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News & Updates

Counter-Trafficking Information Campaign in South Africa

As part of its Southern African Counter-Trafficking Programme (SACTAP), the IOM office for Southern Africa will launch on 25 April three information posters, which will feature prominently in the on-going information campaign "Seduced, Imported, Sold"

One of the posters features pictures from renowned British fashion photographer John Rankin, who donated the use of the photo to IOM's counter trafficking campaign.

All posters feature IOM's national 24-hour toll-free telephone helpline 0800 555 999, which was set up in August 2004 to encourage members of the public to report known or suspected cases of sex-trafficking and to inform victims in South Africa that they can seek help.

The awareness message will also be posted on cross-border mini-bus taxis travelling between Johannesburg and other urban centres in the region, in high visibility areas in downtown Johannesburg, on garbage bins and bus shelters in targeted areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. A basic facts brochure with 10 questions and answers about human trafficking and a radio campaign aimed at reaching women and children in rural areas will also be launched in the coming days.

Launched in early 2004, SACTAP's "Seduced, Imported, Sold" information campaign focuses on combating trafficking in persons in parts of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, providing protection to the victims, and offering them rehabilitation assistance and return and reintegration options.

In 2002, IOM conducted field research and published a report on the scope and character of human trafficking in the region: Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa is available online at www.iom.org.za/countertrafficking.html

The study found that Southern Africa hosts a diverse range of trafficking activities - from the global operations of Chinese triad societies and Russian mafia, to the trade in persons perpetrated by local syndicates across the region's land borders. The report described a total of nine different streams of trafficking to, through, and from Southern Africa, involving victims from Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, China, Thailand, Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. A tenth operation, in which South African women were being trafficked to Macau, was documented in the May 2004 issue of IOM's quarterly publication, EYE on Human Trafficking.

For more information, please contact
Karen Blackman
IOM Pretoria
Tel: +27 12 342 27 89
E-mail: kblackman@iom.int