By Hajira Khota
09:09:2021

According to the US State Department’s 2021 Trafficking Report, South Africa is a hotspot for sex and human trafficking, with girls as young as ten the victims.

According to the report, human traffickers in South Africa exploit both domestic and foreign victims. The South African government is not yet entirely reaching minimal standards for eliminating human trafficking but is working hard.

Human trafficking and the sex industry are commonly linked, according to Liza Moroney of eXpose HOPE, a non-profit organisation in Durban, South Africa, that works with women enslaved in the sex industry and victims of trafficking. Her organisation works with more than 250 women in Durban who work on the streets and in over 35 brothels.

Vasti Toms, from eXpose HOPE, was interviewed by Radio Islam International says that many trafficked women in Durban became trapped in a vicious cycle. They were terrified to return home and grew reliant on their traffickers for money to send home or to fund their drug habits, which they were forced into.

According to the report, traffickers from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and Ghana were increasingly operating in South Africa.

These measures included continuing to prosecute and convict traffickers, sending convicted traffickers to prison for long periods, and continuing a few investigations into authorities suspected of being engaged in trafficking.

However, according to the US Department of State’s 2021 Trafficking in Person report, corruption and official cooperation in human trafficking remained a significant barrier. The government did not take action in most reported cases.

Toms says that if women were drug-free, they could get away from the sex industry by going to a safe area.

During the reporting period, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation investigated 31 incidents of human trafficking, according to the report. Foreign nationals, mainly from Nigeria, China, and Bangladesh, were the most likely suspects.

Compared to the conviction of eight traffickers in five cases the previous year, the government convicted seven traffickers in an undetermined number of cases this year. Two traffickers were condemned to life in prison, while the other five were sentenced to 22 to 25 years in prison.

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