The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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Chapter 4 Factors and trends with regard to the incountry trafficking of girl children 1. Introduction This chapter is based on interviews with community workers, police officers and a child rescued from sexual exploitation. It reflects the findings from these interviews. With regard to the causal factors, those identified by the media have been incorporated here as there is significant overlap between these different sets of sources. These findings are also supported by findings in other literature. These findings allow for a sketch of: • the causal factors • a profile of girl children who are trafficked • the traffickers • trafficking routes. 2. South African children exploited in the formal and informal sectors of the economy: context South Africa's 17 million children make up 44,24 percent of its population. 40 The majority, 61 percent, of these children live in poverty. 41 The Network Against Child Labour (NACL) estimates that there are 400 000 children working in South Africa. 42 According to the Human Rights Committee, these, children are working in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy. Of the children working in the informal sector; there are 200 000 between the ages of 10 to 14 and 200 000 between the ages of 15 and 18. The report further states that "child labour is everywhere, from taxi ranks to farms and coalyards. They are forced to work hours that adults are protected against simply because they have no voice in the labour market or recourse to law. Their average wage is R10 a day." 43 Children who are sexually exploited are counted among this number. Sex exploiters pay anything from R10 to a R150 to traffickers, for access to the child's body. 44 Most children do not receive any of this money. Newspaper reports and NGOs indicate an increase in child prostitution. 45 Children can be trafficked into any of the legal or illegal sectors of the sex industry. The sex industry comprises the following sectors as presented in table 1, below. Table 1: Sectors of South African sex industry Sector Description 40 Human Rights Committee, Quarterly Review: Children's Rights and Personal Rights 1999 p. v 41 Rights Up Your Street: Nadel 1998 quoted in Z. Abass ' Realities of Children's Lives' in NASEC Conference Report p. 87 42 C. Bhengu, 'Children Forced into Prostitution', Sowetan, 17/3/98. This figure has been contested by child rights organisations, active in the field of child labour as a conservative estimate. 43 Human Rights Committee, Quarterly Review, Ibid p. vi 44 These sums were mentioned in interviews conducted. Media reports however suggest that sex exploiters pay anything from 50c - R150 depending on where the exchange takes place for instance sex in an agency will fetch higher than sex on the street. 45 See for instance: S. Naidoo and P. Kirk: 'Rampant child prostitution' the Saturday Paper 8/11/1997 25
Independent entrepreneurs Two categories: women and men Street work Independent men and women, pimped women, trafficked women, trafficked children Escort Agencies Voluntary and trafficked adults and children Brothels Voluntary and trafficked women and children Hotel brothels Independent and pimped, voluntary adults and trafficked children Massage parlours * Voluntary and trafficked adults and children Telephone sex Adult women and men Clubs * Adults and children: voluntary and trafficked Residential based (home of Usually children: voluntary and trafficked exploiter/trafficker) Trucking routes Voluntary Women, Men and Children Harbours Independent adults, pimped adults and trafficked children * Massage parlours and clubs constitute the legal sectors of the industry. 2.1. Numbers – how many? There are no official statistics of children in prostitution. The South African Police Services crime code list "does not make provision for the age of the offender with regard to prostitution." 46 Information obtained from media reports is based on estimates and records of cases by individual agencies. Some of these are: • Social workers and officers of The Child Protection Unit (CPU) estimate that there are 28 000 child prostitutes in South Africa 47 • The South African Council for Child and Family Welfare received 328 cases in 1998 48 • Reports for Johannesburg and Cape Town indicate that police deal with a significant number on a monthly basis. In 1998, the Johannesburg CPU dealt with an average 15 new cases a month of girls aged 13 to 18 years 49 • The Elsies River Police Station in Cape Town dealt with an average of 5 cases a month, in 1999 50 • The Sex Worker Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), based in Cape Town says that 25 percent of sex workers (in Cape Town) are children 51 • Police dealt with 38 000 child prostitutes during 1998 52 • In 1997 the Child Protection Unit estimated that a quarter of Cape Town's street children were engaged in prostitution. 