Human trafficking as a practice is one of the greatest on on-going problems on the African

continent. Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other
forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Human trafficking can occur within a country or Trans nationally or inter continentally.
Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's rights
of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation (UNODC, n.d.)
Human trafficking is the trade in people, and does not necessarily involve the movement of
the person from one place to another. Trafficking in persons is a particularly virulent offence
against human rights, which has mostly been treated as a sub-set of irregular migration.
The exact number of victims of human trafficking is not known. However, the International
Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 20.9 million people were victims of forced labour
globally in 2012. This estimate includes victims of trafficking in persons (ILO, 2012).
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2012, Global Report on
Trafficking in Persons, between 2007 and 2010, people from at least 136 different
nationalities were trafficked and detected in 118 countries. During this time, women
accounted for 5560 per cent of all trafficking victims detected globally, while 27 per cent of
all victims were children. Almost half of trafficking flows were intraregional, i.e., victims
were trafficked within the region of origin. Approximately one quarter were trafficked
interregionally, while another quarter of victims were trafficked domestically (UNODC,
2012).
Given its clandestine nature, there is little empirical data on the trafficking of persons, and
even less theoretical work on it. This makes it quite a difficult issue to study. While cross-
border trafficking is a crime and a breach of immigration and labour laws in many countries,
it is also and principally a human rights violation that affects mostly people in vulnerable,
usually low income, socially deprived, circumstances, such as women, children and minority
groups. People often fall prey to the lure of traffickers the offer of employment, higher
income, better life opportunities for themselves and their family out of necessity and a
lack of information and resources to take their own action. These are typically the
circumstances of the poor, and while available data show that it is not necessarily the
poorest that are trafficked, many of the victims assisted by NGOs and IOs invariably come
from some of the most poverty-stricken countries. Some people classify human trafficking
as a modern day kind of slavery.
The act of human trafficking does not have limitations in terms of the violators or the
traffickers and the victims associated with it. The violators could be family members, close
friends, neighbours and even colleagues at work. The victims can also be children, men or
women. In the modern world, human trafficking does not only happen with force but it can
also happen with the consent of the victims. The trafficker is the link between supply and
demand, on the one hand increasing supply through the recruitment, deception,
transportation and exploitation process and on the other, boosting demand by providing
easy access to victims. For both legal and practical purposes, this includes everyone
involved in the human trafficking chain from the point of recruitment to the point of
exploitation. Human trafficking is committed by males and females of varying ages and
ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, operating within varying degrees of organization.
Africa has become the home to one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the world.
The act of human trafficking on the continent is quite rampant and it serves mostly as the
source for the supply of most of the victims in terms of the intercontinental aspect of this
form of human right abuse. Human trafficking in Africa has taken place in almost every
country if not all the countries. Human trafficking in Africa is a complex, multi-faceted
phenomenon involving multiple stakeholders at the institutional and commercial level. It is a
demand-driven global business with a huge market. These traffickers operate through
certain specific routes across the continent. According to UNESCO (2006), a number of
relatively small-scale trafficking networks operate using minivan taxis to smuggle both
migrants and women across local borders. They are based at transit houses in the border
region between Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa and operate through a network of
accomplices in Johannesburg, Maputo and in the Lebombo region who recruit, transport
and accommodate and transfer young women. African traffickers face low risk of arrest,
prosecution or other negative consequences. They have exploited the lack of rule of law, the
non-implementation of existing anti-slavery laws, and corruption of judicial systems. These
lapses allow perpetrators to go unpunished. Prosecutions are rare and fraught with
difficulties.
The victims are all the women and children and men who are deceived, transported and
delivered into the hands of those who exploit them for profit. The complexity of actors and
dynamics of the human trafficking markets is also the key factor that make trafficking so
difficult to detect and combat, and which makes victims so difficult to identify and assist.
Trafficked victims are either coerced or deceived into a trafficking situation depending on
the explanatory factors at play. Broadly, poverty, war, lack of information, gender
imbalances and a high level of demand for cheap labour and sexual services put a certain
demographics at higher risks of being trafficked. Women and children happen to be the
main component of this group.
The users of trafficked victims are the people who arrive at the end of the trafficking chain.
They can either be prostitute users, head of a farm or a shop who need access to cheap
labour. Users may act as individuals or are networked through access to other illegal
activities prostitution and sexual abuse of children and forced labour. They may be
unaware or unconcerned about trafficking or not perceive themselves as part of the
trafficking network. According to UNICEF, very often they [the users] do not perceive
themselves as part of the trafficking network, although they are, in fact an engine in the
machinery of exploitation. All aspects of the role of users require further research. In South
Africa, it is the sexual exploitation of children and its different actors that has received most
attention in the research on human trafficking. As a result we know more about trafficking
in children for sexual abuse than for other purposes. The practice is normally caused by
mainly poverty, ,high profit margins, on-going conflicts and the institutional lapses on the
