A multibillion-dollar international market in the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is mushrooming in South Africa. It has become, behind drugs and guns, the third-largest source of profits for organised crime.
And, while researchers say South Africa has become the country of choice for the transnational networks of traffickers and pimps, we still have no law to deal with the problem.
Ugljesa Zvekic of the United Nation’s regional office for drug control and crime prevention says only two countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region — Botswana and Namibia — have ratified the UN’s Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, which deals with trafficking in people.
”But ratifying the convention means nothing if the individual countries do not implement domestic laws to deal with the problem themselves,” he said.
The value of the global trade is estimated at $7-billion.
According to a report on human trafficking in the SADC region released by the International Organisation for Migration this week, women and children are enticed by promises of employment and opportunities into a multitude of abusive situations including the sex industry, drugs and forced marriages.
”Young women and children are especially vulnerable to the recruitment tactics of the traffickers because civil unrest and economic deprivation leaves them with few opportunities at home … Migration [is] … a natural and common solution.”
Once they are lured into the industry, either through deception, coercion or force, the women are tricked into paying up to R100 000 in ”debt-bondage”. This is the advance of money to the woman for the costs of travel, accommodation and food as part of the deception.
”The … trafficker will take all the earnings she receives as a sex worker and, to protect his investment, he will assist the victim in applying for refugee status to prevent her deportation should she be detained by the police,” the study says.
The nature of the trafficking is both ”cross-border and in-country”, said coordinator of the report Jonathan Martens.
Chinese mafia from South-East Asia and Swaziland; Bulgarian syndicates from Eastern Europe; the Russian mafia; and African criminal groups from mainly Angola, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are pinpointed as the four main syndicates.
Victims are from most countries in the SADC region as well as from Thailand, China and Eastern Europe.
According to the acting deputy director general in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr Dudu Khoza, the development of organised criminal groups in the SADC region cannot be understood in a vacuum.
”The end of the Cold War and the weakening of state power in various parts of the world have ensured higher levels of transnational criminal activity … criminal enterprises seek activities … where maximum profits can be obtained.”
Southern Africa is a fertile ground for traffickers, who ”easily capitalise on the vulnerabilities created by war, endemic poverty, minimal education, unemployment and a general lack of opportunity for much of the region’s population,” the report said.
In South Africa, the trafficking is mainly organised by refugee syndicates. ”Male refugees struggle to survive unemployment and xenophobia in the country, therefore many choose to recruit female relations from their country of origin to South Africa … they are required to earn R250 or more each night and work from private accommodation or on the street.”
Zvekic says South Africa is the most popular destination because it ”already has a well-developed network of crime groups and the economic development levels mean there is a clientele for these services in sex”.
Khoza confirmed that South Africa does not have any legislation that deals specifically with trafficking in people, but said that the South African Law Commission is dealing with the matter.
Currently, South Africa uses Acts on refugee, domestic violence, aliens control and prevention of organised crime against trafficking.
”Trafficking in people is new with respect to drugs and weapons. For the latter two there are law-enforcement procedures in place to deal with them. Trafficking however is the weak link,” said Zvekic.