Trafficking Monitor: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

SA hub and destination for human trafficking: report | DefenceWeb

Written by defenceWeb Monday, 29 March 2010 11:50

South Africa continues to be a hub and destination for human trafficking and serious intervention is needed to curb this practice, says a study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

The study, commissioned by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), found that victims are mostly women, girls and boys trafficked for a variety of reasons including prostitution, pornography, domestic servitude and forced labour. The study, Tsireledzani: Understanding the dimensions of human trafficking in southern Africa, says young boys are trafficked to smuggle drugs and for other criminal activities, the BuaNews agency reports.

The HSRC identified a number of trafficking flows into South Africa, found that the country is a destination county for long-distance flows for people mainly women trafficked from Thailand, Philippines, India, China, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. People trafficked within the African continent are mostly from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Longer-distance trafficking involves victims trafficked from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Somalia. All documented cases are women trafficked for both sexual and labour exploitation and the main point of entry of this trafficking stream is OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

The study also found that the largest movement of trafficked people is from rural areas to cities.

Women, girls and boys and to a lesser extent, men are the targets of traffickers for prostitution and criminal activities. The albino community was identified as vulnerable to human traffickers for the harvesting of body parts, due the belief of 'white' skin having potent powers.

Trafficking of South Africans out of their country is less of a problem, but eight cases were identified between January 2004 and January 2008. Destination countries included Ireland, Zimbabwe, Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Macau. In all cases, the victims were women trafficked for either sexual and labour exploitation or forced marriage.

The study, which was conducted to obtain a more detailed national picture of human trafficking in South Africa, hopes to help guide new policies to combat the practice. Funded by the European Union, it is the first comprehensive study of the problem in South Africa, BuaNews said. The 235-page report, available on the HSRC website, contains no firm figures on the scale of the problem however, the researchers emphasising that they experienced serious difficulties in conducting the study. “South Africa is not collecting even basic national-level data which will allow sound estimates about the scale of the problem. … Still, as an exploratory study, the HSRC report confirms a portrait of human trafficking in South Africa that requires serious action by

government and civil society to track and address the problem.”

The Institute for Security Studies last week cautioned that while important, information presented in anti-trafficking initiatives had to be accurate and based on evidence, “rather than merely aiming to instill fear and outrage.” Senior researcher Chandre Gould, noted that a grouping called "Stop 2010 Human Trafficking" recently released a web-based video clip aimed at raising awareness about trafficking in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. She said in the clip, popular South African soap opera stars and musicians made exaggerated and inaccurate claims about trafficking and sex work in South Africa, claiming, among other things that “100 000 people will fall victim to trafficking in South Africa before the World Cup.”

Gould said before the 2006 World Cup in Germany, media reports convinced the public that 40 000 women and children would be trafficked into Germany to meet the demand of an estimated three million soccer spectators. “However researchers only find evidence of five cases of trafficking. While the research may not have identified all incidents that occurred during the 2006 World Cup, it highlights the substantial gulf that exists between reality and the fears that exist in relation to human trafficking.”

Gold says FIFA estimates that at best 450 000 international spectators will visit South Africa - that is six times fewer visitors than to the 2006 Germany World Cup. “It is therefore highly unlikely that 100 000 people would be trafficked into South Africa. Indeed, were that to be the case there would be just less than one trafficked victim for every four spectators.”

Meanwhile, the South African Press Association reports SA's National Prosecuting Authority has obtained its first conviction for human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. SAPA says the state used racketeering laws related to sexual exploitation to convict a couple, South African Basheer Sayed and Thai national, Somcharee Chuchumporn, in the Durban Regional Court. “We are using that so that we can charge people for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation,” said NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) welcomed the conviction. “We would welcome any prosecution for trafficking in humans in particular successful prosecutions,” said UNODC national project co-ordinator for human trafficking Johan Kruger. Sayed and Chuchumporn are due to be sentenced on May 10 and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or a R100 million fine, he said.

The duo was arrested in 2007 after three Thai women fled their brothel on Umbilo road and sought sanctuary at their embassy. The women were recruited by Chuchumporn in Thailand. “It was clear from the moment they left Thailand it was for prostitution. There were no false pretences,” said Mhaga. Though the women knew they were recruited to be prostitutes, the harsh treatment they received at the brothel forced them to flee.

“It was also revealed that they were responsible for managing operations and activities at the said premises. The premises were therefore identified as the central operational point for the unauthorised and unlawful activities,” said Mhaga. “There was therefore an existence of an organised human trafficking structure where females were being sexually exploited for a profit.” The women have since returned to Thailand.

The conviction comes on the heels of the tabling in the National Assembly of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill [B7-2010]. Presently, the NPA is prosecuting accused human traffickers for a combination of other crimes, such as in the case of Sayed and Chuchumporn, SAPA said. However, Mhaga said that while human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation could draw long sentences, this was not necessarily the case with human trafficking for other reasons. It is hoped that the new legislation will address this.

