NATIONAL NEWS - A large number of organisations were ready to create awareness in a campaign intended to put an end to human trafficking.
The event which was held at the Turffontein Racecourse on Thursday October 5 was spearheaded by the Gauteng Department of Social Development to commemorate victims who had been trafficked and to create awareness.
The campaign is part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent human trafficking.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report which was released in 2016, trafficked victims are sold mainly for sexual exploitation and forced labor, but victims are also being trafficked to be used as beggars. They are often forced into sham marriages or to promote fraud, production and even pornography.
The Department of Social Services said South Africa has the largest number of victims being trafficked. South African children are recruited from poor rural areas and lured to urban centers such as Johannesburg, where girls are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic violence.
International Organisation for Migration representative Tafadzwa Makonese said trafficking is real. She said it is important for everyone to be informed on what trafficking really is. “You’d find law enforcement did not understand how to identify a victim in need of help when in the clutches of traffickers.”
