The Right Reverend Jo Seoka, Anglican Bishop of Pretoria
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
We are pleased to join you at this important workshop convened to focus on the urgent challenge of human trafficking. Judging by your theme: “Stop Human Trafficking”; it is clear that this workshop is a call to action. You will be pleased to note that South Africans from all walks of life are increasingly focusing on this as an urgent challenge, not only because the 2010 FIFA World Cup sharply raises the prospects of the proliferation of this challenge, but because they are concerned that children and women from anywhere in the world should be protected from this brutal crime.
Last year, in Queenstown, we had occasion to address children from various schools on the same topic and in two weeks’ time, we shall also be addressing another conference convened in Johannesburg to focus on this topic. We hope that the correct message goes out to the perpetrators of this brutal crime that South Africans have had it; that we are determined to stop human trafficking NOW!
Your initiative in actively advocating against this horrible crime is most welcome. We need more organisations such as yours which understand that not everything can be achieved by government acting alone; that working together we can do more. Human trafficking is a very old and covert crime; it is a very brutalising crime on the victim and their relatives and loved ones. Indeed we agree that human trafficking is a modern form of slavery and that everything possible must be done to combat it.
The holy book, in Genesis, relates to us a story of how Joseph, the son of Jacob, was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelite of Egypt for about eight ounces of silver. The story goes on to relate Jacob’s suffering at the news of the feigned death of his son. Fortunately for Joseph, with the Lord on his side, he eventually became a governor in Egypt. Rarely do the victims of human trafficking get that lucky.
But we also know that Joseph was not the only victim on that fateful day, he was one among many. Whilst we could easily dismiss such as an act belonging to the ancient times, today we are assembled like this because we know the sad truth that this crime has unfortunately survived time and has persisted even in modern times, and this time with greater ferocity than hitherto in ancient times.
Once the victims of trafficking, especially women and children, are captured, according to a book, The Natasha: The New Global Sex Trade, written by Victor Malarek, “a well oiled trafficking system kicks into gear. Criminal organisations use a variety of mechanisms to transport their human cargo across international borders. Many do so via channels that seem completely legal, thanks to student, tourist or temporary work visas. In some countries, women can get visas to work as exotic dancers or artists. Others enter as ‘mail order brides’. They then overstay their visas and slip into the netherworld of illegal migrants”.
Malarek goes further to say that: “When these seemingly legal avenues aren’t available, however, the traffickers turn to professional smugglers. Organised crime groups have established a massive and intricate network of routes through which they move women to different countries by land, water and air. These smuggling routes literally criss-cross the globe and are controlled virtually every step of the way by interconnected criminal networks”.
Several things are highlighted by this quote from Malarek, those are:
* Human trafficking is a well oiled machine that exploits seemingly legal routes in every country
* This ostensibly legal entry into a country through a visa immediately turns into an illegal overstaying in that country
* Trafficking utilises well established global transportation routes designed for this and other illicit purposes, that criss-cross the entire globe
* There is a relationship between traffickers and smugglers, even though these is not the same phenomenon and
* No single country can alone fight human trafficking as it is not limited to any single national boundary.
To this we can add that domestic trafficking can soon turn into global trafficking without the victim’s consent or knowledge, just in the process of trafficking as the victim exchanges hands. It is for this reason that the report of the Global Commission on International Migration (2005) underlined “the importance of multilateral cooperation, including targeted funding and capacity building, to ensure that these phenomena can be addressed on a worldwide basis”.
The United Nations protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons (Palermo protocol) defines human trafficking as:
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
The Palermo protocol emphasises that the consent of the victim, under the circumstances, is irrelevant. South Africa is a signatory to this United Nations protocol and therefore is obliged to fight human trafficking wherever it manifests itself.
At the outset, we will be the first to acknowledge that we currently do not have legislation that exclusively addresses all aspects relating to human trafficking. As a consequence of this acknowledgement, consultation is at an advantaged stage to introduce a Bill in parliament that will address this issue and related matters. The Bill will be tabled in parliament in the coming weeks. We do not anticipate that we will be able to conclude the legislative process before the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June this year.
However, the current web of legislation dealing with various forms of abuse and exploitation is a sufficient measure to deal with any cases of human trafficking. We have used the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Refugee Act, the Sexual Offences Act, and provisions of criminal law to prosecute traffickers and will continue to do so until the specific legislation is finalised.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is leading an initiative to combat human trafficking called Tsireledzani (Venda for ‘Let’s protect’). The objective of Tsireledzani is to work towards full compliance with the Palermo protocol. This initiative includes training, research and awareness. It also feeds into the process of drafting the respective legislation. All this work is being done in partnership with various local and international partners, including; the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the University of South Africa (UNISA) and civil society organisations.