The Bill, announced by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe in Parliament on Tuesday last week, will further give South African courts jurisdiction in respect of acts committed outside South Africa if those acts would have been an offence under the Bill had they been committed in South Africa, the BuaNews agency reports. Radebe said the Bill, once it becomes an Act of Parliament and is fully operational, will be one of the most comprehensive laws in the fight against human trafficking in the world.

Kruger applauded the NPA’s use of existing legislation to prosecute human traffickers. “This serves as a guide for prosecutors in the absence [of human trafficking law], when you have a skilled prosecutor who can use other legislation to secure a conviction,” he said. The NPA is also receiving assistance from the European Union (EU) to tackle human trafficking. Last week, an EU representative said the NPA had received 3.6 million euros (R35 millin) to identify and prosecute human trafficking. “They are important partners in our campaign,” said Mhaga.

In another development, Minister of Home Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma told Parliament guidelines were in place to coordinate immigration and police functions during the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer tournament in order to protect victims of human trafficking and arrest the perpetrators.

Answering a written question by ruling party MP ZL “Mighty” Madasa, she said guidelines in place included:

The Department of Home Affairs will liaise with all relevant stakeholders, namely, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Department of Social Services, The International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), and South African Police Service (SAPS).
Victims will be placed in Places of Safety to be rehabilitated, and assisted to supply information (when ready, and able to do so) to the Law Enforcement Agencies to take the necessary legal action, and steps against perpetrators.
Assessments will be undertaken to determine if victims, who are foreign nationals can be safely returned to their countries of origin by means of liaising with the applicable Embassies.
Arrests will be made, and legal action will be taken against perpetrators, if information is received from, either the victims, or from the respective Law Enforcement Agencies.
Application of the applicable legislative framework will depend on the circumstances of these cases, namely, the Immigration Act, 2002 (Act No 13 of 2002), and the Sexual Offences, and Related Matters Amendment Act, 2007 (Act No 32 of 2007).

SA hub and destination for human trafficking: report | DefenceWeb

BERNAMA - Hishammuddin Admits Weaknesses In Tackling Human Trafficking Issues

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March 31, 2010 22:24 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein has admitted some weaknesses in the government's policy in tackling the issue involving victims of human trafficking.

Hence, he hoped the National Anti-Trafficking Action Plan which was launched Wednesday, would help in improving those weaknesses.

"Human trafficking deals with two components -- the criminals and victims. For the criminals, we have sufficient Malaysian laws to punish them severely but on the part of victims, we have only so far, focused on protection for victims, an ex-post solution.

"Hence, the plan we unveiled today will attempt to tackle the missing parts, especially in providing preventative measures to protect the victims, an ex-ante solution such as educating and informing our society on the seriousness of this crime and the negative repercussions that it has on them," he told reporters here.

Earlier, Hishammuddin launched the action plan which set the objectives and focus to prevent and combat human-trafficking activities over the next five years.

-- BERNAMA

BERNAMA - Hishammuddin Admits Weaknesses In Tackling Human Trafficking Issues

Marian Wright Edelman: Haiti's Restavèk Children: The Child Servitude Crisis

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Marian Wright Edelman

President, Children's Defense Fund

Posted: March 29, 2010 07:56 PM

The recent earthquake in Haiti gave the rest of the world a glimpse of a form of child suffering that often goes unseen. When a group of American missionaries were accused of child trafficking, many people were confused by the story that unfolded. How could parents have been desperate enough to agree to simply give their children away to strangers? Sadly, this wasn't just an isolated event that only happened because of the earthquake. Thousands of poor Haitian parents send their children away to live with strangers every year, desperately entrusting them to people who tell the parents they will help provide their children with a better life. But not all of these children are transferred to well-meaning caregivers who plan to give them an education or help them find adoptive families. Instead, many poor Haitian children end up trapped in child servitude.

Many Americans watching media coverage of the earthquake were moved by the poverty in Port-au-Prince, but the images from Haiti's capital actually overlooked a devastating reality: the level of poverty in the nation's rural areas is even worse. Almost half of Haiti's population is under age 18, so children are hit very hard by the country's deep poverty, and rural children and families are especially vulnerable. The American organization Beyond Borders has been working to serve the needs of the poor in Haiti for almost 20 years, and the child servitude crisis, which they call a "brutal form of modern slavery," preys on rural families and is one of their main concerns.

As Beyond Borders explains, "Even before the quake, roughly one in ten [about 300,000] Haitian children,
mostly girls, were living apart from their parents in unpaid domestic servitude -- working endlessly, without the opportunity to attend school or play. Some were orphans, but many more were sent by their parents in poor rural communities to live with urban families who falsely promised to feed, clothe, and educate them.

