Long Walk to Nowhere

The Global Slavery Index 2014 defines modern slavery as human trafficking, forced labour, forced marriage, debt bondage and the sale of children. South Africa and its sub-continental neighbours have become a major route for human trafficking in the last twenty years - for babies, adolescents, women and men. And even though legislation to counter people-trafficking was signed into law in South Africa in 2013, it has not yet been put into operation. Author Philip Frankel explores the nature and dynamics of people being trafficked in South Africa against the background of political and social change in the region since 1994. In the first part of this book, he examines internal migration in South Africa, driven by the desperate search for economic opportunity, as well as the cross-frontier movement of millions of people into South Africa following the advent of democracy. Based on interviews with migrants, police, social workers and perpetrators, among many other role-players, his study looks at the vulnerability of segments of the population to the inducements of traffickers.
In particular he looks at the impact of global developments on people-trafficking at the tip of the African continent - the spread of the Internet, the growth of the commercial sex industry and the international shift to contracted and brokered labour. Unlike other books on people-trafficking, which tend to focus on the sex trade, this book also looks at non-sexual labour trafficking, for agriculture, manufacturing, mining and domestic labour. The second portion of this book analyses South Africa's capacity to counter trafficking on the basis of its experience, international best practice and provisions in law. The contents and weaknesses of the Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act (PACOTIP) are discussed in relation to the problems of effectively implementing the Act in an environment where the criminal justice system is in disarray and public awareness is minimal, as is the rehabilitative network for trafficking victims. The author also discusses the institutions for executing the law in the state and civil society. Most important is the extent to which the new law will protect human rights and national security in a democratic South Africa.
This is a shocking and sobering study of a practice which has resulted in allegedly more than 100 000 people being taken into slavery in this country. The author offers an insight into processes followed elsewhere that would prove useful in the South African context.