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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 002249 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP PREL PGOV PHUM SF
SUBJECT: IOM SURVEY: HUMAN TRAFFICKING INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA 
 
REF: PRETORIA 1926 
 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  A survey of internal trafficking in persons (TIP) due for 
release on October 29 reveals that TIP is a nationwide 
problem in South Africa, with domestic as well as 
cross-border victims.  Funded by USAID under the auspices of 
the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the 
survey indicates that criminal TIP activities include not 
just commercial sexual exploitation but also domestic 
servitude; agricultural labor; street work -- such as 
vending, begging, and crime; and the "muti" practice of 
harvesting human body parts for traditional medicine.  The 
report's poignant case stories promise to attract media 
attention, improve public awareness, and enhance SAG 
knowledge of trafficking patterns.  While passage of draft 
legislation remains the key hurdle to mobilizing a 
comprehensive anti-TIP effort, in the meantime IOM and the 
SAG are working to educate law enforcement and the public. 
End Summary. 
 
------------------- 
IOM Survey Overview 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  On September 11 researcher Laura Gauer Bermudez previewed 
to USAID and poloff the results of her survey of "internal" 
(domestic) trafficking in persons (TIP).  Funded by USAID 
under the auspices of the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM), the study was conducted from March through 
June 2008 in all nine provinces of South Africa.  A total of 
225 community activists, church and social workers, and law 
enforcement personnel were polled on awareness of various 
types of trafficking, and information was then gathered on 
modes of recruitment, transport, and exploitation.  The final 
report, due for release on October 29, includes powerful 
personal stories likely to draw much-needed attention to the 
TIP problem.  The internal survey also paves the way for a 
regional multi-country TIP study which the SAG will contract 
late this year. 
 
------------------------------------- 
SA Vulnerabilities: Poverty, AIDS,... 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Poverty and economic disparity, AIDS, widespread gender 
violence, and lack of TIP legislation make South Africans 
especially vulnerable to trafficking.  With half the 
population below the poverty line and unemployment at 23 
percent, many who are desperate for work will trust promises 
of jobs in faraway places where the economy is robust. 
Economic migration, a longstanding practice for men, is 
increasing among women breadwinners and even child orphans, 
as the AIDS epidemic destroys families.  Fear of HIV/AIDS has 
also fueled demand for virgins and children in the sex 
industry.  In a largely patriarchal culture with 
exceptionally high prevalence of rape and gender violence, 
victims fleeing forced marriages or family abuse may fall 
prey to traffickers.  Comprehensive legislation against TIP 
is still in draft, handicapping efforts to pursue and 
prosecute offenders. 
 
----------------------------------- 
53 Percent Awareness of 5 TIP Types 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  While IOM correctly cautions that its sample size was too 
small and deliberately selected to be generalized, the survey 
nevertheless indicated a high prevalence of trafficking 
nationwide.  Among all 225 respondents, 53 percent were 
directly aware of TIP (e.g. directly assisting victims), 18 
percent were indirectly aware of it (believing it occured 
locally but unable to cite specific cases), and 29 percent 
were unaware of it occurring in their areas.  Respondents 
Qwere unaware of it occurring in their areas.  Respondents 
unaware of TIP were generally in managerial rather than 
front-line roles.  Whites and Indians were most often unaware 
of TIP, whereas direct awareness was most common among blacks 
and persons designated as 'coloured.' 
 
¶5.  To overcome the common misperception that TIP relates 
only to sex workers and to cross-border traffic, IOM's survey 
described an array of TIP behavior and measured five TIP 
categories: 
 
PRETORIA 00002249  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
     - commercial sexual exploitation 
     - domestic servitude 
     - agricultural labor 
     - street work (vending, begging, and crime) 
     - "muti" (organ removal for traditional medicine) 
 
These five TIP types show some regional variation.  Awareness 
of commercial sexual exploitation was highest in Gauteng, 
Western Cape, and Free State.  The same three provinces led 
in awareness of street work, although at lowest levels of all 
TIP types.  The Western Cape showed high awareness of 
domestic servitude.  The muti trade was acknowledged mostly 
in the eastern provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, as well 
as in Gauteng. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Rural Victims, Ruthless Recruiters 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Respondents said trafficked persons were mainly poor 
young blacks, recruited from rural areas with job promises. 
Victims were most often black teenage girls, followed by 
females 21 to 30 years old, particularly for sex work, but 
targets also included young coloured girls for domestic work 
and boys for farm and street labor.  Victims were lured by 
promises of lucrative (and legal) jobs enabling them to 
better their own lives and send money home to their families. 
 Posing as employment agencies, traffickers put job ads in 
local newspapers to dupe girls into domestic servitude. 
Recruiters for the sex trade were just as likely to be women 
as men, and they were often trusted family members, 
acquaintances, or neighbors.  While most were individual 
black South Africans, they spanned all races (even Chinese), 
and Nigerian crime syndicates were frequently cited. 
Traffickers controlled victims through intimidation and 
threats, use of force, demands to pay job "debts," and even 
use of drugs and alcohol. 
 
