10 Questions About Human Trafficking
1.What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is serious violation of Human Rights and a crime in which traffickers profit form the exploitation of individuals, luring these victims away from familiar surroundings to a place where they can be controlled and made to work as slaves. Human trafficking is a process that is characterized by 3 stages: 1) the recruitment of a person 2) the transportation of this person and 3) harbour and exploitation of this person 3 stages: 1) the Recruitment of a person 2) the Transportation of this person and 3) the Exploitation of this person.
2. What can I do if I have been trafficked, or if I know someone who has?
Traffickers are criminals, and Human Trafficking is a serious violation of Human Rights. If you know someone who has been trafficked you should contact the nearest Police Station or get help at IOM on the following numbers: Zimbabwe 04-303514 (toll free) 0800-32-22222; South Africa 0800-555-999. IOM will provide assistance and protection to victims of Human Trafficking! Each victim will be treated in strict confidentiality.
3. What is the most common recruitment method?
Human Trafficking often begins with false promise of an opportunity. Victims are promised exciting jobs in foreign countries or good opportunities such as marriage or education. Victims are lured, tricked or forced to accept a proposition or end up being forced into dangerous, illegal or abusive work.
If you need help to verify call in Zimbabwe: 04-303514 or toll free 0800322222
4. Who are the Human Traffickers?
Anyone can be a trafficker! Men or women, old or young people. Traffickers may be working on their own or as part of a criminal gang or syndicate; they may come from the same social and economic background as their victims, or appear to be successful business people able to offer their victims better opportunities. In many cases, traffickers are someone that the victim knows such as an acquaintance, a friend or a family member.
5. Why don't victims of trafficking try to escape?
Traffickers use many kinds of tricks to discourage their victims from escaping. One common ploy is to confiscate the victim's passport once s/he is in the destination country, while telling her/him that if s/he escapes, the police will imprison her/him for being an illegal immigrant. Other methods include, social isolation, debt bondage, use of physical or emotional violence, threats against the victim or her/his family, imprisonment and torture, shame, use of Voodoo or magic ritual to frighten the victim.
6. Should trafficked people avoid the police?
Fear of police is understandable. Many victims of trafficking enter their destination countries illegally or have their passports confiscated by traffickers. Traffickers often tell their victims that if they try to escape, the police will deport or imprison them for a long time for being prostitutes or illegal immigrants. They may also threaten the family and friends of victims who go to the police for help. However, the Police and IOM can help you! If you have been trafficked or know someone who may be a victim of trafficking, contact the Police or IOM to receive advice, protection and assistance. Each victim will be treated in strict confidentiality.
7. Does the trafficker normally make all the travel arrangements and pay for costs?
The trafficker usually makes all the travel arrangements, and pays all the costs for passports and visas, tickets, meals and housing. Sometimes a trafficker will also bribe state officials to transport his/her victim across international borders. Nevertheless in some cases, a victim pays his/her trafficker to transport him/her to another country.
8. Does Human Trafficking only result in sexual exploitation?
Trafficking for sexual exploitation is very common, but there are many other forms of exploitation. Children, women and men are enslaved and forced into domestic labour (child care, house cleaning), forced labour (agriculture, mining, construction, markets, restaurants) and sexual exploitation; in some instances, young girls are forced into sexual relationships and marriage with men by their family members.) Anyone can be a victim of Human Trafficking!.
9. Are only young women trafficked?
Anyone can become a victim of Human Trafficking: older women, men and children as young as five are forced to beg and steal, used as domestic slaves, or forced into pornography and sex work. However, young women are at greater risk because traffickers can make a lot of money by forcing them into prostitution. Abandoned children are also vulnerable. Without parents, guardians or anyone else to take care of them, abandoned children seek refuge in orphanages, shelters, or on the streets, or they try to find a way of supporting their family. All this make them vulnerable to become victims of Human Trafficking.
10. What can I do to avoid being trafficked?
The lure of a better income or education is hard to resist. Before accepting an offer, check if the agency or recruiters are reputable. Find out from other sources, if the information you are given are correct .Ask for names of people, companies, or schools that you could contact. Ask questions about the travelling, border crossing and future living conditions. Always travel with legal documents and through legal channels. Keep the passport with you at all time, and do not hand it to strangers. Make sure that any contract you sign is in your native language so that you can to understand every detail.
