AFRICAN HISTORIES AND MODERNITIES HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SECURITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA The South African and Mozambican Experience Richard Obinna Iroanya African Histories and Modernities Series editors Toyin Falola University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA Matthew M. Heaton Virginia Tech Blacksburg, USA This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions to and negotiations of diverse modernities over time and space, with a particular emphasis on historical developments. Specifically, it aims to refute the hegemonic conception of a singular modernity, Western in origin, spreading out to encompass the globe over the last several decades. Indeed, rather than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or parameters, the series instead looks to receive and respond to changing perspectives on an important but inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space in which multiple modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While privileging works that emphasize historical change over time, the series will also feature scholarship that blurs the lines between the historical and the contemporary, recognizing the ways in which our changing understandings of modernity in the present have the capacity to affect the way we think about African and global histories. Editorial Board Aderonke Adesanya, Art History, James Madison University Kwabena Akurang- Parry, History, Shippensburg University Samuel O. Oloruntoba, History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington Tyler Fleming, History, University of Louisville Barbara Harlow, English and Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin Emmanuel Mbah, History, College of Staten Island Akin Ogundiran, Africana Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14758 Richard Obinna Iroanya Human Trafficking and Security in Southern Africa The South African and Mozambican Experience Richard Obinna Iroanya Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute University of South Africa Pretoria, South Africa African Histories and Modernities ISBN 978-3-319-71987-0 ISBN 978-3-319-71988-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71988-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017962435 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and i nstitutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Nature Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To my children Chigozirim, Onyinyechi, Chisom and Chioma I trust they and their generation will grow up in a more secure world without human traffickers P reface In July 2017 it was widely reported that a twenty-seven-year-old South African woman had been rescued from a Malaysian sex trafficking syndi- cate. According to the South African Police, the woman, with nine others, was lured to Kuala Lumpur by an Internet advert for a beauty pageant, which, when they arrived in the city, they learnt had been cancelled. They were then held hostage in their hotel rooms, while their captors finalized their next move. However, swift rescue operations by the Malaysian secu- rity forces ensured the safe return of the lady to Johannesburg. The implication of this kind of news is that the phenomenon of human trafficking is real in South Africa and beyond, and that anyone can become a victim. Human trafficking in this context is a unique crime, which is generally regarded to be different from illegal migration and other types of cross-border activities and contraventions. The propensity of traffickers at all levels to deceive, subjugate, exploit and dehumanise victims should motivate us to do more to protect our women and children from this crime against humanity. Therefore it is not enough to enact global, regional and national legislation against human trafficking: there is a need to ensure the provision of sufficient resources to effectively implement the laws that exist and to address different factors which facilitate human trafficking as articulated in this book. Among these are civil wars, globalization, poverty, the Internet, sex tourism, corruption and inadequate political will. These challenges need to be addressed if we are to combat human trafficking. Since the turn of the century, increase in this activity show the deficiencies in the predominantly criminal prosecution approach that is currently being adopted in the fight against this global phenomenon. vii viii PREFACE In terms of the author’s pedigree, I have known Richard Iroanya since 2004 when he joined the Research Directorate of the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), now part of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). He has always demonstrated deep interest in studying social problems. I was therefore not surprised when he embarked on a mission to closely scrutinise the phenomenon of human trafficking and to produce a must-read book on the subject. In Human Trafficking and Security in Southern Africa: The South Africa and Mozambican Experience, Richard Iroanya presents a more lay- ered and evenly balanced analysis of human trafficking. He has gone beyond providing national case studies or tying the study to gender or security, and addresses both aspects at the same time. Two country case studies are presented to demonstrate what is commonly identified as des- tination (receiving trafficked humans) and source (supplying trafficked humans). The complexity of these identifications are convincingly explained to enhance our understanding that although a country can be predominantly described as a source or destination, the layers of domestic, regional and international human trafficking operations show most coun- tries are partly destination, source and transit nations. Using these two case studies, Iroanya is able to provide valuable insight into their relation- ship as source and destination countries and their co-dependent nature in supplying human labour for a range of purposes, including but not neces- sarily limited to sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery and human organ supply for both medical and ritual purposes. He then provides anal- ysis of current policies and legislation relating to human trafficking to demonstrate the necessity for securitising the phenomenon. Rarely (espe- cially in Africa) is human trafficking considered a national security issue, but Iroanya sufficiently problematises human trafficking as both national and human security threat. He not only analyses the problem of human trafficking but also provides the reader with reflections and recommenda- tions on the significance of human trafficking as a security threat and the necessary steps to combat it—from sufficient funding of police efforts to prohibit trafficking and coordinated efforts to stop the organised criminal- ity that is linked to human trafficking. This book is timely because, as Iroanya notes, ‘the problem of human trafficking is endemic and its implications are extensive, especially for human and national security of states. It is also timely because many coun- tries, especially South Africa and Mozambique, have started implementing national anti-trafficking legislation which demonstrates the reality and PREFAC E ix unique nature of the crime. Some data presented in the book are based on the number of people arrested, prosecuted and convicted in accordance with national anti-trafficking legislation. The book complements other works on human trafficking while emphasising an aspect of the problem (national and human security) that is less known and discussed. This book is a significant contribution to the knowledge and under- standing of human trafficking as a global phenomenon. Within the Southern African region, policymakers, law enforcement agents and non- governmental organizations will find this book useful as they try to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the problem with a view to crafting enduring solutions. As a well-researched and seminal book on human traf- ficking, its discussion and analyses of issues relating to governance, policy, legislation, migration, gender and labour will resonate with social scien- tists, political scientists, human rights and gender activists as well as legal and African studies scholars. Human Trafficking and Security in Southern Africa: The South African and Mozambican Experience will stimulate our imagination, involve our emotions and hopefully inspire us to do more to combat human trafficking in sub-Sahara Africa. I highly recommend this book. Professor and Director, Adewale Banjo Afriwealth Graduate Institute Former UNESCO/MINEDAF Fellow, US Fulbright Summer Fellow and Commonwealth Institute Visiting Fellow c ontents 1 I ntroduction 1 2 Perspectives on Human Trafficking 11 3 Overview of Human Trafficking as a Global Phenomenon 67 4 Human Trafficking: The South African Experience 119 5 Human Trafficking: The Mozambican Experience 151 6 Policy Responses to Human Trafficking in Mozambique and South Africa 185 7 Conclusion: Human Trafficking as a Security Problem 225 Index 245 xi