continent.
Poverty is one of the most important issues that drive the practice of human trafficking.
Poverty and wealth are relative concepts which lead to both migration and trafficking
patterns in which victims move from conditions of extreme poverty to conditions of less-
extreme poverty. The practice of entrusting poor children to more affluent friends or
relatives may create vulnerability. Some parents sell their children, not just for the money,
but also in the hope that their children will escape a situation of chronic poverty and move
to a place where they will have a better life and more opportunities. As a result of this
situation, the destination of the practice is mainly in the developed parts of Africa such as
South Africa. An increased demand for cash incomes, reduced economic opportunities in
rural areas, the reduction of subsidies and other protective means, loss of traditional
livelihoods, especially in agriculture combine with more personal and subjective rationales.
Young women with some education are aware of the gap between urban and rural life,
reject the drudgery of enforced domestic work as daughters in the family and increasingly
have access to information about the lack of opportunity and how others live their lives. In
Ghana for instance one can find the head porters or kayayos who are mostly trafficked
from the remote northern part of the country to the cities for greener pastures and some
live in harsh conditions. For example, Benjamin Tornye, a fisherman for 15 years, used to
visit parents and ask them if their children could help him with his work. As he said,
"children are good fishers." He would teach them how to use the boat, swim and dive, and
he believed he was doing the right thing, (UNODC,2014).
One of the major factors that promotes the practice of human trafficking in Africa is the fact
that is is a very profitable business venture for the traffickers and the profits are very high.
Modern day slavery thrives because of its profitability. The US State Department estimates
it generates $7-$10 billion annually,64 the third largest profits behind arms dealing and
narcotics. It is also easier to move human cargo across borders than drugs or weapons
which are seized when found. Human beings can be constantly re-used and re-trafficked
not so for drugs. Trafficking is, by definition, a complex, clandestine, underground business,
constantly changing and evolving both in response to demand and to remain sufficiently
flexible to elude arrest and prosecution. Much of the research argues that trafficked labour
is attractive to employers as compared to less- or non-exploitive forms of labour because it
is cheap, compliant, and, because of this, profitable. Internationally trafficked people are
likely to have, or perceive themselves as having, an irregular immigration status. They
usually also come from a dramatically different cultural context (i.e., different languages,
customs, etc.) which makes them more dependent upon their trafficker.
Human trafficking has also increased due to the endless conflicts that occur on the African
continent. Some of the militants and other traffickers exploit the vulnerable people. Due to
the two decades long conflict between the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan
Peoples Defense Force there is a considerable demand for trafficked labour for military
service in the region. While much of this work is for combat duties, sexual servicing of
soldiers and military support functions also make significant demands. With all types of
work militaries may either be directly involved in trafficking or may rely on others to provide
a supply of trafficked labour. 20 000 children have been abducted since the beginning of the
conflict, ( IOM, 2008).
Another factor that helps with the existence of human trafficking in Africa has to do with the
institutional lapses on the continent. A lot of countries do not have specific rules and laws in
their constitution that prohibits the act of human trafficking. Other countries that have
these provisions in their various constitutions also do not have the required institutions to
combat this crime. They often fall short in terms of their police and military services in
tackling the issue of human trafficking. In some cases, when the violators are apprehended
by the law enforcement agencies, the sort of punishment given out to them does not deter
them from further engaging in this wicked act. Ghana for instance adopted a Human
Trafficking Act in 2005 (HTA) and there exists an Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) within
the Criminal Investigation Unit but the government has failed to provide any specialized
anti-trafficking to law enforcement officials and have not provided sufficient funding to
combat the whole practice.
The act of human trafficking in Africa is very costly and it leads to a lot of negative outcomes
such as forced labour and child labour, prostitution and sexual exploitation and prolonged
trauma and even death. Most of the victims of human trafficking are mainly coerced into
engaging in heavy manual labour. They are made to work long hours mostly without any
wages. The girls or the women are turned into domestic servants inside or outside their
various regions or countries. The boys on the other hand are mostly made to work on farms
and mines. These activities constitute to child labour and other human rights abuse.
According to the ILO, with 80 million (41%) Africa has the highest percentage of child
labourers in the world. Between five and 14 years old, the largest percentage is young girls
engaged in domestic work. Many of these children are victims of trafficking for forced
labour, put in exploitative situations by intermediaries and powerful agents known to their
families.
Sexual abuse and prostitution are one of the very dangerous effects that results in human
trafficking. This kind of abuse mostly occurs to the young girls and women who fall victim to
the practice. Human Rights Watch has documented gender-based violence of women
working on South African farms, where there was widespread sexual harassment and sexual
assault by owners, managers, co-workers, neighbours and family members. In 2003, it was
claimed of South Africas children live in poverty, and that poverty, unemployment and
inequality are increasing in South Africa. It also claimed that the trafficking of children for
sexual exploitation occurs mainly within South Africas borders, with 4-17 year olds as the
predominant target group. Trafficked children may start out as runaways or street children
and end up being enticed into sex work. In most cases the victims who willingly allow
themselves to be trafficked do not get proper jobs to engage in when they get to their final
destinations so the ladies among them eventually enter the prostitution business. Women
