In a bid to better identify and assist victims of human trafficking
and to improve the prosecution rates of traffickers in South
Africa, IOM has begun a two-year long programme to train law
enforcers, state officials and civil society actors.

South Africa, which is a major destination point for victims
trafficked from Southern Africa and from other parts of the world
including Asia, is witness to a diverse range of trafficking
trends. Between August 2002-2003 alone, IOM identified 10
trafficking patterns to, through and from South Africa, including
the trafficking of people from Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Thailand, China, Eastern Europe and several African
refugee-producing countries.

Traffickers in their turn vary from transnational organized
crime groups to small-scale local syndicates that recruit
acquaintances, friends, and family members from across the
region.

This programme is expected to facilitate the prosecution of
human traffickers and the assistance of victims by building the
capacity of South African law enforcement officials and social
service providers to draw the links between the elements of human
trafficking and to take appropriate and effective steps to counter
the trade in persons in their respective fields of operation.

Funded by the European Commission (EC) and the Royal Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the new programme is part of a broader
EC umbrella project that includes improving awareness and knowledge
of the crime as well as work on preventing it.

More than 2,500 South African policemen, immigration officials,
prosecutors, social workers, health professionals and civil society
workers will be trained during the two years on the full spectrum
of counter-trafficking responses recommended by the Palermo
Protocol.

Five counter-trafficking learning modules will also be
integrated into the basic and in-service training programmes of
South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Social
Development, the Department of Health, the Department of Justice
and Constitutional Development as well as the South African Police
Service. Each of the five ministries and services will then take
ownership of the activities and curricular modules designed, tested
and launched by IOM.

South Africa is then expected to come up a comprehensive
national curriculum on countering human trafficking which will be
used to train its own officials on comprehensive responses to the
crime.

Since 2003, IOM's Southern African Counter-Trafficking
Assistance Programme (SACTAP) has responded to human trafficking in
the Southern Africa through four key interventions, namely
research, information dissemination, capacity building of law
enforcement and social assistance providers, and direct assistance
to victims.

In South Africa, IOM's victim assistance programme has assisted
more than 180 trafficked people through measures such as medical
support, psycho-social counselling, assisted voluntary return to
their home countries, and reintegration support once they
arrive.

For more information, contact:

Yitna Getachew

E-mail: "mailto:ygetachew@iom.int">ygetachew@iom.int

or

Mariam Khokhar

Tel. +27 12 342 2789

E-mail: "mailto:mkhokhar@iom.int">mkhokhar@iom.int