Johannesburg — The business of trafficking human beings for illegal labour and sexual exploitation has become the third largest trade in the world and South Africa has alarmingly become a target for organised traffickers.

Law enforcement agencies and research institutions have identified South Africa as a destination, transit and country of origin of victims in pursuing the trade.

According to the United States Government estimates, as many as 80 000 people worldwide have been trafficked across borders annually with thousands being trafficked in South Africa.

Speaking to BuaNews National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Sexual Offences and Community Affairs (SOCA) Unit co-ordinator, Malebo Kotu-Rammopo said ignorance and desperation were the main reasons why people get caught up in trafficking rings.

"People are trafficked due to lack of employment, education and social problems and dropping out of school. They are normally people who are known to them too.

"The victims are especially young women aged between 18 and 25," said Ms Kotu-Rammopo, adding that victims are trafficked abroad mostly for prostitution, domestic work and forced labour.

The unit deals with the prevention and reduction of sexual offences through effective prosecutions and appropriate management of victims.

Victims are lured by the promise of well-paying jobs and accept the "job opportunity" without realising the conditions they would work in.

"Some leave their homes to take up a job as child minders but on their arrival, their identity documents are confiscated and they are not allowed to communicate with their families for the duration of the contract. Then they are forced into prostitution or bonded labour," she told BuaNews.

The South African government has taken measures to address the high number of trafficking cases, by signing and ratifying the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Palermo Protocol.

The Palermo Protocol obliges member states to criminalise trafficking in persons, investigate, prosecute and convict traffickers, as well as undertake border control measures.

The Protocol became effective on 29 September 2003 and South Africa received it in 2007.

"Each country which accedes to the Protocol has to, in accordance with its means, provide measures to protect and assist victims, train law enforcement and border officials, inform and educate victims, potential victims and the general public," she said.

The state is also compelled to provide measures to protect and assist victims, train law enforcement and border officials, inform and educate victims, potential victims and general public and also co-operate with each other and civil society

In 2003, SOCA held a Trafficking in Persons Seminar, which resulted in the establishment of a ten-member trafficking in Person Inter-sectoral Task Team.

This task team coordinates and refines activities aimed at the development of a multi-sectoral and comprehensive strategy to counter human trafficking.

It identified six goals which the national strategy should achieve in effectively address trafficking in persons. These goals include ensuring that:

• Knowledge and understanding of trafficking in South Africa deepened;

• Cooperation and coordination structures are established and function efficiently;

• Capacity is developed;

• Prevention strategies, public education and awareness programmes are designed and initiated; and

• Evaluation and audits take place.

"These result areas now form the basis for the programme of assistance to prevent and react to trafficking in persons and will contribute to the development of a National Action Plan (NAP) as required by the Palermo Protocol," Ms Kotu-Rammopo said.

A draft of the Trafficking in Persons Bill has been submitted to Parliament which, if approved, will allow prosecution of all forms of human trafficking, such as labour exploitation.

Currently there are no specific legislation criminalising the offence and only perpetrators of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation can be prosecuted, said Ms Kotu-Rammopo, noting that women and children remained the worst victims of gender based violence.

In the absence of specific legislation criminalising the offence, the NPA has encountered unique problems in ensuring an adequate response to the occurrences of this phenomenon.

"Prosecutions have proceeded on an ad hoc basis overtly demonstrable to the facts such as kidnapping, indecent assault and rape, which do not individually attract as heavy sentences as a specific trafficking in persons would impose.

"The absence of legislation also limits prosecutors to dealing with only the perpetrator directly linked to the offences resulting from the trafficking of the victim, to the exclusion of the perpetrators behind the scenes, as this is often an organised crime activity," Ms Kotu-Rammopo said.

In addition to this, the draft Bill aims to protect the victims of trafficking by ensuring they are not charged with immigration violations and prostitution.

"In response to this, better coordination was needed to turn them from victims into survivors, victims of trafficking will not be prosecuted," she said.

The unit also handles the appropriate management of victims, through the Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCC) which provide professional medical care, counselling and access to dedicated investigators and prosecutors, all under one roof.

The centres go a long way in preventing secondary victimisation and seek to improve the process of reporting and prosecution of rape and other sexual offences in a dignified and caring environment.

The centres are now being rolled out to 52 of the hardest hit communities in the country.