IOM Southern Africa - Home: Counter Trafficking

The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines trafficking in persons 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.

With its history of southward migration flows, instability, porous borders, and weak institutions and structures, Southern Africa is fertile ground for irregular migration, and hosts a diverse range of migrant smuggling and human trafficking activities. Facilitated by local smugglers, and an expanding network of transnational criminal syndicates, a significant majority of irregular migrants originate from within the region, although those from as far afield as China, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have been arriving in increasing numbers since the mid-1990s. The region's young women and children are especially vulnerable to the recruitment tactics of human traffickers because civil unrest and economic deprivation leave them with few opportunities at home, making migration to South Africa, the region's most prosperous country, a credible and appealing lure.

Unlike migrant smuggling, another migration phenomenon that is facilitated by transnational criminal syndicates, human trafficking is most often characterized by a false job offer abroad which is the pretext to move the intended victim from a familiar environment to one that is unfamiliar for the purpose of exploiting her there. Without appropriate language skills, a supportive social network, and laws and customs that she understands, the trafficked person feels isolated and disoriented, and it is this feeling of disorientation that makes her particularly vulnerable to exploitation. In a foreign country, she has few tools left to resist the demands made of her, especially when faced with violence or threats of violence. Smuggled persons, by contrast, tend to seek out an organized criminal group that is able to transport them to desirable foreign destinations in exchange for payment. Once the client has arrived in the destination country, and the fee has been paid, the relationship between client and smuggler ends.

In 2003, IOM's report Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa identified Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, and a number of refugee-producing countries as key source countries for women and children trafficked to South Africa, with Malawian women also having been trafficked to European destinations. The report revealed that women from Thailand, China, and Russia are also being trafficked to Southern Africa. Since then SACTAP has confirmed that human trafficking is thriving in the region through its interviews with over 170 victims of trafficking. In 2004, in Issue no.2 of its quarterly publication, Eye on Human Trafficking, IOM confirmed that transnational criminal syndicates are also trafficking South African women to East Asia for purposes of sexual exploitation.

Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme (SACTAP)

IOM's publication of Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women & Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa was widely publicized by the media, and has resulted in implementation of IOM's Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme (SACTAP). SACTAP is now in its second phase after successfully implementing its two year pilot programme. The program operates in six countries in the SADC region with a range of activities, including continued research, information dissemination, institutional capacity building, and victim assistance and rehabilitation.