IOM’s Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance
Programme (SACTAP) has launched the first of four regional
information campaigns for 2007 to raise awareness about the problem
of human trafficking in Southern Africa.

Posters and flyers with prevention messages will be distributed
throughout Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique,
Zambia and Zimbabwe, all of which have been identified by IOM as
source countries for trafficking in persons. This year’s
campaign will be expanding to include vernacular languages in each
country, in addition to English, French, Portuguese and
Swahili.

The campaign also includes a series of radio advertisements to
be aired in 10 different languages on both community and national
radio stations throughout the region. Later this year, SACTAP will
be developing a radio drama series which will also be adapted to
each country and aired on radio stations throughout the region to
complement IOM’s ongoing information campaign.

Training for Zimbabwean media on the subject of human
trafficking will be extended to media elsewhere in the region as
part of IOM’s ongoing capacity building efforts.

A research assessment building on previous IOM human trafficking
research efforts both globally and in the region focusing on
Angola, Botswana, DRC, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, will be
underway over the next 12 months, allowing for even more precise
targeting of efforts to raise awareness of the crime.

 

In a 2003 report Seduction, Sale, and Slavery: Trafficking in Women
and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa, IOM
revealed that trade in humans for purposes of sexual exploitation
was flourishing in the Southern African region. The report
estimated that 1,000 Mozambican women and children were trafficked
into South Africa every year, as well as 800-1,100 women from
Thailand. Evidence suggests that thousands more are trafficked from
Eastern Europe and other parts of Africa and South East Asia.

In 2004, SACTAP commenced its victim assistance programme and
also set up a 24-hour helpline (0800 555 999) in South Africa
providing individuals with counsellors trained to respond to
anything between general enquiries to requests for assistance for
and from trafficked people.

SACTAP is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the US Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees
and Migration, and South Africa’s Department of Foreign
Affairs.

For more information contact:

Karen Blackman

Information Coordinator - SACTAP

IOM Regional Office for Southern Africa

Tel: (+27-12) 342-1120

E-mail: "mailto:kblackman@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">kblackman@iom.int

Website: "http://www.iom.org.za" target="_blank" title=
"">www.iom.org.za