We should emphasise that human trafficking does not only take place between countries, it also takes place within countries. South Africa is not an exception to this reality. In the development of our anti-human trafficking programmes we should remain mindful of internal human trafficking from rural to urban areas and across cities. On the same breath we should realise the necessity for cooperation between countries in fighting inter-country trafficking.
A South African Development Community (SADC) summit for ministers responsible for migration has been proposed. This will assist us in harmonising and regularising migration within the region. South Africa cannot solve the problem of inter-country human trafficking acting alone against organised inter-country syndicates that cooperate with each other.
SADC and African countries all must be urged to provide their nationals with identity and travel documents to make it easier and safer for them both to be identifiable at home as well as to travel abroad. The fact is that it is much safer for one to travel if they have a passport as they can use safe modes of travel, enter the country of transit or destination through a recognised port of entry, and be recorded as having arrived in that country of destination or transit.
Without a passport, people often have to use unsafe and irregular channels through which to enter transit or destination countries and accordingly become vulnerable to a possible deportation, exploitation by organised crime units including human trafficking, and human smuggling syndicates or even to become victims of xenophobia.
In this regard, we must clearly continue to heighten our efforts to minimise conditions in the region and on the continent which spawn refugee situations, resulting in millions of people who often travel under emergency conditions without travel documents, children who find themselves travelling alone without the care and protection of their parents or guardians as well as women travelling under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions, which makes them cannon fodder for trafficking syndicates.
We need further to harmonise both our immigration and trafficking legislation in the region and continent so that we can all have common instruments to combat human trafficking. SADC must gradually, and in a well considered programme, ease movement in the region so that we can protect our nationals and provide them with safe movement.
In our own view, because of the increased movement in the region, there is a looming possibility that there is a heightened human trafficking and human smuggling movement in our region. There is a danger we are seeing a lot of people, particularly women and children who are becoming victims of human trafficking.
This poses a danger to us because many of those use South Africa both as a transit and destination country. And because of the lack of regulation and harmonised legislation and capacity of immigration and police officers, many of these people are unprotected and are undocumented. Even when they have been identified, there is a need for our regional immigration and police officers to be trained so that they know how to handle victims of human trafficking.
These instances may involve children who will not be able to explain or be afraid of the syndicates who brought them into the country. So officers need to be trained and know how to handle such situations. In our resolve to defeat human trafficking wherever it rears its ugly head, we should never be complacent. We should remain vigilant, cautious as well as caring towards the victims. We should be vigilant in actively spreading awareness and report suspicious activities, but also cautious that we do not become alarmist, especially in relation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany, speculation was rife that human trafficking incidences would increase by 40 000. An International Organisation for Migration (IOM) research conducted after the tournament revealed that rather than the 40 000 predicted cases; there were only 33 victims of human trafficking. Only five of the 33 were directly linked to the world cup. However, the IOM research report also noted that Germany invested significantly in counter trafficking awareness, prevention and monitoring activities prior to and during the event. This is an approach and lesson worth emulating.
It is clear that syndicates may possibly take advantage of the unemployment situation in the country to lure vulnerable and unsuspecting persons into cities for exploitive child labour or sexual exploitation. Women and children, both girls and BOYS, are, therefore, likely to be the major targets. Often, we think it is only girls that become trafficking victims, and yet boys have also become major targets and victims of these syndicates.
It is for this reason that the development of awareness programmes against human trafficking should pay particular attention to women and children. We also urge you to join us in our campaign against child pornography. The exploitive use of children by paedophiles in grooming them for sexual abuse is unacceptable. We must refuse to be force-fed pornography the broadcasters.
We wish to use this opportunity to urge all of you gathered here to support our campaign against pornography and child pornography. We do not believe that the public broadcasters must force feed our people pornography in their living rooms. Those who want to watch pornography must do so in adult shops, as far away from where the children may be as possible.
Whilst the pornography consumers may deny this, there is a clear relationship to us between pornography, child pornography, rape and general sexual abuse of women and children and human trafficking. They all belong to the same category of abominations.
Civil society, with its massive reach that often transcends that of the media and government communication channels, is a strategic partner in the fight against this atrocity. Religious organisations, with churches even in the deepest of rural areas, are strategically located to carry the message of awareness to all our people. They can pack the messages in a tone and language that people will easily understand.
We should make our people aware of the looming danger in their midst so that they can take better care of their most vulnerable and take responsibility for their lives and actions. We are grateful for having been invited to participate in this workshop.
Its success will be a success for all of us. We should continue to participate in each others’ programmes to prevent the emergence and prevalence of such a dehumanising, barbaric and criminal malpractice. One girl, herself a victim of human trafficking, was quoted in Malarek’s book, saying:
“I knew I did not have the strength to endure what would surely follow if I resisted. That night, I just wanted to die. I was so humiliated. To these men, I was just a piece of meat. From that moment on, I have felt like filth. I cannot wash that feeling from my body or my mind no matter how hard I try”.
This is what we are called upon to bring to an end!
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
23 February 2010
Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/)
