To celebrate World Day Against Trafficking in Persons the Department of Student Affairs and NGO Stop Trafficking of People (STOP) held a seminar to disseminate information about combatting the illegal trade.
Adv Lionel Harper, acting Head of Student Affairs, said the university’s management denounces the scourge of human trafficking that is confronting the world.
“The entire CPUT community takes a strong stand against human trafficking, even the Council has pronounced that CPUT should create greater awareness among our communities,” said Harper.
“Human trafficking targets the most vulnerable in the society, the poor as well as the uneducated.”
He added that social media has often been used by traffickers to lure young unsuspecting victims into the trade and acknowledged the trafficking of people born with albinism as one of the threats facing the nation, including that of forced drug addiction that is associated human trafficking.
Bertha Bresler, STOP national office administrator, discouraged the audience from wearing or carrying personalised clothing or regalia as well as posting photos revealing their whereabouts on social media.
To demonstrate how gullible and desperate people get tricked into the trade STOP volunteer Sam Stokesberry offered audience members an opportunity to star in a movie to be filmed overseas for R2 000 per day. Most audience members expressed interest by show of hands only for Stokesberry to reveal that in that moment she had managed to traffic many people.
“If an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” she emphasised. “Think before you act.”
Videos highlighting the extent of the human trafficking in South Africa and the plight of its victims were screened during the seminar. The clips revealed that people are sold and bought for forced labour, sexual slavery, commercial sexual exploitation and organ harvesting.
Written by Kwanele Butana
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