are trafficked from refugee producing countries through the network of refugees resident
in South Africa. Children are trafficked to South Africa from Lesothos border towns; women
and girls trafficked from Mozambique are destined for South Africas Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu
Natal provinces. In Malawi, women and girls are trafficked to northern Europe and South
Africa. In addition to these configurations, women are also trafficked from Thailand, China,
and Eastern Europe (IOM, 2003).
Human trafficking in most cases leads to certain health complications and eventually death
of the victims or the violated. The death of the victims happens in so many ways because
mostly, they are abducted and used for organ transplants and organ harvesting. There is an
international trade in organs for transplant operations, as well as a local trade in specific
body parts such as genitalia, heart, eyes and skull, for use in traditional medicine, muti57
where these organs are believed to cure ailments from impotence to HIV and AIDS to
infertility as well as to increase influence and wealth. Other cases that leads to death is the
abuse of drugs by the victims. Traffickers may use drugs and alcohol as a means of
controlling their victims, or victims may use them to help cope with their circumstances. The
children also go through a lot of trauma and health risks as a result of what they go through.
The most studied trafficked population in the region with regard to health impacts are
children abducted by the LRA (Annan et al., 2006). These children suffer from myriad mental
health symptoms including irritability, an inability to concentrate, nightmares and insomnia,
hyper arousal, feelings of loneliness and helplessness, feeling unloved, feeling sad, being
extremely fearful of losing ones family, keeping to oneself when worried, crying when
thinking of the past, headaches, chest pain and shaking from over-thinking, and violence
and aggression. Eventually, most of the girls die of HIV/AIDS because they do not use
condoms when engaging in prostitution and when they are being sexually abused.
The practice of human trafficking is gradually gaining ground on the African continent and it
has gotten to a time where all African countries should wake up and tackle this issue before
it goes out of hand. One of the main recommendations I can give is that the various
governments have to enforce the already existing laws. Almost all African countries have
one law or another that goes against human trafficking but these laws are not properly
enforced by the law enforcement agencies. Some of the traffickers even have connections in
the police services which give them the freedom to engage in this wicked practice. The law
enforcement agencies should be giving the necessary training and funding to be able to
assist them in combating this practice. Fighting human trafficking is a very demanding
activity which requires a lot of devotion on the part of the police and the military it here is
the case where by most of the law enforcement agencies are underpaid. They end up taking
bribes and working hand in hand with the traffickers. If we really want to eradicate human
trafficking, we have to equip and support the law enforcement agencies in other to help
fight this act. The various judicial services should also give out stiffer punishments to the
traffickers when they are caught in order to deter them from committing the same offence
when they are released.
Another recommendation to solve the practice has to with assisting the victims. Some of
the victims who are rescued do not have any place to stay and they find it difficult to trust
people due to the traumatic experiences they have been through. Some of them refuse to
give out certain information that may help the law enforcement agencies in tracking down
these fellow traffickers because they are scared of further harm. These victims are
threatened of death physically and even spiritually if they ever expose their violators. The
various welfare agencies should provide the necessary food, shelter and clothing in addition
to that, they have to provide these victims with some psychological counselling to help
them open up and not only give them the necessary information but also help them begin
new lives of their own. These victims should be taken away from their original locations to
other places to help them fell a little safe and secure.
One important recommendation has to with establishing further laws, regulations and
institutions and also the close monitoring of the various borders. Some of the various laws
governing human trafficking are not enough in terms of their required punishments and the
agencies that should be associated with handling the cases. Aside the law enforcement
agencies, there should be other institutions that should play different roles such as the
research and welfare. There should also be specialised agencies who are specifically trained
to handle issues as this and they should be scattered across the African region and they
should also be connected to each other so that they can be able to communicate and
exchange information. The various countries should be able to implement programs such as
birth registration and an effective identify registration system. Lack of documentation
establishing identity may facilitate trafficking, particularly international trafficking. This will
go a long way to help in tracking the various victims even on the continent. There should
also be institutions which will help in educating the people about practice of human
trafficking and also educate them on the various dangers that are associated with it and
how to avoid falling victim to the practice.
Populations vulnerable to trafficking are growing tin Africa, which increases the supply of
potential victims for traffickers and the damaging effects on all segments of African society.
Human trafficking has taken place in all African countries either as a source country or as a
country of destination. It leads to child and forced labour, sexual abuse and prostitution,
drug abuse and in the worst cases it can result in death. The practiced is mainly caused and
sustained by poverty, high profit margins, conflicts on the continent and institutional lapses.
All African countries have to start taking measures to help solve the problem and also by
enforcing the already existing laws, assisting the victims and also establishing new laws and
institutions. Above all, human trafficking is a wide spread activity which has infested the
whole continent and these reflect in the alarming statistics that have been brought up by
fellow organizations and researchers every year and Africans must take up the responsibility
of tackling it as a major issue with the help of other international bodies.






