Now I know I've been slow at doing this blog so far this year - sorry, but family upheaval comes first - and then I come across something that makes me boggle.
Last summer I talked about trafficking and body parts but a today I came across a study from Canada covering 2011 that has just found that human trafficking in South Africa has been getting worse and worse as trafficking rings become more sophisticated and poverty means that more people are desperate and easily targeted.
On the streets of Durban [in South Africa], for example, children are sold for muti and organ “donation”, or used for sexual exploitation, cheap labour and forced marriage. The upshot of some of this is that social workers have estimated there are 28,000 child prostitutes in South Africa, many now as young as 10-12 years old.
Traffickers target desperate women and children from rural areas, and lure them away under the pretext of jobs in the big city. Barbara Ras, Founder of the Atlantis Women's Movement said recently “There’s a whole network of people involved – recruiters, taxi drivers, the person waiting in the city, etc. There are even women that help with the trafficking of children and other women,” she explains. “Some girls are sold from person to person – this problem is bigger than we realise and this came to light through the active work of the City’s Vice Squad.”
The Centre for International Policy’s Global Financial Integrity programme has estimated that human trafficking accounts for R230 million of illicit trade a year, only one third behind drugs and counterfeit goods.
Many of the factors behind the high incidence of human trafficking, especially child trafficking, are problems that we come across every day - poverty, illness and lack of hope leading to more and more children becoming orphaned and lacking a responsible caregiver - it makes children so very vulnerable.
Currently, most offenders who are caught trafficking are charged with sexual abuse, rape and kidnapping. There has yet to be legislation implemented in South Africa to charge a person with human trafficking - yet again I have to ask do the politicians not know what is going on in their country, or don't they care?
Last summer I talked about trafficking and body parts but a today I came across a study from Canada covering 2011 that has just found that human trafficking in South Africa has been getting worse and worse as trafficking rings become more sophisticated and poverty means that more people are desperate and easily targeted.
On the streets of Durban [in South Africa], for example, children are sold for muti and organ “donation”, or used for sexual exploitation, cheap labour and forced marriage. The upshot of some of this is that social workers have estimated there are 28,000 child prostitutes in South Africa, many now as young as 10-12 years old.
Traffickers target desperate women and children from rural areas, and lure them away under the pretext of jobs in the big city. Barbara Ras, Founder of the Atlantis Women's Movement said recently “There’s a whole network of people involved – recruiters, taxi drivers, the person waiting in the city, etc. There are even women that help with the trafficking of children and other women,” she explains. “Some girls are sold from person to person – this problem is bigger than we realise and this came to light through the active work of the City’s Vice Squad.”
The Centre for International Policy’s Global Financial Integrity programme has estimated that human trafficking accounts for R230 million of illicit trade a year, only one third behind drugs and counterfeit goods.
Many of the factors behind the high incidence of human trafficking, especially child trafficking, are problems that we come across every day - poverty, illness and lack of hope leading to more and more children becoming orphaned and lacking a responsible caregiver - it makes children so very vulnerable.
Currently, most offenders who are caught trafficking are charged with sexual abuse, rape and kidnapping. There has yet to be legislation implemented in South Africa to charge a person with human trafficking - yet again I have to ask do the politicians not know what is going on in their country, or don't they care?
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