Desperate and destitute, these parents thought they were giving their children a brighter future. Instead, those boys and girls endured -- and continue to endure -- unimaginable humiliation and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Because the Haitian government has had no system in place for protecting or even registering these children who live apart from their parents, they have been absolutely defenseless."
The name for these children in Haiti is restavèk, a Creole word that comes from the French reste avec, "stay with," but has evolved to become a general slur meaning worthless. Some of these restavèk children may have been among the traumatized boys and girls we saw on our television screens after the earthquake -- now more alone and afraid than ever. What can be done to help them? Beyond Borders is one of the organizations fighting for them on several fronts.

First, they try to stop and reverse the flow of children into servitude. One key step is conducting campaigns to educate rural parents about the real risks of sending their children away. Another is making education available for rural children. Beyond Borders notes that, right now, fewer than half of Haiti's rural children attend school, most of those who do never finish elementary school, and fewer than four in 100 graduate from high school. But many parents wouldn't consider sending their children away if an education were available to them at home, so Beyond Borders is working to improve the quality of rural schools and provide scholarships for rural children. They are also investing in rural development overall, providing hope for families who live in these areas.

For children who are already caught up in the child servitude system, Beyond Borders is raising awareness of children's rights and developing a grassroots movement to demand that government, civic leaders and citizens do more to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and neglect. They are helping train Haitian police to enforce existing laws protecting children, and training adult survivors of child servitude to become the core of a new abolitionist movement speaking out against the practice. In the wake of the earthquake, there was an outpouring of international compassion for Haiti's children and a new urgency focused on creating a system to ensure children in need were properly documented and safely cared for until they could be reunited with family members or safe caregivers. Beyond Borders is now working with the government, UNICEF, Save the Children, and others to seize this moment of care and concern and fight for the same protections for all of the country's vulnerable children. I am so grateful to Beyond Borders and all those like them committed to keeping children safe, ensuring each one a childhood, and making sure no child believes he or she is worthless.

Marian Wright Edelman: Haiti's Restavèk Children: The Child Servitude Crisis

Cambodia Children Sold Into Slavery - ABC News

Clay Butler, a 27-year-old evangelical Christian from California, points to a group of children playing in the street and said, "I know kids in that group who are being trafficked. I know the situations, I know the brothels that they're in."

Dan Harris examines why children are being exploited as sex slaves.

Butler runs a community center in the village of Svay Pak, the epicenter of Cambodia's raging child sex trafficking epidemic. It's a place where, on any given night, many of the children will be sold -- by their own parents -- for sex with strangers.

He is one of many American Christians who have come to this impoverished, war-ravaged country to protect

some of the world's most vulnerable children.
"I think the most exciting part of Christianity is living it out," Butler said. "This stuff is not fun at all, but there is a deep fulfillment in laying your life down for somebody else."

Other Americans Christians are practicing an even more daring version of their faith. A group called the International Justice Mission regularly sends undercover agents into the brothels to gather video evidence. The goup then works with local police to bust suspected sex tourists, oftentimes American men. They also rescue child sex slaves like Bella, a 15-year-old who says she was forced by pimps to have sex every day.

Bella was sold into slavery by her mother. In Cambodia, it can be astonishingly easy to buy a child from the family. During a recent visit to Cambodia, ABC News was able to negotiate -- in broad daylight -- with the mother of a 15-year-old girl. The mother said she was willing to sell her daughter to a foreigner for marriage.

When asked how much it would cost, the mother answered, through a translator, "It's up to you."
In response to a question about whether her daughter had been with another man before, she said, "No, no,
no. If you don't trust you can take her to the hospital… for a medical examination."

So why is it so easy to buy a child on the streets of Cambodia? Poverty is one explanation, but some Christians say the ghosts of history play a role.

Pastor Has Seen Cambodian Child Sold to Pay for Superficial Items

Cambodia endured a massive genocide in the 1970s, during which children were forced to spy on and even execute their parents -- and the educated and religious communities were nearly wiped out.
Pastor Don Brewster, who runs a shelter for former child sex slaves and works with Clay Butler, said he believes that Cambodia now suffers from a moral vacuum.

"These families will take a loan to buy a TV which they can never pay," Brewster said. "They can't feed themselves, never mind buy a TV, but they know, 'Hey, I've got my ace in the whole. I can sell my daughter.'"
Bella, the 15-year-old rescued by the International Justice Mission, is now staying at Pastor Brewster's shelter, where she said she is finally getting help.

Cambodia Children Sold Into Slavery - ABC News

The Price of Sex: Women Speak | The Price of Sex

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The Price of Sex: Women Speak | The Price of Sex

Hundreds of thousands of Eastern European women have been sold into prostitution since the collapse of communism in 1989. Photojournalist Mimi Chakarova, a Bulgarian who immigrated to the United States in 1990, has documented their journeys from villages in Moldova and Albania to the streets of Turkey and nightclubs in Dubai. For Chakarova, this project has unfolded over the course of seven years. Read some of her reporting journals.

A PROJECT OF THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING