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Human Trafficking in South Africa
South Africa is one of the many countries in which trafficking still occurs to this day. Men, women, and children can all in a way be trafficked for profit. Many South African girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, while boys are trafficked internally for use in street vending, food service, and agriculture. Anecdotal evidence suggests that South African children are forced to provide unpaid labor for landowners in return for their family occupying land or accommodation, or maintaining labor tenancy rights. Child sex tourism is prevalent in a number of South Africa’s cities. Women and girls from other African countries are trafficked to South Africa for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and other jobs in the service sector; occasionally, these women are trafficked onward to Europe for sexual exploitation. Something many people might question is how people end up being subjects to trafficking. There are many ways someone could be led into being trafficked but the most common way is to be tricked into exploitation, or to be kidnapped and forced into labor. Many people who are subjects to trafficking were poor and tricked by being bribed with a job or a better life. Instead of getting their promised job, they get sold off to be a lifelong servant with little or no income.

Lives of Trafficked People
Men, women, and children are all subjects to trafficking, whereas men usually work as laborers, women are traded as prostitutes, and children work as cheap extra needed labor. The conditions for all alike are very poor and unhealthy. Many poor children are kidnaped and traded by traffickers for extra labor. Many South African businesses hire children for labor because they are inexpensive and still young so they require less feeding. The life of an enslaved child can be brutal. Trafficked children would be exported to an unfamiliar place, and most will never see their family again. Most children will then be enslaved for the rest of their lives with no pay and little food. These children will usually not get any education for they work long hours and don’t get time for other activities. Women and girls are traded for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Just like enslaved children, forced prostitutes receive no pay and live in substandard conditions. When sex trafficking is present, victims are often subjected to violence, threats, or controlling behaviors perpetrated by the traffickers. Also traffickers train their victims to not discuss their situation, or ask for help to their customers. This leads customers to be completely unaware of the situation, which is why sexual trafficking is so big. Many of the victims of sex trafficking are prone to the contraction of HIV/AIDS, which is a leading cause of the expansion of AIDS.

Why People Traffick Humans
Human trafficking is a large criminal industry which exists simply because of supply and demand of cheap labor and for commercial sex acts. The benefit of laborers who can work for very cheap costs or for no price at all is what influences large business and companies to resort to the illegal trade of humans. Most of the incentive is caused by the demand that comes from the consumers themselves, making companies desperate for more production faster and cheaper. Human trafficking for forced or cheap laboring purposes is present in farming industries, clothing/toy factories, and in domestic homes. Men, women and even children are trafficked for labor purposes. As for sex trafficking, the individuals who purchase commercial sex acts are the ones who cause the demand for sex trafficking. The money that traffickers earn comes from the women and children they control, which they use typically for themselves. Sex labor victims are typically female or sometimes children, who are faced with false promises, lies, harsh living conditions, and violence from their traffickers/pimps. Most victims are captured by traffickers who blackmail them into believing they’re promised a better life new jobs and opportunities, while forcing them to have sex with around 5-10 men per day. Most sex buyers are unaware or in denial of the reality of the situations of the prostitutes that are subject to sexual labor.

Prevention in South Africa
Though the South African Government has ignored human trafficking in the past, they have recently taken action in Cape Town. Their new organization is called “Not For Sale South Africa” stated by The National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa which is to report cases of trafficking and to protect victims of trafficking. This South African organization may not be stopping the problem but so far it has made an impact, in which over 55 victims to trafficking have already been assisted by Not For Sale South Africa. Also in 2010 the South African government and FIFA made an agreement to host the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, for the purpose of raising awareness of South Africa trafficking to the world. This approach turned out being very successful and helped sprout many anti trafficking organizations around the world. The World Cup also helped in temporarily halting the trafficking business since many tourists flooded in South Africa and traffickers thought it would be too risky to continue their trafficking. As time goes on, it gets harder for traffickers to continue their illegal business, because of the continuous laws being implemented by the South African government.

Prevention to trafficking occurs around the world. There are many new organizations which combat trafficking that were developed in the past years. One of them being the Polaris Project. This Organizations was started nationally in 2012 and is one of the many organization to combat trafficking in South Africa and around the world. This project Offers comprehensive clinical social services to victims of all forms of human trafficking through specialized local offices in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey. The Polaris Project also spreads awareness in the United States.