The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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2) The Children's Court may order that a child contemplated in subsection (1) be assisted in applying for asylum in terms of this Act. A situation where a 'found' child is submitted to sexual exploitation and through activities related to trafficking brought into this country would certainly indicates that this child is 'a child in need of care'. This means, that a child in these circumstances should be able, with the assistance of the Children's Court, to apply for refugee status. Especially, since it is in the 'child's best interest' not to be sent back into conditions which would most likely allow for trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation all over again. Section 3 of the Act defines the circumstances under which a person qualifies for refugee status. It states in Section 3(a) that a person is eligible to apply who Owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted by reason of his or her race, tribe, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his or her former habitual residence is unable, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it. It could be argued, that child survivors of trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation belong to a 'social group' and 'owing to a well-founded fear' (i.e. to be submitted to sexual exploitation again) are 'unwilling to return' to their country of origin. The review in this chapter sought to provide an overview of South Africa's international legal obligations as they pertain to the issues at hand. It has also identified the constitutive elements involved in the traffic of children for the purpose of sexual exploitation that are covered in current South African legislation. Implementation of these relevant aspects of the law can alleviate the lack of success with regard to arrests, prosecution and conviction. 85
Chapter 8 Recommendations 1. Introduction This chapter proposes recommendations with regard to the safety, protection and care of children rescued from prostitution. In addition recommendations are also made to deal with the issue at a national level. Despite the gaps in South African legislation there are legal remedies in both international Conventions and Charters as well as South African legislation that can be applied to arrest, prosecute and convict offenders of trafficking and others who sexually exploit children. The difficulties with regard to successful prosecution and conviction therefor are not inherent to inadequacies in the law. These difficulties can be attributed to ineffective enforcement of the law and possibly to an inadequate understanding of the legal issues related to the trafficking of persons and child prostitution on the part of the South African Police Services and Department of Justice officials. In addition to providing the legal remedies outlined in Chapter 7 this report makes the following recommendations: 2. Recommendations 2.1. The development of legislation that will prohibit the trafficking of persons for any exploitative purpose. Whilst there are legal remedies that can be applied to prosecute offenders for offences related to trafficking this is not sufficient to deal with the problem of trafficking per se. Legislation that specifically prohibits this practice, whether for in-country or cross-border trafficking, is required. In the absence of such legislation, however law enforcement officials should recognise that trafficking is often only one of the crimes committed against the trafficked child. Officials should therefore consider bringing the following charges against alleged offenders: • rape, and other forms of sexual assault • without limitation, charges of murder, abduction and kidnapping • charges of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment • charges of slavery or slavery-like practices, involuntary servitude, forced or compulsory labour • charges of debt bondage • charges of forced marriage, forced abortion and forced pregnancy. To increase detection and prosecution The South African Police Services (SAPS) and the Department of Justice should consider the establishment of specialised police and prosecutorial units. These units should have members that are trained to deal with the complexities, gender issues and victim sensitivities involved in trafficking. These units could be lodged within existing structures such as the Child Protection Unit with regard to the SAPS. With regard to the Department of Justice, units could be established along similar lines as the anti-hijacking unit within the National Director of Public Prosecutions Office or could be lodged within units such as the specialised sexual offences centre. 2.3. With regard to restorative justice for victims Court orders should make provision for the award of compensation to victims of trafficking. With 86
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The Trafficking of Children for Pur
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Acknowledgments This report was res
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Contents Page About Molo Songololo
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5.4 Punishment and resistance 59 5.
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Executive summary This research rep
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Moçambique and Angola involves bot
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Children. The Norwegian Justice Min
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Chapter 1 Motivations of the resear
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2. Ensure a reduction in the incide
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Box 1: Glossary of terms Trafficker
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3. Terminology The terms, "the chil
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4. Design and Method 4.1. Aims and
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m) A review of the following releva
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to emphasise the immediate need for
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countries to ensure that measures a
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Actors/dancers/singers wanted. Expe
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Chapter 4 Factors and trends with r
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Mpumalanga 7 3 18 12 North West Pro
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According to a sex worker the effec
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Here individual traits and problems
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• 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
Page 84 and 85: the appropriate authorities, like t
Page 86 and 87: whoa) permits, procures or attempts
Page 88 and 89: foreign nationals to come to this c
Page 90 and 91: This Act provides for a broad defin
Page 92 and 93: • Films and Publication Act, No 6
Page 96 and 97: espect to restorative justice this
Page 98 and 99: process to manage the problem in So
Page 100 and 101: Legal Instruments South African Leg
Page 102 and 103: "Zunaid". Ek het, was die enigste e
Page 104 and 105: Ons gee vir hulle pak. - Belinda 5.
Page 106 and 107: man sê toe nou vir my ek moet eers
Page 108 and 109: For these purposes, State Parties s
Page 110 and 111: States Parties to the present Chart
Page 112 and 113: 9. The commercial sexual exploitati
Page 114 and 115: esponsible sexual attitudes and beh
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The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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