Human trafficking is close to home
While Randburg appears to be safer, human trafficking is widespread in South Africa.
Every six hours a child goes missing in South Africa.
According to police figures South Africa had about 4 000 kidnappings last year.
Many of South Africa’s missing persons’ cases are linked to human trafficking; SA has the fifth highest number of incidents in the world.
“The biggest targets are schools and universities, and people aged eight to 28,” said Eugene Joubert, director of sales and marketing of the People Search and Rescue Unit.
“Abductors usually choose their victims based on certain criteria such as appearance, athletic ability, wealth, or height. They then go to the school and pretend to be parents.”
This is often done after school hours, at sports games and at braais hosted by parents of pupils. When the abductors have gained the trust of parents they abduct the children after school, telling the pupils that their parents said they must fetch them.
“The children are used as sex slaves and for slavery, strip clubs and arranged marriages,” Joubert said.
The unit has worked on 176 missing persons’ cases nationwide, and found 98 percent of the missing people. Eighty nine percent of people found by the unit were alive, 59 percent of people reported missing to the unit were 20 years old or younger, 67 percent were female, 73 percent were white and 68 percent were in Gauteng.
The unit uses a number of strategies to help its investigators rescue abducted people. A cellphone application allows the unit’s clients to update profiles, to make the investigation faster, and send a panic alert to the unit. Tracking devices, DNA kits, and social media are also tools the unit’s investigators use.
In Randburg only one missing person’s case is known to be open currently.
The Douglasdale and Linden police are not working on any missing persons’ cases at the moment and the Honeydew police did not respond at the time of going to print.
Details: People Search and Rescue Unit, 086 028 7223; Randburg police 011 449 9000; Linden police 011 888 9299; Honeydew police 011 801 8613; Douglasdale police 011 699 1300.
