Human Trafficking A Reality For South Africans While Sentencing Delayed In Human Trafficking Case
Human trafficking in South Africa is responsible for approximately 30,000 people being sold into slavery every year. Most of those who are sold end up in the sex trade, while others become forced labor. More than half are female, and only one percent of those sold through human trafficking worldwide ever get free.
News 24 reported that human trafficking was done for different reasons including prostitution, forced labor, and even human body parts. Lieutenant Gerda Swart, Uitenhage Cluster police spokesperson, said that children and the unemployed are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked.
“Children, young people and adults alike, particularly the unemployed who are looking for opportunities to improve their life conditions, might fall victim to these types of crime.”
The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 makes it a crime to traffic children for any purpose. Children under the age of 15 are not legally allowed to be employed or out of school. Swart said there were things to look for so children and adults are safe.
“Look out for people, who say they have job opportunities that promise a lot of money in a short space of time. Teach your children to be careful of adults who try to befriend them, whether in person, or through cellphone or social media.”
The BRICS countries conference in March, will include #humantrafficking as a focus https://t.co/MXIj892Cfc
— Nat.Freedom.Network (@NFN_SA) February 10, 2016
As previously reported in Inquisitr, human trafficking came into the spotlight because of the Superbowl. Denver Broncos player Ryan Murphy was detained in a sting involving attempts by police to try and stop human trafficking at the Super Bowl. No other American sporting event is responsible for more human trafficking than the Super Bowl. Although the Super Bowl highlighted human trafficking, it did little to highlight the farm murders, white genocide, and human trafficking taking place in South Africa.
After a couple in Cape Town was charged with human trafficking, parents were warned to be careful because of a scam involving offering boys fake scholarships to a soccer school. The soccer scam took place in KwaZulu-Natal. Five boys were recruited and told that they had received a soccer scholarship to a top soccer academy. Scams like this are often employed to recruit children. The boys were later recovered and returned to their families, an outcome that seldom happens for children sold into human trafficking.
Human Trafficking happens all around us, in all areas, this is why it is so important to create awareness!… https://t.co/h1dhFYYWgL
— Anex (@_Anex_) February 8, 2016
ENCA reported that two Chinese nationals had been convicted of human trafficking last year. Because of the absence of a Chinese interpreter in the Parow Sexual Offences Court, Jiang Wang, of Kenilworth, Cape Town, and Yiting Wong could not be sentenced by Magistrate Elsa van Zyl.
In May of last year, they were found guilty of two counts of human trafficking and one count of keeping a brothel. The case was postponed for sentencing until May 5 after the Chinese interpreter notified the prosecutor Anthea Swartz that he could not be present in court after the lunch break.
Nature World News reported that human trafficking isn’t the only form of trafficking that is a problem in South Africa. Poaching and trafficking of animals is also a problem. Axel Hunnicutt of the Wild Tomorrow Fund said that it was important for those involved in stopping trafficking to get organized.
“If I want to talk about African wildlife trade, I need to set the narrative — and the narrative doesn’t start in Africa, it actually starts in Southeast and Eastern Asia.”
Although human trafficking is a problem in South Africa, the South African government has failed to take action to confront the problem. Human trafficking occurs at all economic levels of society in South Africa.
[Photo by Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]
