South Texans Move To Africa To Stop Human Trafficking | Corpus Christi, TX | KZTV10.com |

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Posted: Dec 28, 2010 7:09 PM by Spencer Lubitz
Updated: Dec 29, 2010 6:51 AM

CORPUS CHRISTI - Tears filled the Corpus Christi Airport Tuesday evening, as family and friends gathered at the airport to bid farewell to a group of local residents moving to South Africa to combat human trafficking.


"I just can't believe it's finally here," said Sonya Martinez, the group leader.

Excitement exuded from those about to take the 10,000 mile journey to Lesotho.

"We're so anxious and excited just to get on the plane," said Charles Martinez. "Just to be in Lesotho, I can't get my mind off of that. It's exciting."

The group will be housing and caring for the countless victims of the human trafficking industry, a multi-billion dollar business that revolves around buying and selling people as slaves.

"I am a little excited to go to Africa and help the people where help is needed," said Maya Martinez, who, at age 13, will join her parents and become the youngest person to make the move.

Sonya, who has visited the area in the past, said the children are in dire need of assistance.

"They're just very oppressed, and they're very unfortunate, and they're in need. They're in danger," said Sonya.

The society's oppressive nature isn't enough to deter Sonya's husband Charles from counting down the days.

"I will kiss the ground when I get there, and take a very long nap," he said. "I've been so excited; I haven't been able to sleep very well."

This group is just the first wave. Next year, they will be joined by a second group of South Texans who will follow them in making the journey to Southern Africa.

Their work will already be cut out for them once they arrive, but they say South Africa is only the first stop, and it's due to end right back here at home.

"Corpus represents freedom to me," Sonya said. "I'm just looking forward to going to many different places, but starting with South Africa to help make that dream a reality in other places as well."

In two years, the group will return to establish a similar care center in South Texas.

"I am from South Texas, I was born and raised in South Texas," Sonya said, on the importance of returning to build a local facility.

They say they hope to come back with the knowledge to make changes in our own community.

"Hopefully make a difference," Charles said. "That's all we want to do, is make a difference."

With their suitcase filled with wishes and dreams, they were gone.
 Source: kztv10.com
South Texans Move To Africa To Stop Human Trafficking | Corpus Christi, TX | KZTV10.com |

Life after human trafficking

Written by OTTILIA ANNA MAUNGANIDZE

Thursday, 16 December 2010 12:37

At Pretoria-based Tshwane Home of Hope, the jubilant young faces of the girls who live there hide the truth of the horrors they have encountered. (Pictured: South Africa is the main destination for trafficking victims in the southern Africa region, with women and children coming from neighbouring countries including Zimbabwe) On the premises is a trauma centre – aptly dubbed by one of the residents as “the hope sanctuary” – here the girls meet with a resident social worker and psychologist to share their stories, stories that will never leave the four walls of the room. The Home receives new girls often – most are walk-ins, while the police bring others in from the street corners on which they would have been working. The youngest girl is seven and the oldest is 21; they hail from South Africa, as well as places further afield like Zimbabwe, Burundi, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their reasons for coming to the centre are as diverse as their backgrounds. However, they all have one thing in common – they want to be safe. While not all these girls have been trafficked or once worked in the sex industry, they are all at the Home because they have run away from violence. Protection Tendai Joe, director of the centre and also a former street child, works tirelessly to ensure the girls receive adequate protection, go to school and live a life they deserve. Human trafficking and modern-day slavery continues to gnaw at the moral fabric of our society. Globally, according to research conducted by the United States State Department, more than one million people are trafficked annually. How many of those are in Southern Africa is not known. Human trafficking by its very nature is a form of gender-based violence, not least because the majority of those trafficked are female, but also because physical and sexual violence are its bedfellows. While there are many forms of human trafficking, the most common is sex trafficking of women and children. Though some of the women trafficked willingly participate in sex work to escape poverty, a 2005 International Organisation for Migration (IOM) study found that most are led into sex work because they are lied to, told they will be able to pursue an education, get married or get the job that will help them out of poverty. In the sub-region, South Africa is the main destination for trafficking victims, with women and children coming from neighbouring countries and conflict zones further afield. Poverty and desperation coupled with a culture of patriarchy means that women are doubly vulnerable not only to trafficking, but to the violence that comes with it. Xenophobia Most disconcerting are the findings of a 2008/9 Wits University Law Clinic study on access to gender-based violence services in South Africa by migrant women. It found that two thirds of South African organisations that provide services to gender-based violence survivors offer their services exclusively to South African citizens. Therefore the plight of immigrants is compounded by the institutionalised xenophobia they face. Yet, reports abound of rapes and other forms of gender-based violence, especially at the country’s borders. The South African 1 in 9 campaign advocates for women to speak out if they are raped, this is based on the fact that only 1 out of every 9 South African women who has been raped reports the crime. When it comes to victims of trafficking, it is difficult to collect data because of the underground nature of sex trafficking and the fear on the part of most sex workers that if they speak out they will be arrested, deported or abused or raped by police. Organisations like the Sex Worker Education and Advisory Taskforce (SWEAT), which advocate for the decriminalisation of sex work, contend that until sex work is decriminalised it is unlikely that efforts to counter human trafficking will yield results. The victimisation of sex workers stems primarily from the fact that their profession is not afforded any protection. “Moral” arguments against sex work notwithstanding, if human trafficking is to be curbed, the inherent contradictions that exist between attempting to counter human trafficking and the continued criminalisation of sex work need to be resolved. Meeting In February this year, sex workers from ten African countries assembled in Hillbrow, Johannesburg to share their experiences and discuss their needs. This was the first ever meeting of this kind on the African continent. At the conference a Ugandan sex worker voiced her concern over the way in which sex workers are treated “like dogs” by the police. Many indicated that the abuse did not only come from police, but also from health service providers, clients and the pimps they work for. The irony of the criminalisation of sex work in Africa is that it is the woman who offers the service who is stigmatised and abused, while those who pay for her illegal services go scot-free. It is one of society’s entrenched patriarchal paradoxes. According to Cape Town based NGO Anex-CDW, which works closely with the IOM in its human trafficking project, most of the cases are reported by third parties and often the victims deny the allegation or refuse to talk about it. The wall of silence is almost impenetrable. While the girls of Tshwane Home of Hope did not share the horrors of their lives, their presence at the Home speaks of an untold story of violence and fear. The Home is one of several sanctuaries for girls scattered across South Africa. In an ideal world homes such as this would not have to exist, everyone would be free from fear and want; everyone would be safe. The reality is we are not. Ottilia Anna Maunganidze is a consultant for the International Crime in Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies. This article is part of a special series on the 16 Days of Activism for the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service. Source: thezimbabwean.co.uk

