Sexual exploitation remains main driver of human trafficking in SA

Research results have confirmed that sex trafficking continues to account for the bulk of reported cases and prosecutions in South Africa, while prosecutions for human trafficking for labour are also severely lacking.

Even more concerning is that the recent study has concluded that victims and perpetrators of human trafficking are significantly undercounted in both research and practice.

This comes against the backdrop of SA being on the United State (US) Department of State’s Tier 2 Watch List for trafficking, as the country did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of the practice, though they are making significant efforts to do so.

Extreme violence

According to Dr Marcel Van der Watt, one of the researchers in the study, extreme violence is meted out by traffickers on victims, while places where exploitation occurs are embedded in communities and operate for protracted periods without any meaningful law enforcement intervention.

She said civil society reports and evidence in several successful prosecutions confirmed indifference, corruption, and complicity by law enforcement officials.

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Van der Watt said the prominence of consumer‐level demand for commercial sex was evident in potentially thousands of sex buyers who used the services of adult and child victims of sex trafficking.

“Despite adequate laws to address this dimension of [human trafficking] in South Africa, sex buyers continue to exploit women and children with impunity. Several adult websites, some advertised on public roadways, are repeatedly implicated in ongoing and successful sex trafficking prosecutions, yet none have been prosecuted,” she lamented.

Van der Watt said victims and perpetrators of human trafficking were nationals from several countries.

Stumbling blocks

She said the failure to employ the legally binding definition of the Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons (PACOTIP) Act in several research studies contributed to the undercounting of trafficking victims.

Van der Watt said despite the lack of an official centralised human trafficking database, the research managed to produce recommendations that government should prioritise to address this growing crime.

The recommendations include establishing an integrated information system to provide evidence on the prevalence of human trafficking, facilitate the effective monitoring and implementation of the PACOTIP Act.

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“This in particular to employ Section 7 of the Act and Sections 11 and 17 of the Criminal Law [Sexual Offences and Related Matters] Amendment Act 32 of 2007 as legislative interventions to discourage the demand that fosters trafficking for sexual exploitation,” she said.

Immediate interventions, she said, are the facilitation of the effective monitoring and implementation of the PACOTIP Act, employing Section 7 of the PACOTIP Act and Sections 11 and 17 of the Criminal Law [Sexual Offences and Related Matters] Amendment Act 32 of 2007 as legislative interventions to discourage the demand that fosters trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Also key in the recommendations is the full implementation and compliance with the SA Police Service National Instruction 4 of 2015 related to detectives at police stations, data integrity, and the capturing of human trafficking and related matters on the SAPS crime administration system.

Immediate key interventions

Van der Watt said there was also an immediate need to create dedicated capacity for proactive, intelligence-led and court‐driven investigations alongside financial investigations, asset forfeiture, and a counter‐corruption strategy.

She said it was important to prioritise the legally binding human trafficking definition and ‘abuse of vulnerability’ as defined in the PACOTIP Act in research and policy discussions on prostitution and pornography, gender‐based violence, child abuse, labour violations and irregular migration.

“Everyone should be free. And yet, through force, fraud, and coercion, human traffickers violate this most basic right. Traffickers’ exploitative practices affect every country in the world, including the United States, by diminishing and destroying our communities, sense of security, and the global economy,” Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State have said.

He preached unity for accountability from those leaders who condone and support human trafficking, create conditions ripe for mass exploitation and perpetuate this fundamental insult to human dignity.

“Those that perpetrate, condone, or support this crime must be held accountable,” Blinken said.

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