Few residents of Toekomsrus along with representatives from various stakeholders braved the cold weather and banded together to make their voices heard against human trafficking on June 28.
The march began at the Toekomsrus Police Station and proceeded to Diamond Street, Gold Street, and returned to the station. The march was organised by the Victim Friendly Room (VFR) in Toekomsrus, which falls under Imizamoyethu-Emihle Social Services. This is an organisation that was established to advocate for the rights of victims of crime and domestic violence.
Speaking to the Herald during an interview, a counsellor at Social Services, Victoria Nkomo said that they were not deterred by the lack of participants or cold weather.
“Today’s event is aimed at raising awareness around human trafficking. We wanted to do this through the march, and we also wanted to do this in the form of a dialogue. This is because we wanted people to raise their concerns about human trafficking and allow people to question government institutions on how they are against human trafficking.
“We know that human trafficking happens daily, but it is hardly spoken about. The community sometimes does not even know how to go about reporting it and if they will be protected. As a result, we wanted to show the masses that human trafficking does exist and we are here, to be able to assist in everything that they need to know about human trafficking,” said Nkomo.
She added that they have seen instances of domestic human trafficking where people are taken from other communities and brought into another community and used for prostitution and drugs.
“We do receive cases of domestic human trafficking where children are brought in from other areas and into Toekomsrus.
“They come this side and use drugs. They are also used for sex and they are also used to commit other crimes such as stealing. Unfortunately, these people sometimes find it difficult to return to their homes because they are often hooked on drugs,” said Nkomo.
She described human trafficking as an unlawful act of transporting or coercing people to benefit from their work or services, typically in the form of forced labour or sexual exploitation.
She added that any person who delivers, recruits, transports, transfers, harbours, sells, exchanges, leases or receives another person within or across borders of South Africa through threat or harm is taking part in human trafficking.
