Child trafficking and children in South Africa's sex trade : evidence, undercounting and obfuscations (original) (raw)
Related papers
CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH AFRICA: Exploring the Myths and Realities
Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria, 2020
In South Africa child trafficking has become a central concern for both the state and non-state agencies. Although it is claimed that child trafficking is widespread, currently very little reliable data exists to determine the nature and scope of the problem in the country. What is known about trafficking is largely based on ad hoc studies, questionable and outdated statistics, anecdotal information, and common myths. Furthermore, confusion around the actual definition of human trafficking means that it is regularly conflated with human smuggling and ther forms of irregular migration. These confusions and conflations not only obscure a realistic picture of human trafficking, including that of children, but also tend to be used by the state to justify repressive laws and policies to restrict migration and curtail migrants’ rights while claiming to protect vulnerable migrants, including women and children. At the same time, a growing body of work with migrants, especially unaccompanied migrant children (UMC), in Southern Africa documents their diverse experiences as they cross borders. These experiences include exploitation, abuse, and violence as well as challenges accessing documentation, healthcare, education, and support services. While trafficking can sometimes occur, evidence from this body of work and the qualitative study for this report indicates that this is not always the case. Furthermore, while migrant children are often vulnerable and face risks, they also simultaneously negotiate challenges, are active agents, can be resilient, and embody experiences that extend far beyond what the label of ‘trafficked child’ implies. The consequences of using child trafficking to represent the myriad realities of children on the move and especially in the name of ‘child protection’ are that migrant children are exposed to additional risks and vulnerabilities. This report, which is the outcome of a collaborative project between the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria and the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, is based on concerns about the protection and rights of children in South Africa. In particular, the concern that unsubstantiated claims about child trafficking are being used to discourage migration and increase the securitisation of borders, which in turn can impinge on the rights of children, especially migrant children and those who lack documentation. The report will present evidence from the ground that suggests that speaking of child trafficking and failing to recognise what makes children on the move vulnerable is to place children at greater risk. The report also shows that the current gap in data and empirical research allows for an understanding of child trafficking based on assumptions and exaggerated claims about the movement of children across borders to dominate the discourse. While a progressive framework of laws and policies in South Africa designed to protect the rights of children, including non-nationals, exists, the State is seen by a number of service providers and migrant children themselves as not adequately implementing these laws and policies nor understanding the complex realities of children on the move. Furthermore, although there is awareness of the current disconnect between the child trafficking discourse and child trafficking realities observed by service providers, unsubstantiated claims about child trafficking are still being used to justify repressive policies and practices. These policies and practices ironically co-opt the language of ‘protection’ while violating the rights of children, especially migrants and those without documentation. This ultimately renders children more vulnerable and does little to actually fight child trafficking. This report therefore emphasises the urgent need for indepth, country wide, rigorous, and ethical research into child trafficking that can present a clear picture of the nature and scope of this phenomenon and the complex realities of children on the move. This kind of research will go a long way towards comprehensively demystifying the discourse on child trafficking and allow for a better understanding of the experiences and vulnerabilities of child migrants and children without documentation in South Africa. In particular, it will show what makes children more vulnerable—including blocked access to documentation and education and increased hostilities towards nonnationals. The research also shows the often unseen consequences of the discourse of child trafficking on children’s rights broadly and on children on the move specifically.
The perplexities of human trafficking in South Africa
ISS Today, 2018
A brief analysis of the human trafficking situation and response in South Africa. Aggregated statistics on both trafficking in persons and missing persons must be released annually, and research should be undertaken to establish how these phenomena, and other crimes, interconnect. Trafficking in persons is by no means a recent phenomenon. It is rooted in South Africa’s historical landscape and is fundamentally enabled by the country’s deep structural inequalities. A systemic response and culture shift is needed – one that radically restrains the demand for cheap labour and sex, and severs any hint of corruption and compromise.
Sex trafficking and prostitution in South Africa
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
This article examines the complex arrangements within which women working in prostitution in South Africa find themselves, and documents their resilience in a hazardous work environment. Findings are drawn from a survey and in-depth interviews with sex workers in Cape Town that investigated the nature and extent of human trafficking in the sex industry, and from a separate survey of sex workers during the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The findings provide the basis for a critique of Western rescue missions and the larger anti-trafficking movement.
COUNTERING THE ‘SCOURGE’: The time for evidence and reason on human trafficking
South African Crime Quarterly, 2016
Since the late 1990s South African media have drawn attention to the problem of human trafficking and called for state intervention to stop the practice. Reports by several non-governmental organisations have referred to the growing plague of human trafficking, particularly that of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation. A recent, in-depth study of the sex work industry in Cape Town by the ISS and SWEAT calls into question allegations that there is large-scale trafficking into the sex work industry and suggests that a law enforcement approach may not be the most appropriate way to counter the problem.
Anti-Trafficking Review
In South Africa, the conflation of sex work with human trafficking means that migrant/mobile sex workers are often framed as victims of trafficking while arguments for the decriminalisation of sex work are discounted due to claims about the risks of increased trafficking. This is despite the lack of clear evidence that trafficking, including in the sex industry, is a widespread problem. Sex worker organisations have called for an evidence-based approach whereby migration, sex work, and trafficking are distinguished and the debate moves beyond the polarised divisions over sex work. This paper takes up this argument by drawing on research with sex workers and a sex worker organisation in South Africa, as well as reflections shared at two Sex Workers’ Anti-trafficking Research Symposiums. In so doing, the authors propose the further development of a Sex Work, Exploitation, and Migration/Mobility Model that takes into consideration the complexities of the quotidian experiences of migrat...
Tsireledzani: understanding the dimensions of human trafficking in southern Africa
2010
supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. Compliance includes developing comprehensive legislation underpinned by a victim-centred empowerment approach, taking full account of the Victim's Charter 1 as well as relevant South African legislation. The specific purposes of the Tsireledzani Programme are to: (a) contribute to compliance with the Palermo Protocol requirements, (b) increase capacity to deal with trafficking, and (c) enhance inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation. Tsireledzani is being implemented by the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs (SOCA) Unit of the NPA over a three-year period (2008-2010). The present study addresses Result 1 of the programme of assistance to the South African government: DEEPENED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF TRAFFICKING, and presents findings on human trafficking in South Africa obtained from research undertaken from December 2008 to March 2010. This project constitutes one of the four pillars of the Tsireledzani programme: the other three are Cooperation and Coordination; Capacity Building and Development; and a Prevention and Public Awareness Strategy. South Africa's response to human trafficking South Africa's commitment to addressing human trafficking has given rise to a number of initiatives. The Palermo Protocol was signed on