Life after human trafficking

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Human trafficking needs more inclusive definition - by Catherine Sasman

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From New Era

30 August 2010 

WINDHOEK – Well-known social researcher in the southern African region, Merab Kiremire, said human trafficking ought to be redefined for perpetrators to be more successfully prosecuted.

Currently, human trafficking is taking a person from one place to another for purposes other than stated or agreed upon through coaxing, deception, convincing, fraud, abuse of power, outright abduction, or coercion.

Human trafficking is also described as the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labour (including bonded labour or debt bondage, and servitude).

Exploitation includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude.

“If we continue with complex definitions, the system won’t be able to prosecute traffickers; there must be a way to simplify terms,” said Kiremire, who was part of a team that travelled throughout the country and had gone to all border posts during May to July to raise awareness about human trafficking among border-post personnel, truck drivers and church and political leaders in preparation for the 2010 Fifa World Cup that took place in South Africa.

The group, under the auspices of the Churches United Against HIV/AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa, in partnership with the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), did a baseline study of what a likely scenario would be during the soccer event.

What the group found, said Karimire, and was that girls and women were streaming into South Africa, which is considered as the best sex trade market in the region.

In a 2008 study entitled Southern African Network Against Abuse and Trafficking, Kiremire found 110 girls – usually between the ages of 14 to 24, considered the ‘prime’ years for prostitutes – were found to have moved from Lusaka in Zambia to Johannesburg “to be located in the most appropriate places”.

The more recent study showed that girls and women moved to South Africa, especially from Mozambique and Zambia. Those who went from Namibia left mainly from Windhoek and Walvis Bay, often armed only with the knowledge that they have to “following B1” to South Africa.

“What we found was not so much what can be considered human trafficking, but prostitutes moving,” said Karimire.

However, she said, what became clear was that the girls were taken by older prostitutes and truck drivers.

“Often these girls would not know where they are going. The risk young people take is horrendous, and yet they say they often have no alternative but to,” said Kiremire. A shocking discovery, said Kiremire, was the symbiotic relationship between prostitutes, truck drivers and border-post personnel that become familiar with the drivers passing through regularly.

At one police checkpoint at Grünau, it was recorded that over a period of four days, as many as 50 trucks passed by with women on board.

Police in this instance are often helpless bystanders because the women have valid travel documents.

“The biggest discovery was the fact that there is a very thin line between consensual movement and trafficking. We did not find, for example, syndicates that intentionally recruit and move people without consent. Many of the girls are happy to jump onto a truck thinking they are going to Windhoek, but then they find themselves taken to Oshikango, where they are dumped,” explained Kiremire.

In other cases, young girls go onto fishing vessels at Walvis Bay “for a good time”, and without their knowledge or consent end up in places such as Argentine.

Kiremire said a new law is required that would clearly identify and prosecute the traffickers, and that gives law enforcers the power to use their discretionary powers to incarcerate suspicious elements until proven wrong.

“I think that way more people can be protected,” said Kiremire.


http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=12732

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