In its latest Trafficking In Persons 2023 report, the United States government warns that South Africa does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.
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These standards include increased investigations and convictions of traffickers, investigating and prosecuting allegedly complicit government officials, working with foreign governments on trafficking investigations and repatriating victims, and increasing coordinated labour inspections to investigate forced labour, among other requirements.
Compiled by the US Department of State, the report highlighted the reality of human trafficking in South Africa and provided recommendations for the way forward.
As per the report, between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, the South African government identified and referred 74 trafficking victims to care, of which 42 were identified as labour trafficking victims, 23 sex trafficking victims, and nine victims of unspecified forms of trafficking. This is less than the previous reporting period, in which 83 victims were identified, and 72 referred to care.
Conversely, non-profit organisations identified and referred an additional 52 trafficking victims and identified 383 potential victims through transit monitoring. According to the report, observers noted that ‘official statistics did not reflect the scope of trafficking, since institutional problems and lack of proactive screening resulted in some victims remaining unidentified by the government. [The] conflation between [gender-based violence] and human trafficking also led to the misidentification of victims.
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‘While the government finalized and approved the implementing regulations to operationalize the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons (PACOTIP) Act’s immigration provisions, the regulations awaited final adoption and were not yet in effect at the end of the reporting period.’
The report further states that agencies responsible for identifying, referring and certifying trafficking victims lacked coordination and that knowledge gaps in understanding human trafficking likely hindered protection efforts.
‘Law enforcement continued to lack the necessary capacity and training to effectively identify and refer trafficking victims to care. The government inappropriately penalized victims solely for offences committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including by detaining potential trafficking victims, even after identification as such by government officials, instead of referring them to care.’
The government has however devoted resources to a written plan which, if implemented, would aid in meeting the minimum standards.
The report did also recognise the efforts that the South African government has made, such as providing victims with temporary emergency shelter, food assistance, interpreters, specialised medical care, psycho-social support, and transportation. In addition, the country has agreements with the governments of Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, and Thailand in place for the sharing of intelligence and to coordinate victim repatriation.
The report listed some key recommendations in order to assist South Africa to combat human trafficking. Some of these include:
- Ensuring that victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked;
- To increase investigation efforts, as well as to prosecute, and convict officials complicit in trafficking crimes and traffickers within organized crime syndicates, including cases of online exploitation;
- To promulgate and implement the South African Department of Home Affairs’ immigration provisions in chapters 3 and 7 of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, as well as sections 15, 16, and 31(2)(b)(ii) to ensure the issuance of appropriate immigration status and identification documents for trafficking victims;
- To increase training for South African Police Service officers on trauma-informed interviewing techniques as well as victim identification and referral SOPs, and train specialized investigators on human trafficking investigations and computer forensics to investigate online exploitation;
- To increase collaboration between NICTIP, Provincial Task Teams and civil society to integrate referral and response systems and include all stakeholders, including survivors;
- Implement policies to remove the requirement for victims to participate in investigations and prosecutions in order to be formally identified and receive trafficking victim status; and to
- Formalize a confidential reporting mechanism for civil society to safely report allegations of official corruption and complicity in trafficking crimes directly to the government for vigorous investigation.
Read the full report here.
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