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Residents have been warned to be vigilant over the festive season and to keep safe, particularly though the City’s Human Trafficking Travel Campaign.
WITH the festive season upon us and the school holidays in full swing, the City has come up with a campaign to alert the public of the dangers that are rife during this period.

MMC for public safety Nonceba Molwele (Photo: Enoch Lehung)MMC for health and social development Nonceba Molwele (Photo: Enoch Lehung)The social development migration unit is launching a Human Trafficking Travel Safe Campaign that will advise residents to be conscious of human trafficking as they gear up to travel abroad or around the country.

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity, a violation of human rights and a form of slavery.

Nonceba Molwele, the City’s member of the mayoral committee for health and social development, also urges people to be vigilant and keep safe at all times during festive season.

The campaign will be taken to different venues, including malls as part of the City-wide mall safety campaigns run by the City. Its entities visit some of the busiest shopping centres in Joburg, bringing messages of safety to shoppers.

Children, women, youth and people from poor backgrounds are the most vulnerable to human trafficking. It manifests in various forms, such as young girls being trafficked and forced into prostitution and drug smuggling. Women are forced turned into becoming prostitutes, domestic workers or into marriages. Children are sold to into labour, mostly on farms.

Some of the tactics used by human traffickers to lure their victims involve the promise of better employment opportunities and better living conditions. Often victims are recruited by someone they know, or a person posing as an agent for a soccer or modelling agency. Social networks are also used to recruit victims.

To protect yourself against human trafficking, the City advises:

If someone is too good to be true, be concerned and be vigilant;
If you are travelling outside the country, don’t let anyone take possession of your documents and money;
Do a background check of your recruiter and the recruitment agency;
At malls and shopping centres, parents must keep their children close to them at all times;
Be vigilant of people who take photos in public places; and
Don’t go alone to meet a stranger in a secluded area.
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