Tipping the scales against human traffickers
The Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act was aptly promulgated in Women's Month.
HUMAN trafficking syndicates operating throughout South-Africa has been dealt a heavy blow with the promulgation of the Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Act on Sunday, 9 August.
The legislation is considered a legal masterpiece and long awaited by law enforcement officers and human rights lawyers.
The TIP Act includes extensive protection for traffic victims, assistance to foreign victims, liability of carriers and compensation to victims.
Traffickers can be sentenced to up to a R100-million fine and life imprisonment.
‘South African law is much wider after the TIP Act and you can catch the whole syndicate in the net, says Detective Abby Dyanand of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
South Africa previously had to rely on a variety of different acts such as the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), the Immigration, Business, Criminal Procedure and Sexual Offences Acts and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
This patchwork of legislation made it complicated for law enforcement to charge traffickers under an umbrella act, causing syndicates to slip through the net.
The act criminalises benefitting financially or otherwise from the services of a victim of trafficking.
When victims are exploited at a building, the building and any property used to commit the offense can be seized by the State.
This includes property bought with proceeds of crime.
Owners leasing or sub-leasing property who become aware that it is used for trafficking and fails to report it to a police official, is guilty of conduct facilitating trafficking in persons.
Advertising, publishing, printing, broadcasting, distributing or causing information to be published which promotes the services of victims, also falls under the act.
The proceeds of criminal assets will be utilised for public services including healthcare, education, social development and funding to combat organised crime.
Have you read; Human traffic survivor tells her story?
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