The data
Every case on SlaveryMap, drawn from public sources and shown with its location deliberately generalized to protect survivors.
631 of 1,631 cite a source · Updated
Showing 1–8 of 8
South Africa ZA
The trafficker was the owner of a brothel in the city of Cape Town. Investigation revealed that a 17-year-old girl had been brought to the brothel to work from her home in Klerksdorp under false pretenses. She had been told that she would be working a job in Cape Town as a babysitter but when she arrived she found that she had been brought for very different reasons.
South Africa ZA
Trafficker was the boyfirned of the victim's mother. They all lived in Namibia. The boyfriend promised to talk the 12 year old to Cape Town and find her work. When they got there, he began prostituting her.
South Africa ZA
Female acquaintance sold her to 2 German male pimps. This female acquaintance told the victim that there was an opportunity to make quick money in Mossell Bay - a 6 hour ride from Cape Town. This acquaintance told the victim that she would work as a prostitute for the 2 German pimps, have her own apartment and be able to come and go as she pleased. The trafficker sold the victim to the German pimps for $65.00.
South Africa ZA
Victim Alleges that she was held captive by a Nigeria Trafficking ring for over a year. Trafficker originally recruited four girls from Zimbabwe to work in a hotel. The youngest was 15 the oldest was 19. She claims when they reached the Zimbabwe/South Africa border, the girls were bought gifts and given drinks that were drugged. When they woke up they were in a back of a van and their trafficker told them they were in South Africa. They arrived at a flat in Johannesburg where they were sold to a Nigerian crime syndicate and forced into prostitution.
South Africa ZA
Social worker rescued girl, age ten. The article: Johannesburg - Lesotho-born Thato was brought to South Africa at age three, by a woman she knew simply as "granny". Five years later, her "granny" sold her into sexual slavery. The woman who bought her was running a sex ring that police are still investigating to find out how many children were involved. It's a scenario that South African authorities and child welfare campaigners are already working to prevent during the Soccerl World Cup next year, which authorities fear could draw in child traffickers hoping to cash in on the fanfare around the games. Thato, now 10, was rescued just three months ago by a social worker who brought her to Amazing Grace Children's Home, which houses 79 children outside Johannesburg. The home's founder Grace Mashaba, who explained Thato's story, said her parents probably had no idea that the "granny" would sell their daughter. "That 'granny' doesn't have children, so she keeps asking people, 'Can you give me your child so she can stay with me?' She has a good house, so people trust in her," Mashaba said. Thato at least was able to speak about her abuse. Another 10-year-old Lesotho girl rescued from the sex ring is too traumatised to talk, Mashaba said. An estimated 247 000 children in South Africa now work in exploitive labour, including prostitution, according to the Child Protection Action Plan for the World Cup, created by government's department of social development. Campaigners worry that the problem will grow with the influx of tourists next year, especially as South African schools will be closed during the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 11, meaning many children could be left unattended during the day. Families selling own children "Child trafficking is a big concern because of the big economic pull of the event," said Stephen Blight, the head of child protection in South Africa for the UN Children's Fund (Unicef). "All the fans and visitors spending money will create a whole network that criminal networks will want to benefit from." The government worries that child trafficking could increase as poor South Africans struggle for a slice of the $4bn the World Cup is expected to generate. Parliament is due to consider a trafficking law early next year, aiming to prevent children from getting recruited to beg or hawk souvenirs on the streets, or more worryingly forced into prostitution. Rebecca Pursell, a social worker for Kholisa Management Services, a child advocacy group, said the school holidays could add to the problem for children. "They will be loitering around without much activity, which places them at high risk not only of trafficking but of sexual exploitation," she said. In addition to cross-border trafficking from Zimbabwe, Mozambique or Lesotho, many poor South Africans will leave rural areas to look for work in the cities during the games, she said. Mariam Khokhar, of the UN's International Organisation for Migration, said prevention campaigns are already underway, including theatre programmes in rural areas to educate people about the danger of trafficking. "Criminal elements often tend to exploit such events, and there will be an increase in criminality which could possibly include trafficking," she told AFP. For Thato, she will live at the Amazing Grace home for now. Many of children stay at the home until they finish high school, Mashaba said. Most of them have been abandoned, orphaned or abused. Those who have been trafficked from other countries can be repatriated, but often choose to stay, Mashaba said. "Even their own families, they do sell those girls. It's the people that you know that traffic the children." - AFP
South Africa ZA
The girl was in bondage for three years before she escaped. She is now getting aftercare. No exact details were given about her escape. The Article: "I could not go back home, my grandmother told me never to come back. They sold the cows and got money," she added. Now 17, she escaped her tormented married life in July and found solace at Palmerton care centre, which has also become a home to 18 other teenage girls who escaped similar situations. They were rescued by welfare officials and police in a campaign to stem the practice, even though many communities see nothing wrong with it. Most of the girls say their abductions were pre-arranged with their parents and left them no say in the process. In many cases, girls are forced out of school and bear children, when they are barely out of puberty. "He raped me on our first night together. Every day he forced himself on me, in all the cases he overpowered me after a struggle," said Sinama, who now has a two-year-old boy by the man. "I love my child and I am going to raise him to be a good man." Captain Nomana Adonis from Mthontsasa police station, which leads a rescue campaign in villages around the area of Lusikisiki, said the abductions were a new phenomenon. "This is new. We believe there may be hundreds of other girls out there we did not reach," said Adonis. "We have encountered girls as young as 13 who were sold to old men, opening them to chances of contracting diseases like HIV." She said a number of "husbands" and parents had been arrested. "In most cases the husbands are charged with rape and abduction, but so far we have not secured a single conviction," said Adonis. Peter Mtuze, a retired academic and the former head of African Languages at Rhodes University, decried the unothordox revival of ukuthwalwa, saying it did not fit in the mordern world. "Children are literally being sold, almost to the highest bidder. This is paedophilia," said Mtuze. "In the old days men usually abducted women who were of marriage age, not minors. This is not culture," said Mtuze, adding that in the past, girls who were abducted were not raped. "The girl was kept safe until she accepted the love proposal from the man. Messengers were then sent to the parents of the girl to start lobola (dowry) talks," said Mtuze. He said the custom was practiced secretly by a number of tribes in African countries. Both the government of South Africa and the Human Rights Commission (HRC) have condemned the practice, saying it has no place in a modern society. "This custom is taking us backwards as a country. We are doing our best to stop it and protect the children," said Phearane Moreroa, head of HRC. Source-AFP TRI
South Africa ZA
A woman in the Eastern Cape offered to find work for 17 year old Sindiswa and 15 year old Elizabeth. After driving them eight hours north to Bloemfontein, the recruiter sold them to a Nigerian drug and human-trafficking syndicate in exchange for $120 and crack cocaine. "[The recruiter] said we could find a job," Sindiswa recalled, "but as soon as we got here, she told us, 'No. You have to go into the streets and sell yourselves.' " The buyer, Jude, forced them into prostitution on the streets of central Bloemfontein for 12 straight hours every night.
South Africa ZA
A neighbor witnessed the incident and when child was reported missing, led police to the trafficker's location. After denying it, woman admits she had taken the girl to be sold into a marriage. She led police to where the girl had been locked in a dark room for a day.