53 The South African Polices Service's (SAPS) national overall statistics for the period 1996 to 1999 for arrests of women and children for prostitution are reflected in table 2. Table 2: SAPS statistics for arrests for prostitution 1996 - 1999 54 Province January 1996 to December 1999 1996 1997 1998 1999 Eastern Cape 4 2 8 6 Free State 6 2 3 3 Gauteng 124 57 92 91 KwaZulu Natal 21 20 17 34 46 Faxed communication from the SAPS Crime Information Analysis Centre, dated 22 August 2000 47 Simon Farrell, 'South Africa's Sick Trade in Young Girls, ' Reader's Digest, June 2000, p. 32 48 S. Leslie 'Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children' in NASEC Conference Report p.93 See also C. Bhengu: 'Call for 'war' on child prostitution' Sowetan, 9/4/1999 49 C. Bhengu: 'Children forced into Prostitution' Sowetan, 17/3/1998 50 T. Olivier: ' Jong meisies in prostitusie-net wek groot sorg' Die Burger 29/7/1999 51 True Love Magazine, May 2000 52 52. Die Burger 18/6/1999 53 G. Thiel: 'It's better than begging says a street child' Mail and Guardian 21/3/1997 54 Faxed communication received from the SAPS Crime Information Analysis Centre, dated 22 August 2000 26
Page 2 and 3: The Trafficking of Children for Pur
Page 4 and 5: Acknowledgments This report was res
Page 6 and 7: Contents Page About Molo Songololo
Page 8 and 9: 5.4 Punishment and resistance 59 5.
Page 10 and 11: Executive summary This research rep
Page 12 and 13: Moçambique and Angola involves bot
Page 14 and 15: Children. The Norwegian Justice Min
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1 Motivations of the resear
Page 18 and 19: 2. Ensure a reduction in the incide
Page 20 and 21: Box 1: Glossary of terms Trafficker
Page 22 and 23: 3. Terminology The terms, "the chil
Page 24 and 25: 4. Design and Method 4.1. Aims and
Page 26 and 27: m) A review of the following releva
Page 28 and 29: to emphasise the immediate need for
Page 30 and 31: countries to ensure that measures a
Page 32 and 33: Actors/dancers/singers wanted. Expe
Page 36 and 37: Mpumalanga 7 3 18 12 North West Pro
Page 38 and 39: According to a sex worker the effec
Page 40 and 41: Here individual traits and problems
Page 42 and 43: • Men from the Northern Suburbs o
Page 44 and 45: Alleged police involvement and corr
Page 46 and 47: Map 2: Some indications of local tr
Page 48 and 49: • An increase in unemployment •
Page 50 and 51: Johannesburg. Needless to say, once
Page 52 and 53: Map 3: Cross-border trafficking of
Page 54 and 55: Chapter 6 The role of gangs in the
Page 56 and 57: gangs in their own right. 135 These
Page 58 and 59: Little is known about the gang lead
Page 60 and 61: • All had been physically and sex
Page 62 and 63: Original transcripts of selected te
Page 64 and 65: Abduction 3: Alicia's story Origina
Page 66 and 67: Any act seen as resistance or a cha
Page 68 and 69: Referred to as " besagheid" or "wer
Page 70 and 71: Lucia gets away: as told by Jenny T
Page 72 and 73: Table 6: Girls in the gang intervie
Page 74 and 75: During the course of the twentieth
Page 76 and 77: States Parties undertake to protect
Page 78 and 79: Article 3 states that: State Partie
Page 80 and 81: Article 7 places an obligation on s
Page 82 and 83: constitutive elements related to of
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the appropriate authorities, like t
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whoa) permits, procures or attempts
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foreign nationals to come to this c
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This Act provides for a broad defin
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• Films and Publication Act, No 6
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2) The Children's Court may order t
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espect to restorative justice this
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process to manage the problem in So
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Legal Instruments South African Leg
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"Zunaid". Ek het, was die enigste e
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Ons gee vir hulle pak. - Belinda 5.
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man sê toe nou vir my ek moet eers
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For these purposes, State Parties s
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States Parties to the present Chart
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9. The commercial sexual exploitati
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esponsible sexual attitudes and beh
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The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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