------------------------------ 
Sex Trade Still Most Prevalent 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7.  Sex work -- forced prostitution and pornography -- was 
the TIP category of which respondents were most aware. 
Policing of the sex trade was seen as lax, and cops often 
failed to distinguish TIP victims from other sex workers. 
Cases tended to be dropped due to poor evidence.  Sex 
trafficking was strongly linked to organized crime, with 
victims sometimes swapped or sold to new places when their 
earnings fell off.  Whereas typical victims used to be 
runaways who fell prey to city pimps, nowadays syndicates 
proactively sent recruiters to rural towns.  AIDS orphans 
were vulnerable to adult traffickers, and children were more 
in demand as a means to avoid HIV.  Young boys were 
increasingly exploited for homosexual activity and 
pornography.  Demand came from mid-to-upper income men over 
40 years of age, including for business entertaining, in 
downtown and suburban areas of main cities, with new venues 
recently proliferating near football stadiums in advance of 
the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Daughters into Domestic Servitude 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  South Africa's very unequal distribution of wealth 
generates both a supply of poor working girls and a demand by 
rich households to buy them as domestic servants.  According 
to the survey, the Western Cape had especially organized 
networks of employment agencies trading in teens and young 
women, with coloured girls preferred.  Although the law 
forbids employment of persons under 15 years of age, 
respondents said the Department of Labour lacked enforcement 
Qrespondents said the Department of Labour lacked enforcement 
capacity, and there was minimal monitoring or punishment of 
lawbreakers.  Recruits were reportedly bused to Cape Town 
suburbs, kept in small rooms of 20-30 girls, and paraded 
before prospective employers.  Employers paid the agency a 
purchase price, which the victims were then debt-bonded to 
repay from their meager wages.  Poverty compelled parents to 
send their daughters into this kind of employment, even 
knowingly, despite denial of access to schooling and risk of 
sexual abuse by employers.  Shame and need for income 
prevented girls from escaping, and those who attempted to 
flee often felt victim to traffickers in the sex trade. 
 
--------------------------------- 
 
PRETORIA 00002249  003 OF 003 
 
 
Boys into Farm Labor, Street Work 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  Respondents said men and boys were also TIP victims, sold 
for forced labor on farms and recruited for street work in 
vending, begging, and crime.  Small-scale private contractors 
rounded up groups of boys then offered them to farmers for a 
fee.  Contract labor was used in this way to circumvent 
minimum age and minimum wage laws.  Just as their sisters 
were sent away to be servants, boys from cash-strapped 
families were dispatched to earn money, although they were 
often paid little or nothing to work long hours and live in 
substandard housing.  Parents' prior consent prevented police 
from pressing charges against ringleaders.  In many cases, 
orphans were vulnerable to labor trafficking.  For street 
work, older boys recruited younger children as beggars since 
they were able to elicit more charity, and as thieves since 
their small bodies could slip through more spaces. 
 
-------------------- 
"Muti" Organ Removal 
-------------------- 
 
¶10.  "Muti," the Zulu word for medicine, is applied to the 
harvesting of human body organs for use in homemade remedies 
by tribal medicine men, particularly in rural areas of 
Limpopo and Mpumalanga.  Respondents' accounts refer to theft 
of genitalia, wombs, embryos and placentas, intestines, 
tongues, and hands and feet.  Although victims normally die 
from the attack, it is conducted when they are still alive. 
Perpetrators are often said to be youths looking for quick 
cash by selling body parts to traditional healers.  Hundreds 
of muti cases are estimated to occur each year in South 
Africa, but the practice is taboo, and few witnesses are 
willing to testify.  While the act may not fit the strict 
U.N. definition of trafficking if the victim is not 
transported from one place to another, still it meets the 
criteria of targeting, exploitation, and for-profit sale of 
other human beings. 
 
--------------- 
Recommendations 
--------------- 
 
¶11.  IOM's report concludes with a list of recommendations to 
improve SAG's capacity to combat human trafficking.  First 
and foremost is to accelerate drafting, passage, and 
implementation of the specific anti-TIP legislation currently 
moving slowly through the SAG's legislative process. 
Awareness of the problem should be raised through a range of 
educational and media programs, both in vulnerable rural 
communities and nationwide, and community watch initiatives 
to alert groups to predators.  Police should more vigorously 
control the sex trade, with alertness and sensitivity to 
signs of TIP, and attention to victims should be more 
systematically defined.  Rural development is essential to 
redress TIP's root cause of poverty. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Interim Steps, While Awaiting the Law 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  COMMENT: Per Post's past reporting (reftel), South 
Africa is committed to combating the scourge of human 
trafficking.  The key hurdle remains comprehensive anti-TIP 
legislation, which is still in the drafting process.  A 
tough, focused law is necessary to grant resources and 
authorities to law enforcement, the judiciary, and social 
services to punish perpetrators and protect victims of 
trafficking.  In the meantime, however, IOM and the National 
Prosecuting Authority (NPA)'s Sexual Offences and Community 
Affairs (SOCA) unit are conducting police training and public 
awareness campaigns to pave the way for a more comprehensive 
Qawareness campaigns to pave the way for a more comprehensive 
legislated response.  On issues with close linkages to TIP, 
such as violence against women and organized crime, SOCA and 
the NPA have taken strong steps.  This IOM survey, and the 
regional one soon to follow, will contribute needed 
information on TIP flows, patterns, and modus operandi, 
bringing the SAG one step closer to ending them.  End Comment. 
 
LA LIME