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References.
Annan, J., C. Blattman, and R. Horton. (2006). The state of youth and youth protection in northern
Uganda: Findings from the survey for war affected youth, AVSI and Unicef Uganda.
Fong, J. (2004). Literature review on trafficking in West and East Africa, Global Alliance Against
Traffic in Women, Bangkok.
Human Rights Watch. (2001). Unequal Protection: The State Response to Violent Crime on South
African Farms.
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2003). Unbearable to the Human Heart: Child Trafficking
and Action to Eliminate It, ILO, Geneva.
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2006). Combating trafficking in children for labour
exploitation in West and Central Africa: Synthesis report, ILO, Geneva.
Scheper Hughes, Nancy (27 June 2001) The Global Traffic in Human Organs, A Report Presented to
the House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, United States Congress.
UNICE F (2003) Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children in Africa, p.9, Innocenti
Research C enter.
UNESCO (2006) Human Trafficking Especially of Women and Children in Mozambique: Root Causes
and Policy Recommendations, Poverty Paper Policy Series.
UNODC (2014) Child Trafficking in Ghana. Retrieved from
http://www.undoc.org/unodc/frontpage/child-trafficking-in-ghana.html on 15th April 2014
US Department of State (8 M arch 2006) South Africa: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-
2005, Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.












INDEX NUMER: 10345237


COURSE: POLI 468


COURSE TITLE: HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA


LECTURER: DR ANSAH-KOI


TOPIC: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN AFRICA: CAUSES, EFFECTS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS.