How unemployment, pandemic, made black women, children easy prey for human traffickers

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and joblessness has left young people, black women, and migrants in South Africa vulnerable to ruthless human trafficking syndicates, according to a United Stated government global report on human trafficking.

The US State Department’s 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report was released on Tuesday, and South Africa was ranked as a Tier 2 Watch List country for the second consecutive year.

The reports ranks countries into four tiers.

The tiers

Tier 1 is the highest ranking, and while it doesn’t mean a country has no human trafficking or that it is doing enough to address the crime, it indicates a government that has made efforts to address the problem according to the minimum standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA).

Tier 2 countries are those whose governments don’t fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards, but who are making significant efforts to comply. South Africa is on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year, and could find itself relegated to Tier 3 should it fail to improve ahead of the next reporting period.

The final two tiers are the Tier 2 Watchlist and Tier 3.

The former are countries making efforts to comply, and for which:

– the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly
increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or
– there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in
persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of
trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe
forms of trafficking by government officials.

US State Department’s 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report

Tier 3 are countries whose governments are making no significant efforts to comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards.

Desperation driving human trafficking

The report paints a worldwide picture of the trafficking of women, men and children for exploitation by merciless criminals.

The poor and vulnerable are often lured with the promise of a better life and jobs, only to be sex-trafficked or sent into forced labour.

In South Africa, traffickers recruit victims from neighboring countries and rural areas within the country, particularly in Gauteng, and exploit them through sex trafficking locally and in urban areas such as Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein, according to the report.

Joblessness, low wages, and the Covid-19-related restrictions increased vulnerability of exploitation, especially for the youth, black women and foreign migrants.

“Traffickers recruit victims who lack employment and struggle with substance addiction, and commonly use substance addiction to control victims, including children. Parents with substance addiction sometimes exploit their children in sex trafficking to pay for drugs,” read the report.

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‘Syndicates dominated by Nigerians’

Girls as young as 10 are victims of the ruthless syndicates involved in sex trafficking.

“Syndicates, often dominated by Nigerians, force women from Nigeria and countries bordering South Africa into commercial sex, primarily in brothels and other commercial-front establishments.

“South African trafficking rings exploit girls as young as 10 years old in sex trafficking. Some well-known brothels, previously identified as locations of sex trafficking, continue to operate with officials’ tacit approval. In some cases, traffickers exploit women in brothels disguised as bed and breakfasts.”

Furthermore, South African women are sent to Europe and Asia, where traffickers force some into commercial sex, domestic work, or drug smuggling. Mozambican crime syndicates, the report states, use the eastern border of Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga to transport South African men to other parts of the country for forced labour.

READ MORE: Human trafficking: Several areas in Gauteng identified as hotspots

Corruption, failure to implement laws

Despite government’s efforts to arrest and imprison traffickers, corruption across departments, the SA Police Service (SAPS) and continued failure to promulgate anti-trafficking laws prevents the eradication of human trafficking in the country, according to the report.

Corruption and police complicity in curbing the crimes allows criminals to have a free-reign in trafficking persons into the country. Low-ranking police officers and officials alerted trafficking syndicates whenever law enforcement planned raids, in exchange of bribes.

Police lack proper training and re-traumatised victims in the manner in which they handled cases. There were reports of officers leaving trafficking victims unattended at police stations during transport for
medical care, resulting in victim harassment and re-traumatisation.

“After reporting to SAPS, within the same 48-hour time period, victims had to decide whether to serve as victim-witnesses. Reportedly, victims willing to participate in investigations and prosecutions received certification and services faster than those unwilling to cooperate.”

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South Africa’s government is criticised in the report for its continued failure to pass the 2013 Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons (PACOTIP) Act.

Failure to implement the act’s immigration provisions has left many victims hapless, as critical sections of the act have not been enforced since it was launched nine years ago.

However, in recognising government’s efforts, it detailed successes such as the conviction of 11 traffickers- including two officials – in 10 cases under trafficking charges, compared with convicting seven
traffickers in the previous year.

The courts sentenced five traffickers to life imprisonment, one trafficker to 20 years’ imprisonment, and five awaited sentencing.

“In the previous year, judges sentenced two traffickers to life imprisonment and five traffickers to
between 22 and 25 years’ imprisonment. The government reported 13 trafficking prosecutions withdrawn, acquitted, or declined to prosecute, and one not guilty verdict that was appealed.”

The report’s recommendations for South Africa include:

• Increased training for police officers on trauma-informed interviewing techniques, victim identification and referral procedures
• Training of specialised investigators on human trafficking investigations and computer forensics to investigate online crimes
• Pass, promulgate, and implement the Department of Home Affairs’ immigration provisions in Chapters 3 and 7 of the PACOTIP
• Extending the availability of drug rehabilitation services to trafficking victims
• Establishment of additional trafficking-specific shelters for male, transgender, and child trafficking victims
• Amend the anti-trafficking law to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking

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