IOM and USAID this week released a new six-month study, entitled
"No Experience Necessary: The Internal Trafficking of Persons in
South Africa." This qualitative study is the first survey research
on the trafficking in children, women and men for labour and sexual
exploitation within South Africa.

The study focused primarily on public sector and civil society
outreach workers, law enforcement and social workers, to determine
their levels of awareness and first-hand information on
trafficking, its nature, causes, routes and victims in South
Africa.  It concluded that victims of internal trafficking are
most often from rural areas where unemployment and poverty increase
vulnerability.  Provinces such as the Eastern Cape,
Mpumalanga, and Limpopo were most frequently noted as areas of
recruitment.  Child-headed households resulting from HIV/AIDS
are highly susceptible to trafficking. Other key findings are that
women are as likely to be recruiters as men; and that children are
recruited for different types of forced labour, including street
vending, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation through false
promises of accommodation and income.

USAID's Mission Director, Dr. Carleene Dei, reports: "We know
human trafficking occurs in South Africa, but the problem we face
here is inadequate information about who, what, when, where, how
and why.  The objective of USAID's partnership with the IOM is
to explore the dilemma and build the capacity of South Africans to
respond effectively to human trafficking offenses and to assist
victims."

According to researcher, Laura Bermudez, "many people don't
immediately understand the issue of internal trafficking because
they have always understood trafficking to be of a cross-border
nature.  Once they relay their first hand experiences,
however, the cases they speak of are clearly situations of
trafficking in persons." Bermudez found that internal trafficking
covers the spectrum of purposes, including sexual exploitation and
forced labour, the latter being an issue that little was known
about prior to this study.

Bermudez highlights the crucial need to move beyond the concept
that trafficking is only a cross-border issue.  Instead, the
vulnerabilities facing the country and its people from within must
be considered and used to develop an integrated, proactive approach
to the problem.  Bermudez recommends incorporating development
to create a concerted response by all stakeholders. 

With USAID funding of $650,000 (about R6.5 million), IOM has
trained more than 600 civil society and community representatives
to identify and provide services to trafficking in persons
victims.  IOM runs a Human Trafficking toll-free helpline:
0800 555 99.   

The study is available at: "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://iom.org.za/site/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=21&Itemid=50">http://iom.org.za/site/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=21&Itemid=50

For more information, please contact:

Laura Bermudez 

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

or

Mariam Khokhar

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