering them options of safe and sustainable reintegration and/or return to their home countries.


Trafficking of persons shall mean:


"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, use of force or other means of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the receiving or giving of payment… to a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."


(Article 3 of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime)


FOR HELP CONTACT THE IOM’S TOLL-FREE HELPLINE ON:
0800 555 999

 

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