Source: The New Age Online
Feb 27 2012 8:32AM
Mel Frykberg
The recent kidnapping of a South African woman by her Pakistani husband’s family in Pakistan, and her subsequent rescue by Pakistani authorities and South African officials, has highlighted the problem of human trafficking.
While the issue of South African women marrying abusive foreigners and being cut off from the outside world is serious, there are other, more prevalent forms of human trafficking.
South Africa is used by human traffickers as a source, transit point and destination country for the trafficking of men, women and children.
While the trafficking of people into South Africa is a bigger problem than the trafficking of people outside of the country, there is also internal trafficking.
European, Asian, and African women are brought into the country for commercial sex exploitation, domestic servitude and service sector jobs, while South African women are moved around internally in the country for the same purposes.
Boys and young men from southern African countries including Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trafficked into South Africa to be used as a form of cheap labour on farms, sometimes working months without being paid by the farmers.
The farmers are able to exploit the boys as many of them are illegal immigrants and the boys are unlikely to complain to the authorities, as the farmers may have them arrested and deported if they do.
The Human Sciences Research Council conducted a research on the issue on behalf of the South African government’s National Prosecuting Authority and identified a number of factors and patterns defining human trafficking in the country.
These included:
• South Africa is a destination county for long-distance flows for people (mainly women) trafficked from Thailand, Philippines, India, China, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. The main point of entry of this trafficking stream is OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.
• People are trafficked from within Africa across the extensive land borders of South Africa, mostly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho.
The recent kidnapping of a South African woman by her Pakistani husband’s family in Pakistan, and her subsequent rescue by Pakistani authorities and South African officials, has highlighted the problem of human trafficking.
While the issue of South African women marrying abusive foreigners and being cut off from the outside world is serious, there are other, more prevalent forms of human trafficking.
South Africa is used by human traffickers as a source, transit point and destination country for the trafficking of men, women and children.
While the trafficking of people into South Africa is a bigger problem than the trafficking of people outside of the country, there is also internal trafficking.
European, Asian, and African women are brought into the country for commercial sex exploitation, domestic servitude and service sector jobs, while South African women are moved around internally in the country for the same purposes.
Boys and young men from southern African countries including Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trafficked into South Africa to be used as a form of cheap labour on farms, sometimes working months without being paid by the farmers.
The farmers are able to exploit the boys as many of them are illegal immigrants and the boys are unlikely to complain to the authorities, as the farmers may have them arrested and deported if they do.
The Human Sciences Research Council conducted a research on the issue on behalf of the South African government’s National Prosecuting Authority and identified a number of factors and patterns defining human trafficking in the country.
These included:
• South Africa is a destination county for long-distance flows for people (mainly women) trafficked from Thailand, Philippines, India, China, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. The main point of entry of this trafficking stream is OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.
• People are trafficked from within Africa across the extensive land borders of South Africa, mostly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho.
• Longer-distance trafficking involve victims trafficked from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Somalia. All documented cases in this last category are women trafficked for both sexual and labour exploitation.
• The largest movement of trafficked people is from rural areas to cities.
• Trafficking of South Africans out of the 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 exploitation, labour exploitation or forced marriages.
The perpetrators include large organised crime networks involving South African men with a former military background. Criminal drug, smuggling and weapons groups are mainly behind the trafficking.
Points of destination for victims of trafficking in South Africa are the major cities, where the greatest demand exists, and towns and cities close to national borders.
Some of the most disturbing factors are the collusion of border and immigration officials through bribery, and lax border controls, which enable illegal transportation.
melf@thenewage.co.za
• The largest movement of trafficked people is from rural areas to cities.
• Trafficking of South Africans out of the 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 exploitation, labour exploitation or forced marriages.
The perpetrators include large organised crime networks involving South African men with a former military background. Criminal drug, smuggling and weapons groups are mainly behind the trafficking.
Points of destination for victims of trafficking in South Africa are the major cities, where the greatest demand exists, and towns and cities close to national borders.
Some of the most disturbing factors are the collusion of border and immigration officials through bribery, and lax border controls, which enable illegal transportation.
melf@thenewage.co.za
The year is 2010 and the destination is Johannesburg in South 
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