Indonesian Fishermen Stranded in South Africa After Horror Voyage

Source: The Jakarta Globe

Cape Town. Dozens of Indonesian fishermen who spent months stranded in Cape Town’s harbor, sleeping in cramped and suffocating quarters, have been taken ashore to a repatriation center after being stuck at sea for years without pay.

The group of 75 fishermen tell of slavery-like working conditions aboard seven Taiwanese-owned vessels — an ordeal that only grew worse when South African authorities impounded their trawlers for illegal fishing.

The crew spent three months stranded in Cape Town’s Table Bay, sleeping crowded together in dirty, airless quarters that reeked of diesel, until they were moved to a repatriation center in Johannesburg on Saturday.

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‘World Cup human trafficking fears exaggerated’

Image via Wikipedia

By Own Correspondent
Thursday 27 May 2010

JOHANNESBURG – Fears of increased human trafficking for the FIFA World Cup are gross exaggerations by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) hoping to raise extra resources, South African sex work researchers said this week.

The South African media has during the build up to the World Cup, which kicks off in the country on June 11, been awash with stories of an expected surge in sex workers, including Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardships, converging into the country to make money from the hundreds of thousands of soccer fans and tourists following their teams during the month-long tournament.

Some of the reports put the figure of expected sex workers being trafficked into the country from around the globe – particularly from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa – for the tournament at about 40 000.

"I suspect very little of it is done maliciously. The World Cup provides the opportunity to raise awareness of levels of violence in South Africa, specifically on women and children. I don't think that makes it right to perpetuate myths and unsubstantiated claims,” Marlize Richter, a researcher from the University of the Witwatersrand said at a discussion hosted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Cape Town.

"I think there is an element of resources in the NGO world and if you can show there is a big threat and that your organisation can provide for it, then it is in your interests to perhaps spice things up. I'm not thinking it is a conspiracy theory or someone out there is trying to make money for profit. But I do think there is a sense of getting resources while you can tagging on to the World Cup."

ISS researcher Chandre Gould, author of Sex Work and Human Trafficking in a South African City – a book on sex work in Cape Town – said she had encountered very few cases of human trafficking in her investigation, adding that the widely reported figure of 40 000 sex workers was entirely false.

"That number of 40 000 has no basis in fact. In the World Cup in Germany and the Olympics in Athens no increase in trafficking was found. There is no reason to believe South Africa will be any different from Germany or Athens. So we are not anticipating that we will see a dramatic change in circumstances."

She said very little research had been done on human trafficking and she had in Cape Town found only a handful of cases of women who had been trafficked.

"We determined a point-in-time estimate of the number of sex workers – 964 in brothels and 245 on the street – a total of 1 209. This means that 0.03 percent of the population of Cape Town works in the industry,” she said.

Zimbabweans, including women – some of whom have no skills for formal employment – continue to flee their country into neighbouring countries, with South Africa the destination of choice, to escape poverty and economic hardships at home.

Some of the women have turned to sex work to supplement their meagre earnings from odd jobs they do to earn a living and support their families back home. – ZimOnline

ZimOnline - Zimbabwe's Independent News Agency

STOP 2010 Human trafficking in South Africa

There is still so much human trafficking happening around the world, that it is absolutely incredible that people know so little about it.

Sex Tourism is when tourists, mostly men, engage in sex-trafficking by purposely traveling to known sex destinations (usually under-developed and poor nations), seeking anonymity in pornography or prostitution, or engaging in pederasty with young children and homosexuality with young and older adults. Many of these victims were either sold into the trade or kidnapped and forced into sex-slavery (this is called human-trafficking).

I would like to draw your attention to the following South African website, STOP.

According to STOP, “People are mainly trafficked and enslaved as sex workers but also as forced labourers, child brides and as soldiers. This is fact. Of the 600-800’000 people smuggled over international borders annually, 75% are used for sex trafficking.”

Keep your eyes and ears open, folks, and if you find out that someone has been kidnapped and is being used for human-trafficking, or hear rumours that someone is involved as a trafficker, or has been forced into sex-slavery or prostitution, please report it to the relevant authorities.

This following Animated Information Video was created by Firestorm Production for STOP Human Trafficking’s 2010 Human Traffic campaign. All performers are pupils of Jan van Riebeeck Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa. Please watch it!

Kids on Human Trafficking in SA

http://www.southafricaproject.org/blog/2010/03/stop-2010-human-trafficking-in-south-africa-2/

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Spotlight on trafficking syndicates ahead of 2010 | West Cape News

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Beverley Houston

As the world’s media focuses its attention on the Fifa World Cup 2010 Final Draw in Cape Town on December 4, few will be aware of the impact the tournament may have on the lives of vulnerable women and children targeted by trafficking syndicates.

National Trafficking Awareness Day, which takes place two days before the draw, on December 2, hopes to raise some awareness about the global problem.

“The huge influx of people over this period will drive demand. Of equal concern is the amount of school age children who will be trafficked during this time. We have already come across cases of children going missing in schools and we expect this to escalate over the 2010 period,” said Natalie Bulling, coordinator for Red Light Human Trafficking, an initiative started with the intention of combating and creating awareness about the disturbing prevalence of human trafficking in Southern Africa.

Concerns have been raised by Red Light and other organisations operating in this field, that more than 100 000 people could be trafficked into the country during the World Cup.

Currently South Africa has no legislation to cover human trafficking; as a result, a lot of cases slip through the radar. “The absence of legislation has impacted on the data-collection, investigation and prosecution of people involved with in-country and cross border trafficking,” said Julayga Alfred, Director of Activists Networking against the Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers (Anex CDW).

A global report on trafficking has identified South Africa as source, transit and destination country for the trafficking of women, men and children. The Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report has put South Africa on the Tier Two Watch list, for the fourth consecutive year for its failure to show increasing efforts to address trafficking. More than 175 countries are included in the report, the most comprehensive worldwide research on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons. Ranging from Tier One to Three, the Tier Two Watch list places South Africa in a danger zone in terms of compliance with laws to prevent trafficking.

Director of child rights organisation Molo Songololo, Patric Solomons, said children have been identified as the most vulnerable during the World Cup.

“The vulnerable status of children places them at particular risk of being exploited by their elders in the hope of economic gain. Pull factors specifically related to the 2010 Fifa World Cup are mostly linked to poorer communities’ perceptions regarding the socio-economic benefits of the event,” said Solomons.

The United Nations estimates that child trafficking generates $US7 to $10 billion annually for traffickers, citing trafficking in persons as the second most lucrative crime around the world next to the drug trade.

Solomons said the importance of large-scale awareness campaigns during the World Cup, which is expected to generate more than $4-billion, the highest revenue in World Cup history, is of the utmost importance. - West Cape News

http://westcapenews.com/?p=1220