NOT FOR SALE

Nick van Dam*, a 32 your old South African businessman, wakes up from his suburban home, kisses his wife good morning and then proceeds to his daily jog on his treadmill. After his shower, he eats breakfast with his wife and kids. He then leaves for work carrying his briefcase.

What you don't know about Nick is that he runs an underground human trafficking ring. He has discovered how profitable it is to buy and sell humans for sex and forced labour.

Yes. Take a quick but deep whiff of the air around you. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the smell of modern day slavery and human trafficking.

The IOM (International Organisation for Migration) provides the following definition of human trafficking: "Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It is rooted in poverty, lack of opportunities, gender discrimination, social and political violence, and demand for services. Oftentimes, victims are lured away from their homes with promises of good jobs. Instead, they are forced into dangerous, illegal or abusive work.”

According to the IOM, there are 27 million people around the world in slavery. Of those who are trafficked, 50% are children and 80% are woman. At an estimated $32 billion per annum, human trafficking is the third largest black market industry in the world after guns and drugs.

The US Department of State has listed South Africa on their "Tier 2 watch list". On their website they define tier 2 countries as: "Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards".

South Africa has failed to provide significant reports on human trafficking and slavery. This is because these cases are filed under categories such as prostitution, organised crime and abduction. This is also due to a lack of a definition for it in our current legal framework; as a result law enforcement officers are not able to take action against these cases.

Minimal unrest was created with the legalisation of prostitution in South Africa for the duration of the world cup. Although certain human rights groups stood up against this, we as a nation sat back and allowed the government to legalise it so as to please our visitors. I am most certain we would have achieved just as much success without this law.

Most prostitutes do not willingly sell their bodies. No matter the circumstance; I don’t think children are raised with the disposition to aspire to become sex slaves. Many of those in prostitution are enticed and Pimps prey on these young girls’ insecurities. They are beaten, raped and drugged until they circum. Even if they don’t give in, they suffer the same fate.

The current rate human traffickers pay is said to be R60 000 per person they traffic. These woman and children sleep with an average of 15 clients a day, at R450 each. That is 450 men for the duration of the world cup, which is 30 days. That means they made a profit of R142500 per trafficked victim.

Sex tourism and trafficking is growing in South Africa. Humans are bought and sold on the internet and it is occurring because we choose to ignore it.

Asia is one of the continents where it is most prevalent and sex tourism is said to be common in Thailand.

The Not for Sale campaign website states that: “a Bangkok-based children’s rights group has tracked the country’s boom in sexual tourism over the past two decades. Its research shows that more than 11 million foreigners visited the country in 2003. “Roughly two-thirds of foreigners entering Thailand were unaccompanied men. “In other words, about 7.3 million unaccompanied men visited the country in 2003. Certainly, not all of these men came as sexual tourists, but it’s a good bet that a significant percentage did.”

In South Korea, where I have been based for the past two years, brothels are often masked as barber shops or bars. They use one red and blue spinning barber light to differentiate between an actual barber and two lights means that it is a brothel.

On the street leading to my apartment building there are several very suspicious looking places. I have never seen anyone walk out of these place, or the doors open during the day. In the evening I notice cracks of light through the door and tinted windows and the signage lights outside are on.

“Love” motels are also very common, but they are mostly used by married men who want to spend the afternoon with their mistress or couples.

It is said that roughly 80% of woman and children trafficked to the US are Korean.

Not For Sale is a world wide campaign that provides a resourceful platform for those who want take part in abolishing modern day slavery. They have a world of information that you can tap into, including a slavery map where you can track and file cases on where human trafficking is most prevalent.

They have found simple ways that we may use to contribute to abolishing modern day slavery.

For example, Free2Work has an iPhone application that helps consumers identify companies whose products are manufactured in factories where forced, trafficked or child labour is practiced.

Free2Play supports children who have been rescued from slavery and gives them freedom to play again. American Baseball player Jeremy Affeldt of the San Francisco Giants pledges $100 to Free2Play for every strikeout he makes in a game.

Please visit their website (www.notforsalecampaign.org) and find that children are not prostitutes. By doing nothing you continue become one of the men/women who drive the demand. In no other time in history has human trafficking been more prevalent than now.

*(Nick van Dam is a fictitious name.)